Colonialism

I think Gulliver (and his size compared to the Lilliputians) is Swift’s way of laughing at British colonialism and the way they stomp all over the World, feeling huge when really they are the tiny Lilliputians. That’s why I chose the British lion, which later became synonymous with their colonial exploits. I think he mostly shows it with the gluttonous way Gulliver eats their food and drink (page 13) without considering them and how much he is consuming. The big guy abuses the little guy, the way England abused Ireland. But then Swift makes the joke be on them as he shows them as tiny and conceited and obsessed with stupid things, like cutting their food into mathematical shapes.