Comparison between Gullivers Houyhnhm Land and Candides El Dorado

reader will see similarities between both places and the reader’s personality to show the fixation with material goods.         In Gulliver’s Travel, the protagonist, Gulliver is constantly comparing the society to his own. Gulliver was surprised of the Houyhnhnm’s brilliance and soon begins to criticize the intelligence of humans and even the way of living. In the Houyhnhnm , they basically lack of culture and without any freedom , yet their life is more simplistic than the life Gulliver is used to. Whereas in Gulliver’s life he would constantly speak of war, lawyers, and doctors. Gulliver admires the Houyhnhnm’s way of living, he believed that their way is the right way and we, humans live our life without reasoning. We have no control of our future and will end up like Yahoos. Yahoos are free to live in various parts of the land as wild beast. Their law system is completely different because they are free to live corrupt.     In addition to the yahoos’ obsessive behavior towards the colored stones, is their desire for food, not because they are hungry but because they are greedy. Even though there is plenty food provided for each yahoo to eat, each will still try to get all the food for him or herself: “For if you throw among five yahoos as much food as would be sufficient for fifty, they will, instead of eating peaceably, fall together by the ears, each single one impatient to have all to itself” (Gulliver’s Travels; Western Literature).     On the other hand, in Candide the people of El Dorado treat the stones with lack of interest. When Candide and his companion Cacambo arrive in El Dorado they see the streets covered in gold and other expensive jewels. Seeing a child playing with these jewels Candide assumes that the child is royalty. Candide and Cacambo come to know and are surprised that the people of El Dorado throw such important items down on the street as common pebbles. When they are ready to leave the city, they ask to take some of the gold and jewels off the road and imagine “more treasure than every the King of Spain will be possessed of” (Candide’s El Dorado; Western Literature). The King is very surprised but accepts their request. In El Dorado all people have their needs met, whereas the Europeans believe they need gold to define many aspects of their lives. In Europe, money determines one’s place in society and gives people worth and rights; without money it is difficult to get a meal and a place to sleep, let alone to fulfill one’s goals in life.   Jonathan Swift and Voltaire exaggerated the behavior of the yahoos, the Houyhnhnm’s and the people of El Dorado to point out the materialism in Human society. Swift compared humans to yahoo by their behavior. In El Dorado the focus is on taking care of the people’s needs, valuing fellow humans rather than possessing gold and material objects. The way we characterize people can easily derive from the way we view society.