Small Teacher Group post

4 Questions:
How does the treatment Gulliver receive from the Lilliputians change as the story progresses?

On various accounts, Gulliver says that he is from Europe; a place in our world. Without any indication of how Gulliver travels to Lilliput, where do you think Lilliput is and why?

Why do you think Gulliver gets his liberty early?

Do you think Gulliver was treated more like a prisoner of war or as a diplomat from another nation?

Selected Excerpts:
"I confess I was often tempted, while they were passing backward and forward on my body, to seize forty or fifty of the first that came in my reach, and dash them against the ground. But the remembrance of what I had felt, which probably might not be the worst they could do, and the promise of honor I made them, for so I interpreted my submissive behavior, soon drove out those imaginations. Besides, I now considered myself as bound by the laws of hospitality to a people who had treated me with so much expense and magnificence."
I chose to point out this excerpt because it is a good example of an internal struggle that Gulliver deals with early on in the story. It is also a good example of the satire that Swift aims for; Gulliver claims that he is "bound by the laws of hospitality." It is quite odd that Gulliver finds that being physically bound by these people and shot in the hand with little arrows hospitable behavior worthy enough to curb his inclination to easily destroy them. This can show that the larger, stronger force can be manipulated by a much lesser force because of a lack of intelligence or a vital flaw.

Reflection:
The small teacher group I worked with included Jon, Mike, and Matteo. Getting ideas to start flowing was simple because we shared opinions about Gulliver's Travels and came up with similar questions. We discussed a few different viewpoints on the motivations of both Gulliver and the Lilliputians, and the possible interpretations students may come up with. Unfortunately, not everyone was prepared, and we were a bit confused on how to present our ideas on the flip chart paper. However, with outside consultation, we agreed on a way to present our ideas in a way that we feel will be effective.

Expectations:
Our small teacher group plans on followling through with lesson plans that we prepared. He have a vision of teaching this text in a straightfoward manner, but also allowing students to come up with their own interpretations backed by textual references. Manipulation is the theme that our group noticed and would like to emphasize while teaching this excerpt.