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Houyhnhnms' lack of passion surfaces during the scheduled visit of "a friend and his family" to the home of
Gulliver's master "upon some affair of importance". On the day of the visit, the mistress of his friend and her children arrive very late. She made no excuses "first for her husband" who had died just that morning and she had to remain to make the proper arrangements for a "convenient place where his body should be laid". Gulliver remarked that "she behaved herself at our house as cheerfully as the rest". A further example of the lack of humanity and emotion in the Houyhnhnms is that their laws reason that each couple produce two children, one male and one female. In the event that a marriage produced two offspring of the same sex, the parents would take their children to the annual meeting and trade one with a couple who produced two children of the opposite sex. This was viewed as his spoofing and or criticising the notion that the "ideal" family produces children of both sexes.
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is the keystone, in some ways, of the entire work, and critics have traditionally answered the question whether
Gulliver is insane (and thus just another victim of Swift's satire) by questioning whether or not the Houyhnhnms are truly admirable. Gulliver loves the land and is obedient to a race that
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views on race, or one could regard
Gulliver's preference (and his immediate division of Houyhnhnms into color-based hierarchies) as absurd and the sign of his self-deception. It is now generally accepted that the story involving the Houyhnhnms embody a wholly pessimistic view of the place of man and
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creatures who are no better than beasts of burden, or livestock. Whereas the Yahoos represent all that is bad about humans, Houyhnhnms have a settled, calm, reliable and rational society. Gulliver much prefers the
Houyhnhnms' company to the Yahoos', even though the latter are biologically closer to
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based on their analyses of benefit and cost. They have no religion and their sole morality is the defence of reason, and so they are not particularly moved by pity or a belief in the intrinsic value of life. Gulliver himself, in their company, builds the sails of his skiff from "Yahoo skins". The
364:). The Houyhnhnms embody both the good and the bad side of reason, for they have the pure language Swift wished for and the amorally rational approach to solving the problems of humanity (Yahoos); the extirpation of the Yahoo population by the horses is very like the speaker of
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islands to the east. The map is somewhat careless with the scale, however; Edels Land to Lewins Land are shown adjacent, while in reality they are some 1000 km apart, while the sweep of the Great
Australian Bight, from Cape Leeuwin, Australia's south-westerly point to the
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On one hand, the
Houyhnhnms have an orderly and peaceful society. They have philosophy and a language that is entirely free of political and ethical nonsense. They have no word for a
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Gulliver describes the land as "divided by long rows of trees, not regularly planted but naturally growing", with a "great plenty of grass, and several fields of oats".
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concerns, especially in
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viewed the
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the meaning of his existence in the universe. In a modern context the story might be seen as presenting an early example of
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Gulliver's visit to the Land of the Houyhnhnms is described in Part IV of his
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are a fictional race of intelligent horses described in the last part of
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beings and are masters of the land, contrasting strongly with the
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Cambridge/New York/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press 1997.
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Politics vs. Literature — An examination of Gulliver's travels
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Gulliver Taking His Final Leave of the Land of the Houyhnhnms
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Gulliver in discussion with Houyhnhnms (1856 lllustration by
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Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants
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