Gulliver's Travels, Chapter 1

It took me quite a while to actually settle my nerves and open this book. Although I knew the phrase "Never judge a book by its cover" intimately well, I couldn't help but feel slightly unease by the book. I was truthfully very intimidated by it. I was in all earnest afraid that the book was to be much too beyond my comprehension level which was somewhat ironic since I am reading for the whole point of strengthening this area and therefore that was the last push that decided for me to start on the first chapter. And I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The book was not easy to comprehend but I read on and that was what matters.

When reading the first chapter I had taken an immediate interest in the narrator, Gulliver. Though he was at first presumably a tad cliché since being described as a normal protagonist who grew up as the middle child of a large family sent to college at a young age, 14, and living by on by scanty allowances. When I had read that description for some reason I immediately related Gulliver to Edgar Allan Poe who was also sent to college by his father and living by on meager funds, although Gulliver was more fortunate enough to have been appointed as an apprentice to a renowned surgeon, Mr. James Bate and was also given small sums of money every now and then by his father. Gulliver spent most of his time and money devoted into studying anything and everything with the intentions of travelling. Reading on that sense of dedication to one’s future goal I promptly grew an admiration for Gulliver who had spent close to a decade of his life to promote his vision. It made me feel that I should be able to be more dedicated in my own goal and all at once I found myself reading the story with a renew genuine earnest.

Most of Gulliver’s life following that had been rather cliché since I have encountered numerous of stories, books, etc. with the same principal lifestyle for its characters. They would study, gather knowledge of their world, take an occupation, meet interesting people, marry by advice or “swoons and falls in love”, and then once finding themselves bored with this monotonous lifestyle they attempt to find rejuvenation through some “quest” or “journey” or by some other form of enjoyment –give or take a steps and not defined to just this order. I had found the general gist of the premise within Pride and Prejudice albeit more detailed and stretched out and also within Sense and Sensibility so therefore I established that for the most part, Gulliver’s early life seemed some what redundant.

Gulliver then finds himself on his “journey” after he takes a job offer from Captain William Prichard. The whole first part of their journey was never fully written out but it was told that near the end they had encountered a horrid storm and ended up with 12 crew mates dead from spoiled food and too much toll of labor. Everybody else was in weak condition. I noticed that I felt as though the situation was quite rushed (compared to the first 3 pages) by the author not including in the details of the voyage although I do understand that it would just be inserting in not-very-important information. Yet I can’t help but wonder, “…Would it kill you to add in a bit of information!?!?!?!?” –for lack of a better expression. I’ not really sure but I guess that just like to “know”. I really feel uncomfortable with the feeling that I don’t know something even if it’s not important because I can’t help but feel somewhat incompetent at my lack of knowledge. Also I feel as though the author is trying a bit too hard for the readers to feel engaged in the story by just “slamming” the whole scene in our faces. The author just seems hasty in writing the scene where Gulliver’s vessel crashes into a rock and so forth that once the scene is over, everything just feels a bit anticlimactic. And so I felt as though that whole passage was too much “telling” and very little showing of what transpired. This part could have been clearly written better in my point of view.

After all that Gulliver ends up on an island which he perceives to be deserted. After Gulliver takes a nap he wakes up finding himself immobile, being tied up by miniature ropes and with tiny creatures upon him. I could only imagine how confused Gulliver must be right now. The ship he was just on was scattered among rocks, his crew was nowhere to be found, and now after a tiring day he finds himself paralyzed by some unseen force in a supposedly deserted island. After all the physical strain of being through a storm and shipwrecked and then the mental strain of trying to figure where you were I would not think any less of Gulliver if he were to question his sanity at the very moment. And then afterwards to have to receive the shock of seeing miniature 6 inch tall human beings, the mental tension on him must be great. I know for sure that if I was to be in his position the most likely probability that I could come up with would be that I was hallucinating due to inadequate psychological care. I mean who wouldn’t feel that way? You don’t see 6 inch tall people anywhere! The possibility of that just seems ridiculous on many, many levels. I also somewhat admire his relative calm to the whole situation. Because apart from an astonish yell and jerk he show little other physical evidence of being unnerved. But then again he may be still recovering from shock. Not only that but I do feel sympathy for Gulliver when he was attacked with a volley of arrows. I am dubious that the arrows offered great injuries but still the feeling of getting pricked by a needle is never pleasant. Then afterwards near nighttime the miniature people had managed to build a stage in which a person that Gulliver had inferred to be of somewhat high rank stood upon and held a speech in which Gulliver manage to not understand at all. Gulliver then proceeded to point to his mouth several times to ask for food since he had indeed been famished. The lord of the people understood the gesture and ordered in many types of meet which Gulliver quickly disposed of. I think that it had been quite a show of hospitality from these people by offering their food and hogshead so readily even though Gulliver probably consumed more food than all of them could eat combined. That shows that while many people are different with appearance and tongue we still manage to show some form of kindness to each other. Although when Gulliver wanted to be liberated, the king had told him that he was still a prisoner and therefore he would be carried to the land like a prisoner. And then the tiny group of people had applied some kind of ointment to the blistered man’s face to help ease the redness. Afterwards Gulliver drifted to sleep knowing that then had probably put in a sleeping potion in with the wine. All in all even though the tiny people did drugged Gulliver in the end I felt as though they had been the most giving and understandable of people I have ever read about. Even to a complete stranger like Gulliver then didn’t hesitate to give him food and water when he requested having already decided to have plenty of food and drinks prepared for him. Also the attack of arrows from before was more as a defense rather than offence and I seem to feel that they had not really wanted to use force against their stranger. Besides in the end they had even treated Gulliver’s blisters from the arrows. Also Gulliver at one point seemed a bit ungrateful since he had stated his temptation of seizing the 40-50 something bodies that scampered around him. Even when they had fed him, he still retains thoughts of hurting them. Yet somehow I do somewhat understand his feeling of apprehension towards them. Because nobody can really actually ever fully trust a complete stranger at first. Even the hospital inhabitants did not fully trust Gulliver enough to let him free of his bonds rather having to go through the expenses of building a contraption of carrying the giant to their city.

Overall I found the interaction between the beast and the minuscule natives rather amusing. Especially how they had been so bold as to mount Gulliver and even sticking a spear into one of his nostrils by their curiosity.