summary of Gulliver travel part 1
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
Events
Part 1, Chapter 1
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GULLIVER'S TRAVELS PART 1, CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY
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"The author giveth some account of himself and family; his first inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked and swims for his life; gets safe on shore in the country of Lilliput; is made a prisoner, and carried up the country."
Our hero, Lemuel Gulliver, starts out his adventures with a description of his origins: he's from Nottinghamshire in England, and he has spent several years at college at Cambridge.
Sadly, Gulliver's father runs out of money for young Gulliver's education, so he sends Gulliver as an apprentice (read: someone who works for a skilled tradesman in exchange for first-hand, practical training in said trade) to Mr. James Bates, a London surgeon.
Gulliver also spends a lot of time studying math and navigation, because he wants to travel.
Eventually, with the financial help of his uncle, his father, and some other relatives, Gulliver travels to Leyden (now Leiden, a city in Holland), where there is a famous university known for its teaching of medicine.
After studying at Leyden for a couple of years, Gulliver returns to England, where Mr. Bates gives Gulliver a recommendation to join the crew of the ship the Swallow as a surgeon.
Gulliver travels for three years on the Swallow and gets as far as the Levant (a.k.a. the eastern portion of the Mediterranean and the areas that border it, including parts of Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey.)
He comes back to London and settles down to marry Mrs. Mary Burton, who comes with a dowry (read: a certain amount of money settled on her by her family once she marries) of 400 pounds – nice for Gulliver!
Gulliver's former boss and current patron, Mr. Bates dies a couple of years later, and Gulliver's business starts to go bad.
Gulliver decides to go to sea again, traveling this time to the Far East and the West Indies.
He spends a lot of time reading while he's at sea; when Gulliver is ashore, he enjoys observing the customs of the people he meets.
But even the sea starts to lose its interest for Gulliver, and he decides to head home to London to hang out with his wife.
Gulliver moves his business to various parts of London, but he continues to fail at making a living, so he hits the sea once again three years later.
He sets sail with Captain William Prichard on the Antelope, heading to the South Seas (in other words, the oceans south of the equator.)
As you might expect, things go wrong. All of the following happens in one long paragraph:
A storm blows up.
The ship winds up in the Northwest of "Van Diemen's Land" – what we now call Tasmania, an area in the southeast of Australia.
12 members of the ship's crew die and the rest are weakened by hard work and lack of food.
High currents and rough seas make it hard for the crew to get from the ship's anchorage point to shore.
So the Antelope sends six crew members, Gulliver included, in a small rowboat to go to shore.
The boat capsizes and all of the six sailors except for Gulliver drown.
In the water, Gulliver totally loses track of where he is, but he still manages eventually to find his way to a shore.
Gulliver's feeling a bit sleepy from all of this exercise and the half-pint of brandy he drank onboard ship before getting into this rowboat, so he lies down to sleep.
He wakes up at dawn after a lovely nap in the grass.
Gulliver tries to stand up, but he can't move at all. He's stuck lying on his back.
Gulliver notices that his arms and legs and even his long hair all appear to be tied down.
He can't look right or left, so he has no idea what is happening, but he does feel something moving across his chest towards his chin.
Gulliver turns his eyes down to look over his chin and he sees a tiny, tiny human being, no bigger than the length of Gulliver's finger.
The tiny fellow is carrying a tiny, tiny bow with lots of tiny, tiny arrows – and there are also around 40 other tiny guys following him. (Incidentally, these tiny people are the Lilliputians – residents of Swift's made-up island of Lilliput.)
Gulliver yells in fright at the sight of all of these tiny people. At this roar, they jump or fall back in fear.
Gulliver manages to break the strings tying down his left arm, but the strings attached to his hair really hurt, so he can still barely turn his head.
Each chapter is advertised. In this chapter, "The Author gives some Account of himself and Family, his first Inducements to travel. He is shipwrecked, and swims for his Life, gets safe on shoar in the Country of Lilliput, is made a Prisoner, and carryed up the Country."
The narrative begins with the narrator, Lemuel Gulliver, describing his childhood and the events that led him to become a seaman. He tells the reader that he is the third of five sons and that he was sent to a Puritan college at the age of fourteen. Afterwards he became an apprentice to a surgeon in London, during which time he also learned about navigation and mathematics in preparation for a future on the sea, "as I always believed it would be some time or other my fortune to do." Next he studied "Physick" (medicine) because he thought it would be "useful in long Voyages."
Afterwards Gulliver married Mrs. Mary Burton and began his life as a surgeon, taking on several patients. When his business begins to fail, he takes a six-year trip to the sea, where he serves as the surgeon to two ships and travels the East and West Indies. He spends much of his time on these voyages observing the people and learning their languages.
The real problems begin in 1699. Gulliver sets sail on a voyage that starts out prosperously but quickly takes a turn for the worse. The ship encounters violent storms, has bad food, and weakens the crew (twelve crew members die) when the ship hits a rock and is split. Six of the crew members, including Gulliver, get into a small boat and row until they are overturned by a "sudden Flurry." Gulliver swims until he is nearly exhausted, at which point he finds an island, comes across a patch of grass, and sleeps for what he estimates is more than nine hours.
When Gulliver awakens, he is lying on his back. He finds himself unable to sit up or move at all. His "Arms and Legs were strongly fastened on each side to the Ground; and [his] Hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner." He feels something moving along his body almost up to his chin, at which point he sees that it is "a human Creature not six Inches high, with a Bow and Arrow in his Hands, and a Quiver at his Back." Gulliver will later learn that these creatures are called Lilliputians. Startled by this sight, Gulliver roars out and soon manages to free his left arm. The frightened Lilliputians fire dozens of tiny arrows into his hand, face, and body until he lies calmly. The Lilliputians then build a stage to Gulliver's side that is about a foot and a half tall, upon which a "Person of Quality" stands and makes a ten-minute speech to Gulliver in a language he cannot understand.
Gulliver signals that he wants food and drink, so the people bring baskets of meat and several loaves of bread, which he eats three at a time because they are so tiny to him. The Lilliputians also bring two barrels of drink, which he enjoys even though they are smaller than a half a pint together.