Final answer:
Swift uses satire in his depiction of the Lilliputians in 'Gulliver's Travels' to mock their self-importance and societal practices, emphasizing the triviality of human vanities and the ridiculousness of political conflicts.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Swift's tone and attitude toward the Lilliputians is satirical and mocks their society. The Lilliputians are portrayed as absurdly pompous and arbitrarily judicial, revealing the pettiness of their actions and institutions. Swift exaggerates the size difference between Gulliver and the diminutive Lilliputians to emphasize the trivial nature of their grandiose self-perception.
By doing so, he critiques the folly of human vanities and the ridiculousness of human conflicts and political institutions, echoing similar mockeries in the works of Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Philip Sidney. Through this mockery, Swift indirectly comments on the nature of English society and the author's own view of humanity's predilection for overblown ego and self-importance.