Free Essays on Gulliver's Travels - Government Hypocrisy ExposedCorruption in political systems is one of the main themes of Gulliver's Travels. This corruption is the result of selfishness as well as the inability to see things from another perspective than one's own. Gulliver's first voyage takes him to the island of Lilliput. There he must play the role of a petty and ineffective government. Swift uses several methods to highlight Lilliputian stupidity. First, they are physically agile and graceful compared to Gulliver, who is portrayed as bulky and brutal. When I found myself standing, I looked around and I must confess that I have never seen a more entertaining prospect. The surrounding countryside appeared like a continuous garden, and the enclosed fields, which generally measured forty feet square, resembled so many flower beds. These fields were interspersed with woods half a Stang high, and the tallest trees, from what I could judge, seemed to be seven feet high. I saw the city on my left hand, which looked like a painted scene of a city in a theater. This passage is quickly followed by another expressing Gulliver's need to “unburden himself”: I had been for some hours extremely pressed by the necessities of Nature; which was not surprising, since it had been almost two days since I had discharged myself. I was in great difficulty between urgency and shame. The best expedient I could think of was to slip into my house, which I accordingly did; and closing the door after me, I went as far as the length of my chain could bear, and relieved my body of this anxious load. By establishing this contrast (it is interesting to point out that this is the only time Swift makes any reference to Gulliver's "needs"), the reader begins to expect that the Lilliputs have some form of superior society. When, later in the book (i.e. the first book out of four) the Lilliputians show their true selfish nature, the reader is more surprised due to the great build up The very fact that this book is put in a. adventure format is to lull the reader into believing Gulliver...of course, because Gulliver is gullible, this leads the reader straight to madness at the end Swift challenges the reader to make their own decision. taking him from good to bad and asking him, at one point, to start disagreeing with Gulliver..