Is Swift’s description of the Yahoos, who are obviously human like Gulliver, a critique or criticism of the human race? What reason(s) does Swift have to switch the roles of animal and man? Is it for us to appreciate and be closer to nature or continue to focus on things like trade and urbanization?
ENGL 201 | British Literature to 1800
Myra Seaman | Fall 2012
In book four, the Yahoos are human but are described at first as being almost sub-human. I’m not sure if Swift is really critiquing the human race much as he is just trying to point out the irony of the role reversal. I do think that he is perhaps making a statement about industrialization and urbanization versus the simplicity of a more pastoral, rural lifestyle. Even though Gulliver seems to be disgusted by the Yahoos at first, after a closer look at the Houyhnhnm’s society, he begins to better appreciate the Yahoos for their humanity. It is this humanity that I believe Swift is ultimately discussing. That though humans are not perfect, it is their imperfections that make life what it is and we need to admire and appreciate that in ourselves instead of looking to other societies or cultures for perfection.
Like Mimi said, Gulliver initially thinks the Yahoos are deformed animals, not even considering the fact that they might be human. I disagree, however, that Gulliver appreciates the Yahoos for their humanity. In fact, it is their lack of humanity that disgusts Gulliver. They are described as innately vicious, morally corrupt, and depraved. Swift’s depictions of them are disgusting and dirty, and they are more rural and pastoral but not in a good way. Gulliver is immediately repulsed by the Yahoos behavior, but is also repulsed because they remind him a little of himself. He wants to be like the horses because they are more noble and civilized, but he is too much like the Yahoos to make that transition.
I believe that the Yahoos are an example of the negative qualities of the human race. Corruption, greed,moral depravity, etc.The qualities of the Yahoos are emphasized in order to contrast with the qualities of the horses. The horses essentially have the qualities of the ideal man. They are seen as noble an civilized. I think this is significant because it demonstrates both sides of humanity, the good and the bad, the uncivilized and the civilized. As for why Gulliver would want to disocia
As for why Gulliver would want to dissociate from the word Yahoo is obvious: it is a derogatory term used to describe essentially crazy people. It’s not very kind and doesn’t shed a good light on who his called that. So it’s fitting that the Yahoos are named as they are because they are the group with negative qualities.
I definitely believe the yahoos are a critique of civilization. The name Yahoo’s is a sit down. I have heard people called Yahoo’s before and it wasn’t because they were well mannered or respected. Their description shows them as uncivilized and animal like. They throw disgusting things as weapons; baboons and monkeys do the same. Switching the roles of animals and man shows the human moral corruption as well as physical corruption of man. I think ti was a clever switch. He depicts humans acting as the things they see themselves superior to. Really they are not superior in anything they are inferior because they have to capacity to be and know better.
I seem to have the same opinion as you. I believe the yahoos are a critique of civilization as well. Swift uses the word Yahoo to negatively depict a group of humans who are unmannered and uneducated. They do not have the social understanding that most humans have and I believe that swift was using it to show the similarities humans and animals really do have. Man thinks he is better then everyone else, but in reality they are very similar. Guilliver is at first disgusted at the Yahoos because he thinks he is better then them, but after a closer look he sees them for who they really are and that indeed they are very similar. Swift was very clever at how he made this all play out and the underlying meaning it revealed.
I think that the descriptions of the Yahoos is definitely a critique of the human race. Mimi has mentioned that at first they are looked at as being sub-human and in disgust by Gulliver, but eventually he looks at their customs and though he doesn’t like it, he gets a better understanding of how corrupt his own European society is. This is displayed especially when Gulliver is telling the master about European society and the master is in disbelief of how animalistic and distasteful the Europeans are with their reasons for going to war and different aspects of their government. This is a critique of how barbaric European society is compared to the Yahoo’s simply because the humane side of the Europeans is displayed at an ultimate low.
The description of the Yahoos is a critique of the human race and human nature. By making horses the “perfection of nature”, and the human-like Yahoos incapable of learning and reason, Swift is able to more dramatically make his point. Obviously Gulliver’s account could not actually happen, therefore the personification and ridiculousness of this can get across Swift’s main concern. The human race has become so obsessed with material goods and industry that they have begun to ignore truth and virtue. The beginning of chapter 7 is a proclamation by Gulliver that he never wants to return to humankind because his eyes have been open to all of its corruption. It is easy to get caught up in something, and it is not until you are removed from it that you can accurately evaluate the situation. By switching the roles of humans and animals, Swift is able to do just that.
I agree with Sam, the comparison of the Yahoo’s to the ultimate being of the horse definitely helps make Swifts point. The Yahoo’s are absolutely viewed with disgust as previously mentioned by my peers. I also think that this perception on Gulliver’s disgust is accurate. You can see from his reaction to the Yahoo’s that Gulliver is through with humankind. By switching the roles of humans and animals Swift is able to engage the reader as well as clearly show that the human race has gotten out of hand, losing the importance of life.
