In Gulliver's many talks with the Houyhnhnms he tried to explain the wars that took place for religious reasons, and instead unveield how humans by themselves are not that dangerous but when they use their "reason" as a means to find excuses as opposed to alternatives to war, their power of destruction can become exponentially catastrophic. Even still, Gulliver tries to explain and defend war in the name of "civilization", and expounds on how after a country is conquered half the population is to be killed and the other half enslaved. From this the master Houyhnhnm comments that although the Yahoo he coexists with are wretched, that English Yahoo's are far worse because they exploit their reason to magnify their vices (immoral or evil habit/ practice).
side note: It is important to keep in mind that even though these are just explanations of the novel that help us understand the plot better, that these malice iniquities, are things that Swift saw in his fellow man, and are things that can still be seen today.
Money is focal point in Swift's arguement about the nature of man. He says that money is the medium in which men satisfy their vices. Through this Swift eventually circled back around into the topic of diets. It is through large sums of money that man expands their opportunities of abuse (whether it be in wars or something miniscule like their diets) with money, people are afforded the opportunity to eat "gourmet foods" (gourmet food being a symbol of lofty status or affluency) in large quantities, which causes a lifestyle diet of excess, gluttony; unhealthfulness, and in turn a diet just like the Yahoos' Gulliver encountered when he arrived to the Land of the Houyhnhnms.
Wednesday
HOUYHNHNMS vs. YAHOOS
The Land of the Houyhnhnms was a small section in a satirical, extended metaphor illustrated by Swift in Gulliver's travels depicting the nature of human beings and pointing out its flaws. It is through the Houyhnhnms that Swift depicts the "perfect" or most ideal society.
With further study into the time that this novel was written, it becomes very clear that the traits Swift appointed to the Houyhnhnms, was considered by the people of the eighteenth century to be how man ought to have been and was before the fall of Adam in the Garden. They ate mainly a grain and vegetarian diet, which in itslef has biblical undercurrents. In portraying the Houyhnhnms to be almost righteous, Swift was able to make the contrast between the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos that much more acute. The yahoos on the other hand enjoy mainly raw meats and garbage and more importanly, they partake in eating all the foods that are prohibited in biblical codes found in the book of Leviticus.
As disgusting as the Yahoo's demeanor is, Swift tries to imply that we, humans, are yahoos. Throughout Gulliver's entire encounter with the Houyhnhnms, the only thing that keeps the horses from identifying him as a yahoo initally is his clothing. Swift used Gulliver's clothes in a very interesting way in that, he implied that the only thing that separated him from the Yahoos was his clothing; an artficial, worthless entitiy. In reality there really was nothing separating him from the Yahoos, he was a Yahoo. In Gullivers failed attempts of becoming a Houyhnhnm, Swift is saying that we as Humans could never be a Houyhnhnm, a vituous being, because the "Yahoo" in us is so overpowering.
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