Gulliver’s Travels Book II, Part I: Finding the Correct Level of Analysis

          Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels wrote this book to be sarcastic. It’s supposed to shed light on issues of the human condition in ridiculous ways. Book II is focused on one of Gulliver’s many different journeys. This journey is when he met the Brognagdians.

     Book II contrasts nicely with Book I which focused on a narrow minded society of Lilliputians who happened to be the size of bugs compared to Gulliver who was the average Englishman. Book II focuses on the large Brognagdians, of which the shortest full grown was at least a full 30 feet tall, and their home was proportional in size to them making Gulliver feel like a Lilliputian by comparison.

     Swift made his point in the previous book by comparing the Lilliputians’ size to how much they knew of the outside world. What point is he trying to make here? The Brognagdians being so large meant that Gulliver could see every part of their bodies in extreme detail when up close. He notes this often and in great detail as our narrator. So, why does the narrator (Gulliver) comment on what people look like beyond basic character description so often?

     The people who think Gulliver small, insignificant, or like a play thing are described as disgusting, but specifically the ill treated peasants. Just like in a Disney movie, those who are mean and nasty are supposed to also look nasty, however this nastiness is simply larger people thinking they know it all and being unkind to someone who shows a different perspective and culture. So who do these comments of nastiness reflect?

     This reflects Gulliver too. Gulliver is essentially “body shaming the women” as it is women he comments on and loathes the most. Fair enough, they are picking him up like a doll and being promiscuous with the poor man just to get a kick out of it. But who is in the wrong? Is anyone in the right?

     The issue is that Gulliver has a frame of reference problem, but that doesn’t put the giant women in the right. If you pick at anybody enough you can cynically look at all of their flaws. There is a tendency common amongst young people to like sarcasm/cynicism. You can be cynical about anything, which is humorous as long as it’s novel and not genuinely nasty.

     We all have these imperfections if you’re looking through a microscope but is that the right way to look at people? No, that is taking this cynicism to a new level and being nasty. Analyzing things at the correct level of analysis takes maturity and a higher level of time preference which comes with life experience. 

     People who lack this maturity also lack the ability to bring it to the right frame of reference, people bring things to the far extreme, especially if they are more neurotic. Like the Brognagdian women who are more neurotic than Gulliver, but also lack maturity can easily write off frivolous actions. People do this all the time. You can make the case that anything doesn’t matter or anything matters too much. People will say there’s nothing meaningful to life because it won’t matter in a thousand years anyway. This is the wrong level of analysis, things have meaning now. This is why it is important to find meaning in something in the present that is nested in the future.

You should not always think in any one level

    If you have goals and aims you can see every micro iteration of an achievement or goal. This gives you a dopaminergic burst caused by creating fruition of life for yourself. Many things can give you a small dopaminergic response, such as gambling or many other vices that involve failure and achievement. The search for meaning is what keeps you playing the game of life rather than the game of cynicism and false superiority. Rather than picking at others flaws and worrying over everything in the world too much similar to Gulliver, or writing off all your actions you know to be wrong because “nothing matters if we’ll all be dead soon anyway” like the Brognagdian women, find the most meaningful thing you can.