Swift’s description of the Yahoos is a criticism over a critique when looking at the human race. He portrays them as selfish imbeciles, making the Houyhnhnms, or horses, stand out as far superior in terms of their intelligence and acceptance of Gulliver when he arrives. We can see this specifically when Swift makes it as if Gulliver doesn’t recognize them as humans initially, sayings things like, “There shape was very singular and deformed…” which allows us to see them as animals, and the horses as humans. Swift did this to show the negative qualities of man, and how they have become engrossed with material objects by using the change of roles as an extreme example. I think Swift’s goal was to remove humans from their typical role they play is society to allow them to look back and effectively appreciate their surroundings.
I think Swift’s part four of Gulliver’s Travels, the encounter with the Yahoos is an allegory of British Colonialism. We see the Yahoo’s mystified by Gulliver’s dress and mannerism, and vice versa, we witness Gulliver intrigued by these animals. That is both parties few each other as savage. It takes Gulliver some time, but eventually his opinion transforms from viewing the Yahoo as beasts and becomes fascinated and admires their beauty of being so in touch with the natural world.
The parallel between Gulliver’s criticism of the yahoo’s, the “human like” race and the authors’s larger more holistic criticism of colonialism is the direction I intended to take with this question if no one else had but since someone brought it up, I suppose I will simply add to it. This question mentioned both nature in relation to man as well as touching on the ideas of trade and urbanization. I think the this section of Gulliver’s Travel in particular was attempting to draw connections between all of these things. Gulliver is in a way doubting the value in colonialism as a practice and so is calling England into question while at the same time declaring her right to all of the land he has seen. The author uses the people he interacts with to show the flaws in man and uses the travels and what he encounters to allow for that doubt the reader becomes so familiar with.
I think that Swift brings our attention to the question of what it is to be human. The horses certainly act more like humans in that they are civilized, but the physically human yahoos are more like beasts. (The story is not unlike Planet of the Apes in which the apes are a picture of modern society while the humans are animals.) From this we might conclude that the material is insignificant while the intellect and civility of a human/creature is the real test of the superiority which is attributed to humans in the real world. In other words it is not the human shape that makes them better than any other creature. Nor does the food that a person eats or the clothes that he wears make him better than an animal. When Gulliver is learning the language the teacher “was convinced that I must be a Yahoo; but my teachableness, civility, and cleanliness astonished him; which were qualities altogether opposite to those animals” (1339). This bit sums up his argument for what makes a human a person rather than an animal. Swift also presents a Utopian society of sorts with the horses in order to critique his current day human society.
I completely agree in that here, Swift is showing what sets humans above animals on the scale. Without our ability to reason, and self-reflect, we would be no different than other creatures. Adding to your idea of the horse Utopian society, I think Swift does this by giving the horses civility. In his day, people were concerned with imperializing the world. They sought to infest the lands of others and capitalize on goods. Sometimes they did this in a not-so-civil, almost savage way. By showing usually wild creatures like horses with the ability to discern for themselves, it creates that social critique.
The description of the Yahoos is definitely a critique of the human race. Swift depicts the Yahoos as unintelligent, uneducated, and disgusting. Swift shows his disdain for the Yahoos when he describes on of them as, “the ugly monster.” Yet, Swift shows the horses to be “perfectly neat and clean,” as well as being civilized. I agree with Danielle that Swift reversed the roles between animals and man in order to show his belief that humans should stop and reflect on their role in society so they can appreciate nature.
I completely agree that the author is attempting to show the reader that there are some things wrong with humans and society during that time period. The animal like qualities of the Yahoo’s are showing how the people are morally corrupt, savage, and dirty. It is a very negative view of the human race. Especially because GUlliver did not even recognize them as first as humans. We should not necessarily take his story as a shout out to divert from trade and urbanization, humans just need to learn to control their greed and actions towards others when they are becoming more powerful. I dont really think that the switching of roles of humans and animals is to make us appreciate nature, but to show how humans can embody the vicious qualities of nature.
I agree with most of the people above, I do believe that the Yahoo’s were described in a way that critiqued humans. Like someone mentioned before, the name “Yahoo” is not exactly a positive name to call someone. Usually being called a “Yahoo” is in response to doing something unintelligent. The way the Yahoos seemed more like animals than they did human in the description, making them seem more like savages than civilized humans. Overall, the description is a negative description of the human race and human nature.
I agree it’s definitely a critique of human nature. In chp. 7, Gulliver’s master says human’s small amount of reasoning ability has “no other use than by its assistance to aggravate our natural corruptions and to acquire new ones” (1351). I find this assessment really hard to disagree with. In making horses the masters of this island , I think Swift is trying to show that practically any animal, imbued with reason, would create a less destructive society. Horses, were they a little smarter, would be better people than people are. I don’t think he’s really trying to make us focus on nature or on trade or anything like that. The Houyhhnhnms do conceive of nature as a force which “works all things to perfection” (1348), thus the inconceivability of illness but I don’t think Swift is pointing to nature as the remedy. Indeed, his terrible description of Yahoo behavior so parallels that of Gulliver’s people, the author seems to suggest that human nature is the problem. Whether humans have little intellect and fight over stones or some intellect and fight over gold is a difference of very few degrees.
