Gulliver's Travels was written during an era of change in Europe. Swift writes this book in away that suggests many of the political themes from that time period, including Europe's unjust power system, religion, and science. These themes are displayed throughout Gulliver's Travels, and some even reflect upon today's society.
             Gulliver's Travels implicitly poses the question of whether moral righteousness or physical power should be the most important factor in social life. Swift decides to create a parody of this dilemma by having Gulliver experience the advantages of physical strength two ways. First, Swift has Gulliver be the one in possession of the power, as a giant in Lilliput where he can easily defeat the Blefuscudian navy by virtue of his enormous size. The Lilliputians are the embodiment of England of the time period. They are small people who control Gulliver through means of threats. "...When in an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged into my left hand, which pricked my like so many needles; and besides they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe." Second, Gulliver experiences what it is like to be the one who does not have it, as a miniature visitor to Brobdingnag where he is harassed by the immensity of everything from insects to household pets. His first encounter with another society, he is entrapped, when he is tied down by the Lilliputians. In the second book, in Brobdingnag, a farmer enslaves him.
             There are also many claims to power based on moral correctness. The whole point of the egg controversy that has set Lilliput against Blefuscu is actually a moral issue related to the correct interpretation of a passage in their holy book. This difference of opinion, to them, seems to justify the warfare it has sparked. Also, the use of physical force against the Yahoos is necessary for the Houyhnhnms by their sense of moral superiority: they are cleaner, better behaved, an...