Bodily functions in Lilliput Essay Example

Bodily functions in Lilliput Essay Example Bodily functions in Lilliput Essay Bodily functions in Lilliput Essay Essay Topic: Catching Fire Bodily functions in Lilliput BY GabrtelaGM Bodily Functions in Lilliput Swifts satirical work, Gullivers Travels, tells the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon that by way of sea travels finds himself in four different, amazing lands. First: a land of six-inch tall human-like beings. Secondly: a land of giants. Thirdly: a floating island. Fourthly: a land ruled by thinking and talking horses. For the purpose of this essay, I will only take into consideration the first of these four voyages. Gulliver finds himself stranded in a beach, tied by hundreds of tiny wires. Surrounding him are tiny creatures holding this wires. One can only imagine the fear the Lilliputians must have felt at the sight of such a giant. However, slowly but surely, they start to take a liking to this enormous man. They sharewith him their culture, their food, and provide him with a house. There are two main instances, during this first Journey, in which we are faced head- on with bodily functions. The first of these is when Gulliver describes how, after rriving to his new house in Lilliput for the first time; he had a major bowel movement: l had been for some hours extremely pressed by the necessities of nature; which was no wonder, it being almost two days since I had last disburdened myself. I was under great difficulties between urgency and shame. The best expedient I could think of, was to creep into my house, which I accordingly did; and shutting the gate after me, I went as far as the length of my chain would suffer, and discharged my body of that uneasy load. He goes on to say that, after this first so uncleanly an action, he would go outside any time he had this basic human need. Of course the excrement, which was of an equally impressive size a Gulliver compared to the Lilliputians, could not be left outside his house to pollute the air around it. Servants would come every day with wheel-barrows to remove this waste. The second time we are faced with a bodily function is the very point in which Gullivers favor with the people of Lilliput really started to go downhill. He had been among these people for while, when one night he was informed that the Queens quarters were on fire. He runs to help and realizes the entire castle is in danger of catching fire. Seeing no manner of assisting, he suddenly remembers that he had a lot of wine to drink that evening and that he hadnt yet discharged any of it. The heat I had contracted by coming very near the flames, and by laboring to quench them, made the wine begin to operate by urine; which I voided in such a quantity, and applied so ell to the proper places, that in three minutes the fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that noble pile, which had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved from destruction. In this manner he does save the castle from becoming a pile of ashes, but by doing so he also gets the undying hate of the Queen, who is understandably appalled that a man urinated all over her rooms. We can see, from these two examples of the role Swift gives to bodily functions in reader uncomfortable or even disgusted, all for the purpose of assisting the satire.

Adverbs and Hyphens

Adverbs and Hyphens Adverbs and Hyphens Adverbs and Hyphens By Maeve Maddox A reader pleads, Please, please, please discuss the use of hyphenation (and lack thereof) of adverbs with adjectives. I keep seeing the likes of â€Å"newly-minted doctor† or â€Å"visually-impaired cat† regularly these days and it makes me crazy! Is it something thats becoming more acceptable? Or is it the general lack of editors and grammatical knowledge? Punctuation rules are hard to grasp. However, the rule about hyphens and -ly adverbs is easy enough to master: When a compound modifier–two or more words that express a single concept–precedes a noun, use hyphens to link all the words in the compound except the adverb very and all adverbs that end in -ly. AP Stylebook, 2013 edition. Boldface added. And, Compounds formed by an adverb ending in ly plus an adjective or participle (such as largely irrelevant or smartly dressed) are not hyphenated either before or after a noun, since ambiguity is virtually impossible. (The ly ending with adverbs signals to the reader that the next word will be another modifier, not a noun.) Chicago Manual of Style, 7.82. Not all adverbs end in -ly. The adverb very has already received special mention in the rule from the AP Stylebook: Very is never followed by a hyphen. But what about the adverb well? According to AP, we must hyphenate well when it is part of a compound modifier: well-dressed, well-informed, well-known. AP also advises that a compound that’s hyphenated before a noun is also hyphenated following a form of the verb to be: The man is well-known. The woman is quick-witted. The children are soft-spoken. The play is second-rate. The University of Iowa writing site concurs: Compound adjectives beginning with â€Å"well† are hyphenated no matter where they are in the sentence. When a modifier that would be hyphenated before a noun comes after a form of the verb to be, you usually keep the hyphen to avoid confusion. The editors of the Chicago Manual of Style seem to disagree: When such compounds follow the noun they modify, hyphenation is usually unnecessary, even for adjectival compounds that are hyphenated in Webster’s (such as well-read or ill-humored). For good measure, I looked in at the American section of OxfordDictionaries.com where I found this directive: With compound adjectives formed from the adverb well and a participle (e.g., well-known), or from a phrase (e.g., up-to-date), you should use a hyphen (or hyphens) when the compound comes before the noun: well-known brands of coffee; an up-to-date account, but not when the compound comes after the noun:    His music was also well known in England. Their figures are up to date. Straightforward instructions, these, but when I looked up â€Å"well known† in the U.S. part of OxfordDictionaries, I found this among the examples of usage: The result is well-known, and we need only linger to consider the crucial lesson from this. When the experts contradict themselves and each other, what’s an ordinary mortal to do? Hyphenation is not an exact science. The one rule you can memorize with confidence is that a hyphen is not needed when an -ly adverb begins a phrasal modifier*. For everything else, choose a style guide or dictionary to follow. *Warning: Not every word that ends in -ly is an adverb. Watch out for nouns like family and supply, and adjectives like only. For example, â€Å"family-oriented websites†; supply-side economics†; â€Å"only-begotten son.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Signs and Symbols You Should KnowSelect vs. Selected45 Idioms About the Number One