Representation of the Yahoos - Essay Example

mirror many of the human shortages by presenting his audience with two unique sides of life, one dominated by reason and the other dominated by inordinate desire. In this context, it can be argued that Swft’s reasoning in the literary material suggests that humans which he symbolizes with the Yahoos are guided by passion, self fish and seeking their own advantage and satisfaction, preferring gratification and avoiding pain, and the other that to a considerable extent humans are informed by reason and rational decisions.

The Yahoos are molded as unruly and having a detestable character placing them closer to the lot of the untamed chimpanzees sort of running amok, satirically a representation of the unruly British natives in the 18th century. The distinctly organized houynhnms probably could be equated to the truly utopian society comprising mainly of the ruling class who are civilized and driven mainly by their conscience and reasoning. However it is somehow questionable that the characters of the houyhnhnms that Gulliver claims to be good could make him hate his fellow humans including the Portuguese captain who helps him in the ship alongside his own family that he merely tolerate his co-existence with despite doing nothing wrong to him, while the houyhnhnms do not tolerate but peacefully co-exist with each other.

Moreover, the Yahoos are shown to represent the human race on negative shades which merely represent the shortcomings, for instance Gulliver says that the Yahoos regards more the sexual filth rather than the decency portrayed by the houyhnhnms, mere animals. He says, his honor had observed, “that a female Yahoos would often stand behind a bank or a bush, to gaze on the young males passing by, and then appear, and hide, using many antic gestures and grimaces, at which time it was observed that she had a most offensive smell; and when any of the males advanced, would slowly retire, looking often back, and with a counterfeit show of fear, run off