Comparing the western and eastern social satire via adventure stories：the analysis of Gulliver’s Travels and Journey to the West

Abstract

This paper aims to compare Gulliver’s Travels and Journey to the West by discussing the symbols and the plot of social satire of the two literary works. The paper first mentions the background of the two authors: Wu Cheng'en and Jonathan Swift and the historical background of the two novels. Wu and Swift both live in turbulent eras and are dissatisfied with the rulers. In addition, the paper analyzes and compares the literary techniques use in the two works. In Gulliver’s Travels and Journey to the West, the characters travel to the fictional countries which can be viewed as symbols of social satire. What’s more, the paper also shows the ideas of the authors presented in their works. The novels can be read and explained in different aspects. However, under the veil of science fiction, the authors actually hide deeper meanings in the stories. From the comparison, we can conclude that Wu and Swift use the same way to express their dissatisfaction with the societies and politics because of their similar background.

這份研究報告主要在探討格列佛遊記與西遊記中社會諷刺的情節及文學象徵，並且加以比較兩部東西方文學小說之間架構的相似性。文中一開始先提到了兩位作者－吳承恩及強納森·史威夫特的背景以及作品的時代背景。他們都是身在政治動盪的年代並對當時的執政者抱有不滿。接著，這份報告分析並比較了在兩部小說中對於社會及政治批判的文學手法。格列佛遊記和西遊記中的主角都遊歷各個虛構的國家，而這些國家都可視為是具有社會諷刺意義的象徵。再者，報告內容也提到了兩位作者在其著作中所想要表達的涵義。他們的小說都就各種層面被賞析閱讀，但在科幻文學的表面下，作者其實隱藏了更深的意義於文字之中。從這些比較中，可以結論出吳承恩及強納森·史威夫特因為時代背景及際遇的相似性而使得他們採用類似的手法和題材去將自己對社會和政治的不滿寄託在所寫的小說裡。