I was reading Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift the other day, and some thoughts crossed my mind.
Gulliver’s travel to Lilliput describes the small men of the world. This is way the lilliputians are six inches tall. The lilliputians have a serious dispute with the empire of Blefuscu over the matter of cracking eggs. In the novel, the king passes a decree that eggs should only be broken on the small end. He does this because his grandfather made a mistake, so the king had to make it look right. This represents the rulers of the world who are more concerned with themselves than the welfare of the world.
Another interesting characteristic of the lilliputians is that they have small minds to go with their small bodies. They only believe the kingdoms of Lilliput and Blefuscu to exist. They are not interested in what else there may be around them.
With Swift’s description of Lilliput, you would think he was a very pessimistic person. It sounds as though he thinks people are doomed to self-destruction. He shows that this is not what he believes with his description of the Brobdingnags.
When Gulliver ventures to Brobdingnag, his role is quite reversed. He is the small-bodies, small-minded person, while the king of Brobdingnag is gargantuan. This represents the king’s wisdom.
Gulliver describes to the king how wonderful it would be for their kingdom to have gunpowder. He tells him how they could just blow their enemies up, and not have to worry about them.
The King of Brobdingnag thinks that Gulliver is quite a fool for these remarks. The king sees no reason why he would want to blow his enemies up, and that gunpowder sounds like a solution for small men.
This analogy represents that the world has great rulers also. Many rulers would never revert to violence as a solution to their problems. The Brobdingnags are the hope for the human race. With these virtuous people, the world cannot fail.