The characterization is also similar to other stories. The natives to the island of Lilliput are very small. Gulliver first encounters the small people after a shipwreck. He is lying on the beach and tied down by several cords when he describes, "I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin; when, bending my eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high" (56; ch.1; book 1). This idea of characters smaller than normal carries over into many other fictional stories, two of which are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The little people in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are the Oompa-Loompas and then the Munchkins from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Contrary to the Lilliputians; Brobdingnag inhabits giants which are also a common theme amongst fictional stories. The idea of oversized people or things appears in Jack and the Beanstalk referring to the immensely large beanstalk as well as the giants living above it, and in James and the Giant Peach, obviously shown through the giant peach. Lastly, Gulliver's Travels shares the fictional concept of talking animals. This pops up in stories across the board, but the most famous ones being Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, commonly shortened to just Alice in Wonderland, by Charles Lutwidge, and Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. Many fiction novels are paralleled to one another in various aspects of the book such as setting, characterization, and concept. .
Setting is one of the foundational elements in a fictional story and is defined as the location and time, which create the mood and atmosphere of the story. Aside from Gulliver's home in England, the majority of the novel is set on islands he expedites to outside of England, the three main ones Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and the country of the Houyhnhnms.
