Study Questions
1. What is the question debated at the grand assembly of the Houyhnhms?

2. What is the proposal made by the dapple-gray at the assembly?

3. What is the Houyhnhms’ attitude to death?

4. What does the assembly of the Houyhnhms decide about Gulliver?

5. What is the reason for this decision?

6. What is Gulliver’s initial reaction?

7. Why does Gulliver leave the country of the Houyhnhms?

8. What are the circumstances of his departure?

9. What does he do immediately before his departure?

10. Where does he go at first?

Answers
1. At the grand assembly of the Houyhnhms, the question debated is whether to exterminate the Yahoos.

2. The dapple-gray proposes gradual elimination of the Yahoos through castration.

3. The Houyhnhms are neither glad nor sorry when one of them dies. They do not allow a death to distract them from other business for more than a few hours.

4. The assembly of the Houyhnhms decides to either treat Gulliver like other Yahoos or expel him from their land. They are afraid that he might, if treated like other Yahoos, organize them to steal the Houyhnhms’ cattle, so they decide on expulsion.

5. The Houyhnhms think that is contrary to reason to treat a Yahoo almost like a Houyhnhm.

6. Gulliver’s initial reaction is to faint.

7. Gulliver leaves the country of the Houyhnhms because he has been expelled, the first time this happens in the book.

8. Gulliver is given two months to make a boat, with the help of the dapple-gray’s servants.

9. Immediately before his departure, Gulliver kisses the dapple-gray’s hoof.

10. Gulliver’s first destination is an island he had seen with his pocket-telescope.