Travel/Exploration and Knowledge

Looking over the stories we have read, I found that in Gulliver's Travels, Candide, Frankenstein, and Celebi all the main characters travel and explore to obtain knowledge. In Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver went out to acquire riches, yet gained knowledge of a new culture; The Houyhnhnms, the horse nation, had no basis of war, literature, clothing ,etc. In reality, the desire for knowledge on the Houyhnhnms' part saved Gulliver because they wanted to know why he looked like the Yahoos, yet had different mannerisms; "My master was eager to learn from whence I came"(Swift 445). In the other two stories we see a more negative outcome for obtaining knowledge. In the story of Candide, Voltaire demonstrates the lack of power in knowledge through Pangloss, the philosopher. During Candide and Pangloss' travels they are lead to have dinner with the Inquisition where Pangloss argues over the idea of free will. His expression of his knowledge is welcomed coldly and resulted in his hanging and the flogging of his company. In the story of Frankenstein, Shelly demonstrates how the exploration of knowledge and science can destroy life and bring about utter sadness. Victor Frankenstein uses his power to create a "human" out of dead body parts; He is "unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created"(Shelly 34). Victor does not know exactly what he had gotten himself into because the monster is a compassionate being with feelings; This something that his creator did not consider. In the story of Evliya Celebi, the main character travels and observes different cultures. The traveler comes across a group of ignorant foreigners, who do not know the proper uses of some items. For example, the cooking pots. We see that the outsiders are ignorant to the way of life of the natives.