Effective Use of Satire in Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift's story, Gulliver's Travels, is a very clever story. It tells the fictional journey of a fictional man named Lemuel Gulliver and his travels to the fantasy lands of Lilliput, Brobdinag, Laputa and Houyhnhmn. When you first read his stories about each of these countries, you might think that they are humorous stories about countries that look like fairy tales intended to amuse children. When reading this story from the perspective of satire, the stories remain humorous, but we realize that Swift was making a public statement on the affairs of England and the human race as a whole. , Gulliver tells the reader a little about his journey, why he made these journeys in the first place, and where he is at the beginning of his story. The story begins with Gulliver recounting how he was shipwrecked in the land of Lilliput. He wakes up to find himself tied up and held captive by a small race of people. To the people of Li...... middle of paper ...... travels to these lands. Swift did an excellent job of hiding a harsh criticism of the government and the society in which he lived. He did this by making the characters in the story so fantastical and alien to the reader that the story could only be a fairy tale written for children. The actions of the people he meets are so absurd and Gulliver seems so innocent that upon first reading, many people didn't even understand what Swift was trying to say. There were, however, people who knew Swift's intentions from the beginning and who knew all the symbols in the story..