These stories illustrate how we can easily judge other people's perspectives as absurd while they can simultaneously consider our perspectives as absurd.
Readers will be motivated to think about topics such as politics, ethics, and morality.
Introduction to the Gulliver's Travels Story
Gulliver's travel story is one of the most popular, most read, and best-selling English novels of all time. Most of you must have heard of the name Gulliver before, but did you know who is Gulliver? Gulliver is a fictional novel character, who is an excellent surgeon, historian, and ship captain. He likes to go on voyages and visit small and outlying islands for adventure. Most of the time he travels alone, but he is also a family man. The story is full of thrill, mystery, weird characters, and islands that make the story very interesting. Gulliver's travel story is full of messages and lessons for humanity.
The Origin of the Gullivers Travels Story
Gulliver travels, originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, is a long ironical novel with 4 different parts. It was written by the famous Irish novelist and author Jonathan Swift in 1726. The story was published anonymously but, later the writer was revealed. This story was marked as a key milestone in the literature world. The original story was 352 pages long but there were many adaptations and short versions like Gulliver Lilliput's story, Gulliver's travels, and Gulliver's Adventure created later on. The newer version of this story is much more ironic and full of satire on English culture, customs, and politics.
Gulliver's Travels Story
Gulliver was a very skilled and expert surgeon as well as a ship captain. He liked to travel far on seas and visit small islands that were never discovered. Gulliver went on a total of 4 voyages on 4 different islands full of adventure. On his first journey, the gulliver set sail along with his few crew members. Although the ship soon got wrecked and the only survivor left was Gulliver. On reaching land, he found himself tied up by Lilliputians (small people who were around 15cm tall). Gulliver was then taken to the capital city. The people of Lilliput were divided into those who wore high-heeled shoes and those who wore low-heeled shoes. Even the political condition of the state was pathetic. The court people were chosen based on rope dancing skills, and the king was the person best at rope dancing. The king of Lilliput then asked Gulliver to defend them in the war with the neighboring kingdom Blefuscu. Lilliput and Blefuscu started the war over which end of an egg should be cracked first while making an omelet. Gulliver was shocked but decided to help the king in the war and destroyed the naval army led by Blefuscu. But later, the royal building caught fire, and Gulliver took down the fire by urinating on the palace. The king got angry and decided to sentence Gullivers. But fortunately, he made an escape and returned back to England.
On his second voyage, Gulliver traveled to the island of giants, Brobdingnag. The giants were 20 times bigger than gulliver. A farm worker noticed Gulliver and handed him over to the queen in return for money. Gulliver instantly became the queen's favorite, as he was intelligent and witty. Although the king didn't like him much as Gulliver used to boast about the glorious achievements and developments made by his civilization. He also offered to make bombs and guns for the kingdom, but the king rejected them out of fear. Ultimately one day he was picked up by an eagle and later on rescued by some human sailors on the sea.
On his third voyage, Gulliver is defeated by some pirates and drifts to a flying island called Laputa. The people of Laputa were very difficult to understand, one of their eyes pointed upward while the other pointed inwards. They were very lost in their minds and paid zero attention to the world. Although they were excellent musicians and mathematicians, they cared about nothing else. He also visited the research lab where genius but crazy-headed scientists perform stupid inventions like turning humans into pigs and taking sunshine from cucumbers). Then Gullivers traveled to Luggnagg, where people were immortal but aged like normal people, which makes them look pathetically old. From there Gulliver managed to travel to Japan and then to England.
On his fourth voyage, Gulliver traveled to the island of Houyhnhnms, who were very intelligent and clean horses. While Yahoos were the dirty, greedy, and filthy human race. Most of the yahoo were pets or tamed by the Houyhnhnms. This left Gulliver in shock. The horses firstly thought Gulliver belonged to Yahoo's race. But after Gulliver described England's culture, history, and people. Listening to him, Houyhnhnms concluded that the people of England are no better than Yahoos, Thus Gulliver must leave the island immediately. Gulliver returned to England and felt so disgusted with humans that he brought horses. He used to ignore his friends and family and spend time with horses instead.
Moral of the Gullivers Travels Story
The story of Gulliver's adventure contains lots of fun, thrill, and mystery but it also holds some very profound morals and values. Although this story is more relatable for British people, as it is all about England's culture and politics. But all of us can learn something from this story. Thus, the first voyage tells us that people get so blind in hate that they convert a small argument into a big deadly war. The second voyage conveys how modern people are arrogantly preparing dangerous weapons that can harm others. The third voyage depicts the development of science and technology that is blinding humans. The last voyage depicts the growing greediness and filth of humans which makes them worse than animals.
Note to Parents
This is a very thrilling story full of adventure and mysteries. The story also has elements of comedy in it which make it even better. Young kids really love such kinds of stories. As the story has lots of islands and each island has a different setting and story. It is recommended to parents that they tell this story in parts. As telling the whole story at a go can confuse children and ruin the fun of the story.
FAQs on Gulliver's Travels Story in English for Kids
1. Who were Yahoos?
Yahoo was the dirty, greedy, and filthy human race living in the land of Houyhnhnms.
2. Why did Gulliver begin to ignore his own family?
After witnessing the pathetic human Yahoo and the civilized horses, Gullivers felt disgusted with humans. Thus he began to spend more time with horses.
3. Why were Lilliputians and Blefuscu fighting?
They both were fighting on a mere topic that was' ' which side of the egg should be cracked first".
These stories illustrate how we can easily judge other people's perspectives as absurd while they can simultaneously consider our perspectives as absurd.
Readers will be motivated to think about topics such as politics, ethics, and morality.
