Transcript Gulliver’s Travel

Extension Activities
Activity One:
Author of Gulliver’s Travels
Activity Two:
More About the Travel
• Material Designer: Chen Chien-chou
Activity One
Something About
The Author of
Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift
Guess when he was born!
Jonathon was born in
the mid-17th century.
Which dynasty was it
in Chinese history?
(A) Song Dynasty
(B) Yuan Dynasty
(C) Ming Dynasty
(D) Ching Dynasty
It was early
Ching
Dynasty in
China.
http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver
Guess where Jonathan Swift was
born? Here are some clues.
1. The National Flag
2. The Symbolic Plant
3. The Famous Beverage
4. The Folk Dance
The Answer Is…
Ireland
A Brief Biography of
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Born and brought up in the
capital of Ireland, Dublin, Swift
was an important figure both in
the history of English literature
and the Irish politics.
• Deeply involved with the political
power struggle in England.
• Wrote many things to criticize the
English people on behalf of the Irish.
http://swc2.hccs.cc.tx.us/htmls/rowhtml/swift/biomenu.html
Speaking for Irish People!
There are many poor people in
Ireland and I have to speak up
for their interests!
After some years spent in London, he
returned to Ireland in 1713 and stayed there
throughout his life. In his remaining years, he
became a crucial supporter of Irish interests
against English exploitation.
http://www.anglistik.uni-muenster.de/ swift/
A Famous Satirist
A satire is a play, film, or novel
that uses humor, irony, or
exaggeration to show how
foolish or wicked some
people’s behavior or ideas are.
Many of his important works are satire.
He wrote down many famous satire to
criticize the problems he saw in the society.
http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver
His Most Well-known Satire
A Modest Proposal
Background:
In the 17th centuries, Ireland was a very poor
country ruled by England. Most of the Irish
were peasants working for the English
landlords. Without enough
food to eat, children often
wandered on the streets
begging for food and money.
His Most Well-known Satire
A Modest Proposal
Peasant Family by
Le Nain Brothers. c. 1640
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/l/
le_nain/
J: Seeing this, I felt really sorry for my fellow
Irish and was very angry at the English
landlords! I decided to write something to
speak up for my countryman!
People: Thank you, Jonathan!
Proposing such a horrifying idea,
I meant to attack the cruelty of
the English landlords and their
exploitation of the poor Irish
peasants.
In order to solve the poverty problem in
Ireland, Swift proposed that Irish children
should be bred and sold for the English
market—to be cooked and eaten—thus
providing income for their parents and saving
the children from lives of misery.
His later years…
To help the poor, Swift had
spent a third of his earnings on
charities and saved another
third each year to found St.
Patrick’s Hospital for the sick.
But unfortunately, he suffered
from
Ménière’s
disease,
or
Shocking
and scary as Alzheimer’s disease, in his late
my proposal years. Swift died in Dublin in
1745 and left behind a great
is, in fact, I
amount of poetry and prose.
have a very
kind heart.
Activity Two
More about
Gulliver’s Travel
The Adventure of Lemuel Gulliver
Made up of four parts,
Gulliver’s Travels, is a novel
records the surgeon voyage
to several imaginary
countries.
Though The Travels is
often read like adventure
stories for kids, it is actually
a satire of the current
political events and a
critique of some foolishness
http://www.classicscentral.com/cc16htm
in human society.
The Four Major Regions Gulliver Visited
1st Voyage
Lilliput
3rd Voyage
Laputa
2nd Voyage
Brobdingnag
4th Voyage
Houyhnhnms
(and Other Islands)
http://www.adh.brighton.ac.uk/schoolofdesign/MA.COURSE/LMaps10.html
Voyage I: Lilliput
In Part I, Swift used the
absurd conflict between
Lilliput and Blefusca to satirize
the battling of Catholics and
Protestants and the war
between England and France.
The ridiculous cause of
warfare among
Lilliputians, for example,
which end to break eggs
first, is used to criticize
some foolishness of
human behavior and
mentality.
Voyage II: Brobdinang
Brobdinang is a land
of giants that are ten
times as large as
Europeans on average. At
first, Gulliver was
captured and kept as pet
by a farmer’s daughter
and sold to the nobles.
Unlike the brutal
giants in most fairy tales,
the Brobdingnagians are
a highly civilized and wise
people. Compared with
them, Gulliver and his
fellow Europeans are no
much better than the
foolish, warlike, and
narrow-minded
Lilliputians.
Voyage III: Laputa and Other Islands
Have you ever seen
the Japanese
animation, The City in
the Sky, by Hayao
Miyazaki (宮崎峻)?
The city, also named
Laputa, is inspired by
one of the country
Gulliver visited in The
Travels.
In the original story,
Laputa, an island floating
in the air, is inhabited by
many scientists and
philosophers. They are
often too much interested
in their impractical ideas
and forget what they
should do in reality.
This, of course, is to
mock the eggheads, who
have only ideas but actions.
Gulliver Inspirations!
Do you know the word,
actually comes from one part of The
Travels? Let’s see the Land of the
Houyhnhnms.
Voyage IV: Land of the
Houyhnhnms
Land of Houyhnhnms is a country ruled
by intelligent, friendly, and rational horses.
They live together in harmony and are served
by a group of rude, and emotional beasts
named Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms symbolize
the ideal aspect of humans,
while the Yahoos are simply
the irrational part of
human nature.
The End of Activity Two
Bon Voyage!
References:
Martin S. Day. History of English Literature 16601837. NY: Doubleday & company., 1963.
Calvin S. Brown et al. The Reader’s Companion to
World Literature, 2nd ed. NY: Mentor Book, 1973.