Sam the Ghastly Arriviste

[Anguirel]

People of the Barrow-Downs. It is time to make a stand.

Of late I have heard much nauseating drivel about how Sam is so courageous and loyal and cute and so on. I would like to raise a little discussed point.

Okay, sure, during the Quest Sam might have been quite a good valet. But look at the little devil once he gets back.

The burlesque figure of comedy, the decent Comrade Sam, becomes a blimming pillar of the upwardly mobile bourgeoisie of the Shire, outclassing the Sackville-Bagginses by miles.

Seriously. Look at Frodo's chivalrous, melancholy, Quixotic, spiritually enhanced nobility. He understands what's going on and what's been lost. He realises that the honours of the Shire and petty and ludicrous and yearns for higher things.

Sam takes advantage of these feelings! The fella nabs the Mayorship, blast it all, he even gets Bag End! A Gamgee in Bag End! Thank goodness poor Lobelia didn't live to see it.

But it gets worse still. Look at his family tree. Does he bring up his thirteen children to be proud of their lowly origins and decent, peasant virtue? No! He makes himself and them ridiculous by aping the aristocracy. He marries them into the noble, but, I imagine, quite poor, what with Merry and Pippin's poker debts, clans of Took and Brandybuck. (Politically exploiting Elanor's sex appeal, by the way.) The upper classes gain money from prostrating themselves before Samwise the Nouveau-Riche!

They even renounce their surnames and become Gardners! Such typical arriviste insecurity.

And yet despite all this pursuit of material success-and, what's worse, attainment of that success-Sam gets a bleeding ticket to Valinor.

Seriously, is no one else depressed by the spectacle of Halfwit Gamgee, Banana President of the Republic of the Shire, who cannot begin to comprehend the sacrifices and transformations Frodo has gone through, who never thought of sympathising with Gollum-ever-winning the jackpot? Nineteen times Mayor, father of a massive tribe with dynastic pretensions, usurper of Baggins property, and he gets to sail to Heaven on Earth, thereby invalidating the price Frodo had to pay for his passage-the scourging of his ghastly Hobbit-Middle-Englishness...

It's like the ending of Animal Farm or The Sword of Honour. Grim.

[Mithalwen]

Anguirel, you snob! First against teh wall when the revolution comes

As you can see in this post in "Master Samwise can read" , I don't exactly agree.


Sam invigorates the degenerate aristocratic lines with good yeoman blood. He is a bright boy who gets himself an education in the face of parental opposition.

Social mobility is good - I have to say that, without it I woud not be here.....

[Anguirel]

Mith-it's a reaction to the Sam lovers. This has been stewing for a very long time. The thing about Sam is that in the last book his deeds are heroic in an obvious, blokey, easily identifiable way which tends to eclipse poor Frodo, who people quite unreasonably claim "failed".

I did prefer the earlier, Gil-Galad singing Sam. Sam has a strange aura of being morally lessened, not developed like the others, by the journey, for all the Mallornery. He ends up with power and with bliss-earthly and heavenly. It seems rather unfair.

obloquy, I quite disagree. The existence of the Mirth forum should not condemn the Books forum to solely Puritanical and platitudinal discussions of how wonderful the characters are. A controversy is nice occasionally. Consider the cat bepigeoned.

[symestreem]

Originally Posted by Anguirel

People of the Barrow-Downs. It is time to make a stand.
Seriously, is no one else depressed by the spectacle of Halfwit Gamgee, Banana President of the Republic of the Shire, who cannot begin to comprehend the sacrifices and transformations Frodo has gone through, who never thought of sympathising with Gollum-ever-winning the jackpot?

Did Aragorn sympathize with Gollum? Did Gandalf? Did Elrond? Of course not; none of them had carried the Ring, and none could understand how its sheer weight could drive a person mad. Sam carried it for only a short time, and it didn't really affect him.

And he's not a halfwit by any means. As Mithalwen stated in her linked post, he reasoned through Frodo's actions at Parth Galen where Aragorn could not, and was able to save Frodo at Cirith Ungol. He may not have as much book-learning as Frodo, but he has a good heart and is loyal and courageous-- and aren't the latter traits held in higher esteem by the hobbits than the former?

