ing Yahoo” when he chooses a new “Favourite.” Mistaken for a Yahoo causes Gulliver such discomfort that he considers them to be the lowest form of life and sets himself as far apart as he can from them. Gulliver was taught, in an Anglocentric society, to believe that bodily functions are embarrassing and shameful. We see this all throughout the novel, from when Gulliver is ashamed of his abundant pile of excrement to when he wears it on his head. Excrement almost seems to function as a symbol of man's evils. It is what he needs to dispose of or it will consume him in the same way that evil will. Gulliver does not accept it as a part of nature. His pride and rationality are so threatened by the Yahoos that he cannot acknowledge the Yahoos as forerunners of his kinsmen even though they are a lowly version of himself. This dislike for the Yahoos later turns into a denouncement of his species but even though he is not proud of his humanity, he is still proud. Gulliver considers himself better than all other Yahoos because of his knowledge from the Houyhnhnms. The excrement itself is not the reason behind his pride. Nobody would want to be covered in it. The excrement, however, is the major foundation for Gulliver’s loathing for the Yahoos and he would not have been so affected by it had he not lived in a society which is ashamed of its natural processes. In his novel, Swift does not use the Yahoos to show the evil of man but rather, to show the potential for evil that man has. Gulliver, however, takes his notions of judgment, and presupposes his intellectual superiority which feels he confirms based on the Yahoos’ lack of language and their not-so-warmhearted welcome. As he gradually begins to believe that all humans are at the Yahoo level, however, his Anglocentric pride fades. Thus, this passage is effectively the last time we really see Gulliver act on his presupposed English notions. ...
