Saturday, the seventeenth of April

Saturday, the seventeenth of April is the date the Alien narrator identifies as Gulliver’s father’s death. Its disclosure anchors the story of the father’s killing and explains why the narrator came to Gulliver’s family in his place.

The Date and the Confession

The Alien narrator tells Gulliver that his father died on Saturday, the seventeenth of April. He explains that the people they work for took the father, extracted information from him, and killed him. The date makes the death a specific point in the account rather than an unspecified loss.

Place in the Narrative

The date appears as the Alien narrator finally tells Gulliver the truth about his identity and assignment. He reveals that he was sent to impersonate Gulliver’s father and kill Gulliver, his mother, and anyone who knew what the father had achieved that day. The confession then turns on the narrator’s refusal: he says that growing to care for Gulliver and his mother made him unable to carry out the order, and that he has given up his power. Thus, the date marks both the father’s death and the beginning of the explanation for the narrator’s presence in the family.