Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
Table of Contents
Part III, Chapter 1 to Chapter 3
Chapter I
Summary
Gulliver does not honor the request of his wife. After ten days at home, a man asks Gulliver to sail with him in two months to the East Indies. Unfortunately, pirates attack the ship. One of the pirates speaks Dutch, so Gulliver pleads with him in Dutch to set him free. Gulliver argues that because he and the pirate both subscribe to the Christian faith, the pirate should set him free. Another pirate, who is Japanese, tells Gulliver that he will not be killed. Gulliver responds by telling the Dutch pirate that he is shocked to find that a heathen has more sympathy for him than another Christian. This angers the Dutch pirate, who responds by sending Gulliver to sea in a tiny boat. The boat only has enough food for four days.
Gulliver spots an island and rows to shore. He tries to make himself comfortable, but he is bothered by the observation that the sun is hidden. An island, populated with many people, falls from the sky. Gulliver yells to the people on the floating island, and he is given a chain so that he can be drawn up to the island.
Chapter II
Summary
Gulliver is startled to see that the people who inhabit the island have tilted heads and crossed eyes. The islanders who work as servants are required to carry “flappers,” or sticks with pouches tied to the end. The servants use the flappers to help with conversation; the servant smacks the listener’s ear and the speaker’s mouth. Supposedly, this helps with concentration.
Gulliver is taken to the king, who has multiple mathematical instruments on his desk. The king, however, is lost in thought for over an hour. A servant strikes the king with a flapper; Gulliver is hit, as well. He tries explaining that he doesn’t need to be hit with the flapper, but his language does not translate well to the people of the island.
He receives a teacher to help him learn the language of the island, which he learns is called Laputa. He...
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