Swifts Gulliver's Travels allows us to critically and harshly analyze our world and encourages us to evaluate the customs of early 18th-century English society in comparison to an ideal humanity. In order to address widespread injustices in human constructs and behaviors, Swift uses literary techniques to induce a state of extreme doubt. The satirical assessment of the positive and negative traits of humanity is developed through Gulliver's clumsy process of identifying with the loathsome Yahoos and idolizing the rational Houyhnhnms. The allegory of a domestic animal representing more "humanity" than humans illustrates the flaws of human nature and the tumultuous and uncertain philosophical, ethical, and scientific thinking of Swift's period. The depiction of the Houyhnhnms involves a direct attack on human nature. Although Book IV of Gulliver's Travels constitutes a satirical attack on human nature in general, it has specific aims in mind: namely, war and the destruction associated with it, the verminous and mendacious criminal activities of lawyers, and the cruel superficiality of consumerism and wealth disparity. . On an intellectual level, the text leaves the reader quite disturbed despite the use of humor and adventure stories. This essay will analyze Part Four of Gulliver's Travels in terms of genre and explore how satire uses rhetorical means to comment on rational humanity. Additionally, the essay will examine how Swift fostered change in early 18th-century England by constructing a complex attack on the philosophical position of his political opponents. Swift consistently uses allegory throughout Gulliver's Travels to induce an extreme sense of self-doubt in the reader. In Gulliver's Fourth Journey, Swift uses...... middle of paper......tential. With the power of satire, Swift shatters our ego to the point that the text makes us question whether humanity is really worth saving. Reference ListDricks, RJ (2006). Gulliver's tragic rationalism. New York: Wayne State University Press. Harrison, B. (2003). Houyhnhnm Virtue. Journal of Literature and History of Ideas, 1, 36. Mackie, E. (2014). Gulliver and the Good Life by Houyhnhnm. The Eighteenth Century, 55. Nutall, A.D. (1958). Gulliver among the horses. The Yearbook of English Studies, 18, 51-67. Smith, F.N. (1992). The genres of Gulliver's Travels. London, England: Associated University Press. Swift, J. (1726). Gulliver's Travels. (P. Turner, ed.) Dublin: Oxford University Press. Wintle, S. (1994). If Houyhnhnms were horses. Thinking with animals in Book IV of “Gulliver’s Travels” The critical review' , 3-34.