Gulliver's Travels Q&A

Gulliver finds himself on the island of tiny human beings after going through a deadly storm that certainly left all his crewmates dead. Yet, Gulliver doesn't express any emotions that may be considered normal after waking up and finding himself bound by people whose size does not exceed 6 inches. He does not experience any confusion, rage, fear, or even panic, and instead acts rationally and mildly towards the small people. He does not attempt to free himself completely and chooses to be plaintive and peaceful when an imperial individual addresses himself to Gulliver.

One of the chief reasons why the empire of Lilliput and Blefuscu are at war with another has to do with the right way to break an egg. According to the scriptures of both nations, an egg is supposed to be broken from the convenient end, and so the people have traditionally broken their eggs from the big end. However, this method of breaking eggs is outlawed when the grandfather of the present emperor decreed that all eggs must be broken from the small end. This is said to have caused widespread rebellion and civil war, which was quelled, but some of the rebels received shelter in the kingdom of Blefuscu. Swift means to highlight that certain wars are conducted for ridiculous reasons that could be as small as the interpretation of a text.

Gulliver's third voyage begins with his meeting the people of Laputa, who are not, unlike his prior two adventures, humans of different sizes but rather normal-sized humans with an obsession for Mathematics and Music. In the prior voyages, the differences in size between Gulliver and the natives was the main driving force behind the action, however, in this section, it is the differences in perspective and culture. The people of Laputa are so absorbed with their learning and observations that they fail to govern their people with any significant degree of oversight.