Gulliver’s Travels offers a scathing attack on power structures. It is a rebuke of the injustices propagated by the wealthy on the poor. Early in the text, Gulliver clearly positions himself in opposition to those he later attacks in the book’s final part. Gulliver does not suggest that his youth was impoverished; however, he clearly does not come from an elite lineage. He says that his father “had a small estate in Nottinghamshire” and that the cost of raising him was “too great for a narrow fortune” (7). Gulliver’s modest upbringing allows him to exist outside of the elite circles which he rebukes later in the book.

Gulliver is initially quick to show favor to those of the nobility, as he sees this social deference as part of his duty as a lower-ranking member of society. He even shows respect to the emperor of Lilliput, who is so driven by his lust for power that even Gulliver is ultimately repelled by him, calling his ambition unmeasurable. The emperor of Lilliput is an example of lust for power run to the extreme, while those in his inner circle, such as the treasurer Flimnap, are even more vicious than the emperor himself. They conspire against Gulliver primarily because they see him as an outsider and feel especially threatened by his single-handed victory over the Blefuscan navy.