One element of satire in Part IV is how long it takes Gulliver to recognize the Yahoos as humans, which makes fun of human pretensions and self-deceptions about what they are: "I never beheld in all my travels so disagreeable an animal," he says of the Yahoos. He simply cannot see the common traits he shares with them, even though they stand on two legs and have no tails.
Second, humans are satirized when Gulliver's Houyhnhnm master suggests castrating the Yahoos, letting them die out, and replacing them with asses. If rational creatures like the Houyhnhnms prefer asses to humans, what does that say about humans?
Third, the humans in England are satirized for eating unnecessarily complicated and unhealthy gourmet food.
Fourth, Swift satirizes Gulliver for his unthinking devotion to the Houyhnhnm, limited creatures who are dull and lack human emotions, despite their rationality. We as readers are meant to laugh when Gulliver says "I took a second leave of my master, but as I was going to prostrate myself to kiss his hoof, he did me the honor to raise it gently to my mouth."
Fifth, Gulliver is satirized when he returns home to England and is still so enraptured with the Houyhnhnms that he refuses to speak to his wife and children and goes and stays with the horses, trying to talk them as if they were his beloved Houyhnhnms. "When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen or [the] human race in general, I considered them as they really were, Yahoos in shape and disposition, only a little more civilized . . . ," This satirizes people like Gulliver who are so caught up in black and white thinking they cannot see the good around them and try instead to imagine "the perfection of nature." Gulliver is satirized for not seeing the flaws in the Houyhnhnms and for failing to see the good in humans.
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