are numerous. Acting as an ingenous narrator becomes natural for Gulliver, being a naive and innocent person by nature. An example of this lies when Gulliver dances around in front of many people. "I turned about several times to the company, paid my humble respects, said they were welcome, and used some other speeches I had been taught" (111). Gulliver is not aware that these people have made a spectacle out of him, and many people laugh and joke. Swift uses this technique of an ingenuous narrator in stating an underlying truth that the speaker is naive to, while the reader knows all. Swift implies many ideas through Gulliver such as the unimportance of an individual man and the savagery of mankind. Swift also uses a technique called shock value in Gulliver's Travels. When Gulliver gazed across the open field at forty foot stalks of corn, he stands amazed. Gulliver runs and hides at his first encounter with one of the giants. This shock factor the reader shares with Gulliver helps to enhance the idea of mans unimportance as an individual. Another shock the reader experiences occurs when Gulliver arrives in the land of the Houyhnhnms. The primary shock consists of the disbelief that horses could ever become civilized or develop their own language. Then, when the reader learns of the lifestyle of the Houyhnhnms, the sense of shock increases. The reader learns of the peaceful and tranquil world they live in and begin to see mankind as savage and inhumane. With this new knowledge of a different, and in many ways better, way of life, the reader begins to ponder if what he or she believes as normal is in fact the correct and/or most efficient/effective way of life. Swift uses many techniques throughout the book to force man to examine his life. These techniques act a subtle tools in getting across ideas the author wants to express. Juxtaposition, an ingenuous narrator, and shock value stand as only three of the many tec...
