Gulliver's Travels Chapter 2 Summary

Summary

Gulliver and the gray Houyhnhnm arrive at a long, wattle-and-straw building that serves as a Houyhnhnm dwelling and stable. The gray leads him through a sequence of three rooms; he waits in the second while preparing small presents for the household. The gray then beckons him into the third room where a mare, colt, and foal are seated on straw mats. The mare examines Gulliver and, with the gray, repeatedly utters the word "Yahoo," which Gulliver cannot yet understand.

The gray escorts Gulliver to a nearby outbuilding and presents him before three Yahoos, who are tied and eating carrion and roots. The Houyhnhnms compare Gulliver carefully with a Yahoo and repeatedly say "Yahoo," causing Gulliver great horror when he recognizes the resemblance between himself and those filthy creatures. Unable at first to accept their offered roots and meat, Gulliver communicates by gestures that he needs something different; the horses interpret his pointing and lead him to a store of milk. Later a distinguished old horse visits and dines with the household; the master horse uses the occasion to teach Gulliver a few words and show concern that he has nothing to eat. Gulliver is given oats, which he processes into a crude cake and eats with milk, and he adapts to a simple diet, supplementing it by trapping rabbits and gathering herbs. By evening the master orders a place for Gulliver to sleep near the house, where he rests on straw under his own clothes. The chapter closes with Gulliver noting he will describe his living arrangements more fully later.

Key events

1. Gulliver and the gray Houyhnhnm enter a three-room house and await reception.
2. Gulliver is presented before a mare who and the horses repeat the word "Yahoo."
3. Gulliver is brought before tied Yahoos and sees his resemblance to them.
4. The Houyhnhnms provide Gulliver with milk and later teach him basic words.
5. Gulliver learns to make oat cakes and adapts to the Houyhnhnms' diet.
6. He is assigned a straw lodging near the house for the night.

Analysis

This chapter advances the narrative by shifting Gulliver's immediate status from captive wanderer to a quasi-domestic guest under the observation of the Houyhnhnms. It sets up the central contrast between Houyhnhnm rationality and Yahoo filth and irrationality that will dominate Part IV: the horses' orderly household, polite ceremonies, and language-learning gestures emphasize their civility, while the Yahoos' squalor and carrion diet foreground human baseness. The close inspection of Gulliver by the horses literalizes a theme of self-recognition and identity: being judged as a Yahoo forces him to confront his own species' likeness to what he finds disgusting.

Swift uses detailed, quasi-ethnographic description and procedural narration (the tour of rooms, the meal, the teaching of words) to make the Houyhnhnms' culture credible and to distance it from European norms. Small domestic details—the layout of mangers, the bowl of milk, the mastiff-like arrangement of servants—function as symbols of ordered reason. The horses' teaching of words and the exchange of signs also establish narrative technique: Gulliver as linguistic pupil and cultural interpreter. The chapter foreshadows further moral and philosophical comparisons by making diet, cleanliness, and speech the arenas where differences between species and civilizations first become intelligible to Gulliver and to the reader.

Important quotes

“My horror and astonishment are not to be described, when I observed in this abominable animal, a perfect human figure:”

NarratorGulliver reacts with revulsion as he sees a Yahoo and recognizes the human-like form and similarity to himself.

“I was ordered to speak the few words I understood; and while they were at dinner, the master taught me the names for oats, milk, fire, water, and some others, which I could readily pronounce after him, having from my youth a great facility in learning languages.”

NarratorWhile dining with the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver begins learning key words that will allow basic communication and care.

Characters in Chapter 2

• Lemuel Gulliver
• The Yahoos
• The Houyhnhnms