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Long before the state of Israel was established in 1948, the pioneers beginning to settle in Israel at the turn of the century envisioned and eventually put into action their idea of a perfect society. Living by their motto Work and Believe, these immigrants established settlements, known as a kibbutz, where everyone, men and women, young and old, were given specific responsibilities to help the community function as a whole. All individuals living on the kibbutz were seen as equal and each do their job, and in a sense live their lives, to benefit their society. This ideal society, where social roles are innate and living for the community are the very essence of their survival, is depicted, in Swifts imaginative construct of the Houyhnhnms society in Gulliver's Travels and throughout Blakes Songs of Innocence and Experience, particularly in The Chimney-sweeper (Innocence) and London (Experience). The Houyhnhnms society, as seen through the eyes of Gulliver, was pragmatically simple.
Their principle virtues were based on friendship and benevolence. They are concerned more with the community than with their own personal advantages, even choosing their mates to promote the race as a whole. The Houyhnhnms believed in breeding industriousness, cleanliness, and civility in their young and exercise them for speed and strength. Gulliver reaches a stage in his stay with the Houyhnhnms were he no longer cares about mankind as an individual. He becomes consumed with the simplicity of the Houyhnhnms belief system and admires their style of living, to the point where he doesnt want to return to his own homeland. Gulliver is forced to eventually leave the Houyhnhnms, however finds it very difficult to leave their society.
Leaving aside their class system, amongst themselves and between the Yahoos, the satire portrayed in the Houyhnhnms culture resembles those ideas, which became the foundation for life on the kibbutz. Each individual, both on the kibbutz and among the Houyhnhnms, recognizes their place in the bigger picture. The Houyhnhnms would gather every four years to discuss what could be done to better their community. Similarly, when settlers on the kibbutz would meet their goals were more focused on improving their community life rather than their own individual lives. The love and sense of community imposed on the individual from birth, on the kibbutz and among the Houyhnhnms, creates social roles that become that persons place in society from the time they are born and throughout their lives. To an outsider, it may seem overly simple and primitive, as it did when Gulliver first arrives.
Over time however, especially for those living in that particular society, it becomes a way a life and may even appeal to others, even Gulliver, as the ideal way of society. Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience juxtapose the innocent, pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression. The first part, the world of childhood, seems very similar to the society of the Houyhnhnms and that of the settlers on the kibbutz. Blake in The Chimney Sweeper depicts this world. The poem, written from a narrative point of view, expresses faith and trusts in G-d and emphasizes the innocence of childhood. The chimney-sweeper is a young child who works by day and dreams by night.
He sees his work as a means to an end, where angels will come and rescue him from the hard labor he has been involved in during the day. The chimney-sweeper is given his role in society at a very young age and understands that this is his purpose, to better the community. He does not complain and lives his youth by the motto work and believe. The innocence and simplicity of the chimney-sweeper expressed by Blake is symbolic to those aforementioned cultures whose strong sense of commitment and faith built their societies. The latter world, however, the adult world of corruption and repression, sharply contrasts those other societies. In his poem London, Blake writes from a more individual, personal point of view.
In London, the chimney-sweeper is now crying along with other individuals forced into roles by society. The sense of purity is lost and the complications of a fast moving society now seems to consume the individuals life. The transition from that world of innocence to the world of experience obliterates the chimney-sweeper moral and faith. He is left feeling alone and in despair. All the speaker's victims - chimney-sweeper, soldier, and harlot - are now known only through the traces they leave behind: the ubiquitous cries, the blood on the palace walls all signs of human suffering. This suffering is imposed on the individual, partly as a result of their role in society but even more so by institutions of power -- the clergy, the government all part of an adult world ruled by corruption and repression.
Unlike the simple, pragmatic ways of the Houyhnhnms and the inhabitants of the kibbutz, the belief system of London seems far more complex, and far more corrupt causing anguish and grief to the victims of that system. Both Swift and Blake wrote during revolutionary periods in European history. Whether it was the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution or even the Enlightment, the attitudes and opinions of many of the writers of those times, including Swift and Blake are expressed in their works. Swift uses Gulliver Travels, specifically the society of the Houyhnhnms, as a satire that mocks the English government and culture of his time. Gulliver admires the Houyhnhnms and ultimately believes that their way of life is ideal. He expresses to his master how corrupt and selfish the individuals are where he comes from.
In England it was a race a race about who can do more and who can do better for themselves. That race is seen throughout Blakes poetry. The society of the Houyhnhnms can be heard through the Songs of Innocence, where life is simple and ones role is innately understood to benefit the community. In the Songs of Experience, however, Blake views London very similar to the satire of England by Swift complex and corrupt. The pioneers who chose to settle in Israel before the state was established were forced to decide what system of beliefs and morals their society would be based upon and until today that is how they live separate from the illusions of an advanced society. Perhaps the Houyhnhnms were too simple and maybe the chimney sweeper in his innocence a bit too nave.
Perhaps the notion of social roles and community led to a lacking and depreciation in a sense of self among the individual of both societies. Whatever may be their flaws, the results were much more grave London and England a city and country that became to consumed with themselves and left their innocent youth to be raised in a world of repression and corruption. The pioneers however, seemed to maintain that appreciation of self. Individuals, young and old, view themselves as the link in a chain that sustains their community and realizes they must adopt a certain role to keep that chain complete.
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