LOTR = WWII: A Reader’s Response to The Lord of the Rings

While having our weekly group discussion last week, my group and I heard about the myth that the Lord of the Rings series was written as a response to World War II. While my immediate reaction was that there is no support to this claim, I eventually ended up changing my mind as we went through the discussion (hear me out here). First, I think that the Hobbits, the main race in this series, represent the people of the United Kingdom. Not only are the main characters of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin hobbits, but these 4 characters are also in the center of conflict that allows for them to become heroes. Tolkien describes the Shire (the place where the hobbits reside) as “a place with a lot of greenery and few buildings”, a description that fits rural England perfectly in my opinion. Finally, J.R.R Tolkien is from the UK, so it is only natural that he would blow up his people by making them so heroic and interesting as he has with the hobbits.

Regarding the dwarves, I think that they represent the French during WWII. The dwarves have a long and rich history and are masters of architecture, just like the French. Where the comparison is actually valid though, is that the enemy took the dwarves’ city, Moria, just as the Nazi’s had marched into France at one point as well and had taken over the country. The humans in the story, specifically those in Gondor, remind me of the Russians, in that they are ready to help fight the enemy; however, they are a proud bunch, especially King Denethor, and are vary of help from the elves and the dwarves, just as the Russians were vary of the Americans.

Throughout the series though, Tolkien did not forget about the US. In my opinion, the Ents are the only race in which the fictional group is the almost exact match when it comes to comparing races of individuals. The Ents stayed dormant in their forest and did not participate in any conflict despite the start of violence and war from a long time. However, the Ents eventually had to act when the evil Orcs started chopping down their kin. This compares directly to the US because the US was out of the war for a majority of the time; however, when the Japanese (the Haruk-Kai orcs in the series) bombed Pearl Harbor, the US had to act. The US, led by its leader FDR (Treebeard was the leader for the Ents in the series), bombed Hiroshima, an event similar to the Ents storming and absolutely decimating Isengard.

Finally, all the villains in the book most directly compare with villains of World War II. In my opinion, Saruman most closely resembles Mussolini in that he was active for the bad side but not as much. The orcs represent the Nazis, and the Dark Lord Sauron represents Adolf Hitler based off of his brutality and nature to recruit people to help serve him and his dark cause. In conclusion, while the fact that the Lord of the Rings series is analogous to World War II is just a guess for many, I still think that it can be proven and that there is plenty of evidence to make the comparison as provided above. What do you all think: Is the theory that WWII is analogous to the series true? Was my comparison between the 2 overblown/Did I force the 2 to fit? Let me know!

 

 

 

A Reader’s Response to The Fellowship of the Ring

Let me start off by saying that the Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in the famed Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien, is by no means a good book. In fact, it is a very good book (at least in my opinion). If you like action, adventure, companionship, a bit of humor here and there, magic, and more adventure, then this book is definitely for you.

The story revolves about a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins, the cousin and adopted heir of the illustrious Bilbo Baggins. The reader sees a flashback of Bilbo’s adventures during The Hobbit throughout the first chapter, and we learn of how Bilbo came in possession of “the ring”, the cause of all troubles as the story goes on. Basically, what happens is that this ring is highly sought out by the dark lord Sauron, and after Bilbo decides to “go into retirement”, the ring falls into the hands of Frodo. In order to avoid the ring ending up in the wrong hands, Frodo ends up going on the adventure of a lifetime with a team of other individuals to reach Mordor, the evil land where Sauron resides and where Mount Doom is located, the only physical structure that can destroy the ring once and for all. The novel has a somewhat surprising ending, but in very broad terms, the group is still en route to Mount Doom (This is not a spoiler considering there are 3 books!).

Throughout the novel, we are introduced to a variety of unique characters that the story would be incomplete without. In addition to Frodo and Bilbo, there is the mysterious Gandalf, an old wizard with a storied past that you find out more about as you read. Also, there is Pippin, Merry, and Sam, all hobbits who are friends of Frodo (Sam is also Frodo’s gardener/servant) that accompany Frodo on his journey. As the story goes on, we meet more characters that are arguably up there with Frodo in terms of importance; however, in order to avoid the spoiler, I will let you all figure them out for yourselves if interested!

With that being said, I really enjoyed the book overall. What really stands out about this book is the skill with which J.R.R. Tolkien uses imagery. Except in the beginning scenes in The Shire, the name of the town where the hobbits live, there is A LOT of dark imagery. Examples include the names of places that evoke an evil sort of darkness, such as Mordor and Mount Doom, to places where there was actually darkness all along, such as the depths of the multiple forests that the group wanders through. Of course, in order to make this review unbiased, I think I have a burden to say the bad parts as well. For one, if you expect this to be an easy read that can be done in one day, think again. Not only is the book over 400 pages, but also, the font is kind of small. What this means is that while the content is great, a reader will need a lot of patience to get through it.

Also, for those that think that The Fellowship of the Ring and the series in general is similar to the Harry Potter books, that is not completely true. Yes, there are a lot of similarities, such as the fact that Gandalf reminds me exactly of Dumbledore, there are plenty of magical elements, and similar to Harry, Frodo is a character with a goal of defeating a dark villain that is not named in public. Yet, I would definitely say that the Lord of the Rings is much more complicated, in that spells are not one word Expelliarmuses but more like two line masterpieces. Also, one really annoying part about the book is the unbelievable number of songs that come up. Tolkien makes the characters seem as if they are iTunes top 10 artists that can come up with rhymes on the spot with the most melodious tone in the whole land, and it’s even more annoying when he does it every few pages with a character you would least expect to sing. Despite these few flaws, I really felt that The Fellowship of the Ring was a fantastic read and appreciated as well as respected Tolkien’s limitless imagination and creativity. Keeping this in mind, do you think that it is fair to compare this book to others? Is it OK if a book might have gone overboard in creativity, or is that just a representation of the audience an author wants to target? Regardless, I look forward to reading books 2 and 3 next in the series.