The R-pe of the Lock is written as a satire. Satire is a type of writing that mocks society, social institutions, the government, corporations, social conventions, etc. Its purpose is to criticize their shortcomings, often in order to produce social change. In this case, Pope wanted to make fun of epics, and the way they narrate events as magnificent through exaggerated language and descriptions. In order to do so, he tells an insignificant event (the theft of a lock of hair) in the style of heroic epics.
