Lilliputians and Gulliver

When the Lilliputians discover Gulliver, they seem to have mixed feelings about him. What are their feelings and how do they show them?

They tie him up and shoot arrows at him out of fear, climb onto him out of curiosity, and bring him food and drink out of kindness.

Based on the way that the word odious is used in the text, which word is the synonym for odious? Explain why your answer choice is correct.

a. beautiful

b. sneaky

c. disgusting

d. small

c, Explanation: The King states, "I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth." Odious is associated with "pernicious" and "vermin," words that also have negative connotations.

Gulliver is described as a giant in size compared to the inhabitants of Lilliput and Blefescu. How does this difference in size serve to reinforce Swift's opinion about the rift between England and France as presented in Gulliver's Travels? Cite one or two examples from the text to support your answer.

The small size of the Lilliputians and the Blefescudians represents their small-mindedness in refusing to end this conflict. Because he is a giant and therefore "above" the Lilliputians and Blefuscudians, both literally and figuratively, in this quarrel, Gulliver is easily able to change the course of the conflict by capturing the Blefuscudians' ships and averting bloodshed.

In Gulliver's Travels, Swift satirizes the conflict between the Catholics and the Protestants by recounting a fictional tale about a conflict between the Little-Endians and the Big-Endians. Which sentence below is an example of how Swift makes the actual historical conflict seem silly through the telling of this tale? Explain why the answer you chose is correct.

a. "It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs before we eat them was upon the larger end . . . "

b. " . . . but his present Majesty's grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers."

c. "Whereupon the Emperor, his father, published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs."

d. "These civil commotions were constantly fomented by the monarchs of Blefescu; and when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire."

c, Explanation: It is ridiculous to impose a harsh penalty merely for breaking eggs in a certain way. Here, Swift implies that the religious conflict in England is petty.

The heir to the throne of Lilliput is suspected of not fully supporting the king's political party. What has aroused this suspicion?

Members of the king's party wear low heels, and members of the opposing party wear high heels. The heir to the throne wears one heel higher than the other.

In "A Voyage to Brobdingnag" from Gulliver's Travels, Swift satirizes English politics and society through

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