Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

Gulliver’s description of his past distances himself from the corrupt, deceitful society of England and gives him the moral high ground. He may not have been a financially successful member of society, but he was far richer in virtue than his lying peers. When Gulliver awakens, he finds himself tied down to the ground and surrounded by a crowd of six-inch-high people (the Lilliputians) speaking a language he doesn’t understand. At first he struggles and the people shoot arrows at him. Then when Gulliver stops struggling, the people loosen some of his bindings and feed him well. Though tempted to grab and crush handfuls of them, Gulliver restrains himself reminding himself that he has made them “a promise of honor” by his “submissive behavior.” The little people dress the wounds Gulliver suffered from their arrows. This scene introduces the theme of moral vs. physical power. The Lilliputians have exerted physical power against Gulliver by tying him to the ground and shooting at him. However, when Gulliver resists the urge to fight back with physical power and instead chooses to negotiate reasonably, the Lilliputians respond in kind. They begin to heal the physical wounds they themselves inflicted. The Lilliputians are obviously talented and practical engineers as Gulliver says since they have been able to invent and construct an enormous carriage in just a few hours. The image of Gulliver standing upright emphasizes the difference between his perspective and the Lilliputians’ perspective. For him, he is normal and they are tiny. For them, they are normal and he is a giant.