Horses Are People Too

In the first two chapters of part IV of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver meets the Houyhnhnm and the Yahoo. In this island, the relationship between man and horse is reversed, and the Yahoo (who are human-like creatures) play the role of horses: "About noon, I saw coming towards the house a kind of vehicle drawn like a sledge by four Yahoos." (Swift 179) We can see clearly that the Yahoos are the horses in this world. They live in cages. They are uncivilized. They eat horrible food. The fact that the Houyhnhnm are the people who take care of them and that they have language and customs is Swift's way of pointing out the peculiarity of our own human-horse relationship.

It's weird that for hundreds of years we've completely dominated the horse. We ride them at will. They have been part of horrible battles and died. They have been our slaves. Another animal. The whole thing really is pretty weird. Who was the first to realize riding a horse would be faster? Who figured out how to ride it without getting seriously injured or killed?

This is just another example of Swift questioning our way of life. This time, instead of making us think about our religion, political struggles, and burial rituals, he is making us think of the cruelty we do to horses. What were to happen if roles were reversed? This is exactly what Gulliver encounters on the island.