One more thing: The horse could not have been chosen accidentally by Swift. I think it’s really telling that he chose an draft animal to be the master of this kingdom. Horses in Europe could be used as a sort of parallel for the slave. The island is a peaceful representation of those that still have self-governance and have not been forced to toil for Europeans, unlike their kind in Gulliver’s land.
Obviously, Swift’s depiction of the Yahoo’s is both a critque and a criticism. When we are first introduced to the Yahoo’s, we see that they are creatures of chaos and just fowl beings, primitive and domineering. “Upon the whole, I never beheld in all my travels so disagreeable an animal, or one against which I naturally conceived so strong an antipathy.”It is clear that Gulliver is absolutely disgusted with them. We see this feeling of repulsion and hatred continued throughout the rest of Part 4 and it is quite interesting to see what Swift is trying to portray through all this. Clearly, since the Yahoo and Gulliver are so alike in so many physical ways, the Yahoo is clearly an interpretation and a critique of mankind. The whole air of this story is written in almost a sartorial air. Swift is making fun of the type of species that inhabit his current society. The customs and the uppity-ness of society as well as the need for domination, mercantilism, and colonialism run rampant. The scene that I found to be most intriguing is the one where they put the same types of food in front of Gulliver and the Yahoo to see how each will respond to it. To me, I think this scene represents the greediness of mankind and the desire to control and conquer everything. When the master throws a piece of ass’ flesh at them, the Yahoo “greedily devours it.” As in, man will take anything just to take it, not because they are worthy of it. Swift makes it very clear that society and mankind have a lot to learn from the Houyhnhmm and their peaceful, traditional ways.
Swift’s purpose in switching animal and human normal behavior may have been to enlighten his readers about how “advanced” society had become. Or even to drive home the point that human reason is man’s greatest gift.
Like everyone before me has stated, book 4 of Gulliver’s Travels is definitely a criticism of human nature. Swift switches the depiction of animal and man to allow us to detach ourselves from our perspective of humanity and view ourselves in a different light. It is one where we don’t “pretend” to reason. I would say that Swift isn’t saying we should divert from things like trade and urbanization, he’s just saying we should do it in an honest manner.
I agree that Swift is critiquing the human race with his description of Yahoos. With a name like “Yahoo,” obviously they weren’t portrayed in a positive light. Yahoos were described as primitive and downright disgusting. Ironically, however, horses were described as proper, clean, and civilized. I think it Swift did this to prove a point: mankind doesn’t have all the answers and can actually learn from nature.
As previously stated, I agree that book four of Gulliver’s Travels is a criticism of human nature. When we are first introduced to the Yahoo’s, we learn that they are more like creatures, they are described in a way that critiques humans. Swift portrays them a imbeciles and we are detached from our perspective of humanity. I agree with previous comments that I don’t think that Swift is saying we should divert from things like trade and urbanization, but I believe he is suggesting that human nature is the problem and humans should reflect on their role in society in order to appreciate nature.
Staying in line with the rest of classmates, Swift is criticizing the human race in Gulliver’s travels. Like Hunter said in a comment above, the name Yahoo in itself is offensive. It is not a compliment by any means. He is describing humans in such a way that they are portrayed as uncivilized and somewhat wild. I do also agree with the comment directly above that states that Swift wants humans to reflect. The point of criticizing isn’t simply just to talk, but to in a sense give feedback. By describing humans in the way he did, Swift is hoping that humans will reassess certain behaviors.
I like that someone else pointed out the negative connotation of the word Yahoo. When someone calls another person a yahoo it is generally negative meaning that that person is crazy or has lost their mind. I think it was an ironic role reversal in the way the yahoos were described compared with the way the horses were described. The yahoo’s were meant to be sort of sub-human and the horses are of course animals, but in the story the horses are more human and dignified than the yahoos.
Like the other comments I have read, I also believe that this is a criticism of the human race. As we have seen in other reading’s such as The Tempest or Montaigne’s Of Cannibals (optional), Swift is describing creatures from another land in such a harsh way, describing them as ugly and alien. I agree with the negative connotation of his use of the word “Yahoo”. It seems as if this has the underlying meaning of calling these people crazy. Just as we saw in the tempest with the native creatures being “creatures”, and Montaigne decribing the indigineous people of uncolonized land animal like, Swift is no different in his use of description to describe these half human half horse “Yahoos”.
Much like what everyone else has said, I take “Yahoos” as a critique of the human race. It is a word to describe a primitive and uncivilized being. I think that the reason the yahoos are portrayed in this manner is to emphasize the characteristics of the horses. I believe that the reasoning behind this lies in the idea that mankind should look to nature for advice. Clearly the Yahoos aren’t that organized, so why not look to the seemingly superior horse for ways to improve?