[Kuruharan]

Look at Frodo's chivalrous, melancholy, Quixotic, spiritually enhanced nobility

Since when is Quixotery considered to be a virtue?

[Boromir88]

Even Tolkien felt like Sam was the "chief" hero of the story. Tolkien seems to me actually to be a bigger Sam fan then his precious elves fandom:

I think the simple 'rustic' love of Sam and his Rosie (nowhere elaborated) is absolutely essential to the study of his (the chief hero's) character...~Letter 131

Certainly Sam is the most closely drawn character (in The Lord of the Rings), the successor to Bilbo of the first book, the genuine hobbit. Frodo is not so interesting, because he has to be highminded, and has (as it were) a vocation.~A letter to Christopher dated Christmas Eve 1944.

You got to make yourself a mighty stance as Tolkien will be sitting up from his grave right now crossing his arms there Anguirel.

Ok, so more seriously now, I do agree with you I do think Frodo typically gets shafted by a lot of people because he didn't drop in the Ring. And even Tolkien says several times this would be impossible.

So don't be so hard on poor Sam.

[The 1,000 Reader]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

You got to make yourself a mighty stance as Tolkien will be sitting up from his grave right now crossing his arms there Anguirel.

Anguirel best be crossing himself. If he maddened the Prof. enough to come back from the dead, Tolkien's probably hoping to make Anguirel his first zombified meal.

[Texadan]

I don't know. Anguirel may have a point. After all, why did Sam attend a secret meeting of VIPs in Rivendell to which he wasn't invited? Elrond assumes he knows the reason but it could just as easily have been that Sam wanted to see how important meetings were conducted in preparation for his political ambitions once he was back in the Shire. And think of the name-dropping he could do, "You're out of order Tom Proudfoot. Elrond taught me how to hold a meeting and we won't be having any of your guff."

[mormegil]

First obloquy is correct as your post seems more Mirth in nature as your arguements are a bit specious. However Sam is a hero of Middle-earth is he not? It is well documented that Frodo did indeed fail. Sam however, accomplished his task which was to help Frodo. He accomplished that and it cannot be denied that he did more than his part in the fullfillment of his task.

What you fail to understand is that he was a simple fellow, and therein lies his charm. When he wore the ring on the border of Mordor, which would be extremely trying, he passed that test wonderfully and realized that he only wanted a small garden for himself.

As for youf fallicious claim

Seriously, is no one else depressed by the spectacle of Halfwit Gamgee, Banana President of the Republic of the Shire, who cannot begin to comprehend the sacrifices and transformations Frodo has gone through, who never thought of sympathising with Gollum-ever-winning the jackpot?

the records states a bit differently

Sam's hand wavered. His mind was hot with wrath and the memory of evil. It would be just to slay this treacherous, murderous creature, just and many times deserved; and also it seemed the only safe thing to do. But deep in his heart there was something that restrained him: he could not strike this thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous, utterly wretched. He himself, though only for a little while, had borne the Ring, and now dimly guessed the agony of Gollum's shrivelled mind and body, enslaved to that Ring, unable to find peace or relief ever in life again. But Sam had no words to express what he felt.

--Mount Doom

So you see, in his own way he recognized what both Frodo and Gollum have felt, but nobody who isn't a ring bearer can truly understand now can they?

Also, while I recognize this whole arguement is to incite people as it is drivle itself, I have to say that Sam was elected and used no such treachery to gain the mayorship as you suggest. Also I quote from the book

When all was at last ready Frodo said: 'When are you going to move in and join me Sam?'

....

'I see,' said Frodo: 'you want to get married, and yet you want to live with me in Bag End too? But my dear Sam, how easy! Get married as soon as you can, and then move in with Rosie. There's room enough in Bag End for as big a family as you could wish for.'

--The Grey Havens

Some people just don't understand simple folk who are truly great as they know what life is really all about...family. Sam is one of these simple people.