Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift features a narrator, Lemuel Gulliver, who recounts his various sea voyages to fantastic lands. During each journey, Gulliver encounters different societies and customs that Gulliver must adapt to. to be accepted into their society. The entire novel serves as a commentary on how people everywhere have a tendency to abuse the power given to them. Gulliver's first voyage is to Lilliput. The ship on which Gulliver is traveling capsizes and Gulliver finds himself on a strange, unknown island. He falls asleep, and upon awakening, Gulliver finds himself surrounded and bound by numerous little people who become known as the Lilliputians. Gulliver describes the strange people who bound him as “a human creature not six inches high” (Swift 17). Despite their small stature, the Lilliputians still abuse their power over Gulliver by binding him. The Lilliputians bind Gulliver thus: I lay all this time, as the reader may believe, in great discomfort: at last, struggling to free myself, I was fortunate enough to break the ropes, and tear off the pegs which fastened my left. Arm on the ground; for, raising it to my face, I discovered the methods they had adopted to bind me; and at the same time with a violent tug, which gave me excessive pain, I loosened a little the cords which tied my hair on the left side, so that I could turn my head about two inches. (18)This passage is significant in that, although Gulliver is tremendously larger than the Lilliputians, he simply lies where they have bound him despite the fact that he could easily free himself from his 'bonds'. Lori Sue Goldstein states that “In Gulliver's Travels, Swift allows us to see that we... middle of paper... that people abuse the power given to them. The different journeys serve to showcase different lands with different types of cultures and people. In this way, Gulliver's Travels demonstrates that regardless of different cultures and societies, people all over the world will abuse the power given to them. Works Cited Ann, Cline Kelly. "GULLIVER AS ANIMAL AND ANIMAL KEEPER: TALKING ANIMALS IN BOOK 4." ELH 74.2 (2007): 32349.ProQuest. Network. November 29, 2013. Goldstein, Lori Sue. "Swift's Gulliver: A Question of Freedom from Slavery". Order no. 1344697 Florida Atlantic University, 1991. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Network. November 29, 2013.wPDF?accountid=14270>Jacobe, Monica F. "Society Cannot Be Flat: Hierarchy and Power in Gulliver's Travels." Nebula