Teaching Gulliver's Travels

Instructions for You

Objective: Since the advent of social structure a ridiculously long time ago, we've been nitpicky and critical of everything everyone does, so long as it isn't us. It's just human nature, it seems. Over time, though, our complaining has become more sophisticated and created kings of satire like Voltaire or our boy Swift. In Swift's mind, he had plenty to be irked about and he created a fantasy epic so that everybody knew it.

This activity will explore how Swift's political stances and reactions to various historical events influenced the creation of Gulliver's Travels. Students will analyze the different settings and conflicts of the text as reflective of Swift's personal views on English society. To do so, they'll need to have finished reading the book and two to five class periods to work, depending on how much you want to leave for homework.

Materials Needed: Copies of Gulliver's Travels; computers with brochure making software

Step 1: Get your students on computers, and have them bone up on satire by checking out our lovely definition. Clarify the meaning by stating that satire reflects the author's views on society—in other words, it's a critique of society, but it also reveals the author a bit. To make sure everyone's wrapping their minds around this concept, you might ask a few student to offer up definitions of satire in their own words.

Step 2: Tell students that before they can begin to unpack the double-meaning present in Gulliver's Travels they need to find out a little more about the man behind Lemuel Gulliver. Their task now is to read up on Swift, putting together a little biography of the man that answers the following questions:

• What political beliefs did Swift hold?
• What religion was Swift?
• How did he feel about reason? Science? Technology?
• What was Swift's view of human nature?
• What did he think about competing views of human nature?
• What did Swift feel were the major problems facing the world?

Shmoop's learning guide for the book offers a little insight, but shouldn't be solely relied upon. Students will need to use the Internet to research—this is a great chance to discuss reliable online sources (i.e. not Wikipedia).

When they're done with this step, students should have well-organized, typed biographies of Swift to work from going forward and, in the end, turn in.

Step 3: Now that students have biographical portraits of the author, remind them that all the places Gulliver visits are under the control or sovereignty of England. Explain that students are going to use computers to create a guide book to the newly acquired territories of Liliput, Laputa, Brobdingnab, and so on as if written by Lemuel Gulliver (a stand-in for Swift).

Step 4: Have students open up their brochure making software (word processing programs often have templates for this) and choose a brochure template. Tell them that each page of the brochure should feature a different location that Gulliver goes to. The following information should be included for each location:

• A physical description of the place 
• Do's and don'ts 
• Major issues 
• How it compares to England/Britain
• Extra points for pertinent images.

If done correctly, the conflicts in each setting should reflect a major weakness Swift saw in contemporary British society.

Step 5: Have students print out their finished brochure, fold them up, and turn them in along with their Swift bios. Safe travels!

Instructions for Your Students

Objective: Ever been a little judgmental? Be honest—it's done so often, by so many people, that judginess seems to be part of human nature. But while it's one thing to throw shade over what someone wears, Jonathan Swift took his judgments to epic levels when he wrote Gulliver's Travels. Dude was super irked by society, so he created a fantasy epic to air his grievances, satirizing certain issues of his day.

For this activity, you'll be throwing shade like a master, researching Swift and figuring out what he found so irksome. Then you'll write a travel brochure from the perspective of Gulliver (who's really a stand-in for Swift) explaining the new territories of the Commonwealth to the oh-so kind English people.

Step 1: Hop on a computer and check out Shmoop's definition of satire. Feeling like that makes sense? To make good and sure, try putting it into your own words—if you can do this, you've definitely wrapped your mind around this genre.

Step 2: Before you can really appreciate Swift's satire in Gulliver's Travels, first you need to bone up on the author himself. After all, satire criticizes society while revealing its author's take on things. You need to write a nice little bio (a.k.a. well organized and typed up) for Swift, that answers the following questions:

• What political beliefs did Swift hold?
• What religion was Swift?
• How did he feel about reason? Science? Technology?
• What was Swift's view of human nature?
• What did he think about competing views of human nature?
• What did Swift feel were the major problems facing the world?

Not sure where to look online? Check in with your teacher to sort out reliable sources.

Step 3: All the places Gulliver visits are under the control or sovereignty of England, so you are now going to create a guide book to the newly acquired territories of Liliput, Laputa, Brobdingnab, and so on as if written by Lemuel Gulliver.

Step 4: Open your brochure making software (word processing programs often have templates for this) and choose a brochure template. Each page of the brochure should feature a different location that Gulliver goes to, and the following information should be included for each location:

• A physical description of the place 
• Do's and don'ts 
• Major issues 
• How it compares to England/Britain
• Extra points for pertinent images.

If done correctly, the conflicts in each setting should reflect a major weakness Swift saw in contemporary British society. You're interpreting Swift's satire for an English audience as if you were Jonathan Swift, so make sure to write in his voice and that your responses are clear. No one should be left confused by something Swift found annoying.

Step 4: Print out and fold your brochure, then turn it in along with your bio. Happy trails to you.