in the lord of the rings, fate and justice play a huge part. everything happens for a purpose and people get what they deserve. if you are a good person, and persevere against danger and evil for the greater good, good things will happen to. if you are the evil, then bad things will happen to you. it is like tolkien created his own perfect way things happen, a more perfect version of fate.
take sauroman for example. he was once wise, but grew hungry for power and tried to take over landswith an army of evil. in the real world, dictators take over countries all the time. sometimes they are deposed. sometimes they are killed. but alot of the time dictators just keep on ruling, and people are unable to stop them, for fear of consequences.
but in Tolkiens world people can do something about these problems. the good guys, Gandalf and Aragorn and everyone else, stop sauroman's armies. he is defeated. Merry and Pippin convince treebeard and his ents to stop sauroman, who has oppresed them and destroyed their forests. the good guys win. what doesn't always happen in the real world happens in the lord of the rings.
one of the reasons people like the lord of the rings is that it gives the feeling that anyone, even a small hobbit, can do good and bring about justice. in the real world it's almost impossible even for governments and organizations to fix all the problems in the world.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Hard Things and Social Issues About The Lord of The Rings, The Two Towers
The lord of the rings may be a fantasy novel, but it still has many issues that connect to the real world, such as themes of the loss of the environment.
In the lord of the rings one of the characters in the second book, which is the one I'm reading, is Treebeard, a talking tree who is a shepherd of the forests. The evil wizard sauroman is destroying his trees. This is one of the more obvious examples of Tolkien presenting the issue of protecting the environment.
Some less obvious ways Tolkien shows the loss of nature is how during the course of the story all the elves are leaving. The elves represent nature and the forest and in the real world nature is disappearing . Tolkien believes that nature is being destroyed and he is showing us this by the fact the beautiful things in middle earth are leaving or being destroyed.
In the lord of the rings one of the characters in the second book, which is the one I'm reading, is Treebeard, a talking tree who is a shepherd of the forests. The evil wizard sauroman is destroying his trees. This is one of the more obvious examples of Tolkien presenting the issue of protecting the environment.
Some less obvious ways Tolkien shows the loss of nature is how during the course of the story all the elves are leaving. The elves represent nature and the forest and in the real world nature is disappearing . Tolkien believes that nature is being destroyed and he is showing us this by the fact the beautiful things in middle earth are leaving or being destroyed.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The Phantom Tollbooth: Life Lessons
The Phantom Tollbooth is filled with life lessons and author's intrusions, a little like charlotte's web. in fact the whole book is like one giant author's intrusion, disguised under a veil of interesting characters and a magical quest.
For instance look at the forest of sight. (heh). Anyway, if you examine the cities of illusions and reality you can see a very important life lessons. the city of reality disappeared because no one payed attentions to it and went around staring at the ground walking as fast as possible. the life lesson is that you must stop once in a while to pay attention to your surroundings. otherwise it will be like they don't exist. ( i found out that at the time Norton Juster was living in Brooklyn at the time and may have been inspired by the way people act in new york city, a little like EB White)
Another example is the Which's tail and Azaz's cabinet. the Which used to advise on how many words to use, but became miserly and used too few and ended up in the dungeon. the cabinet use too many, and are annoying and get screamed at. Juster's telling us to treat words with moderation and use just enough to get the job done.
Many children's books such as the phantom tollbooth and charlotte's web teach kids little life lessons. great author's like teaching children and want to impart some life lessons on them.
For instance look at the forest of sight. (heh). Anyway, if you examine the cities of illusions and reality you can see a very important life lessons. the city of reality disappeared because no one payed attentions to it and went around staring at the ground walking as fast as possible. the life lesson is that you must stop once in a while to pay attention to your surroundings. otherwise it will be like they don't exist. ( i found out that at the time Norton Juster was living in Brooklyn at the time and may have been inspired by the way people act in new york city, a little like EB White)
Another example is the Which's tail and Azaz's cabinet. the Which used to advise on how many words to use, but became miserly and used too few and ended up in the dungeon. the cabinet use too many, and are annoying and get screamed at. Juster's telling us to treat words with moderation and use just enough to get the job done.
Many children's books such as the phantom tollbooth and charlotte's web teach kids little life lessons. great author's like teaching children and want to impart some life lessons on them.
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