The Structure of The Lord of the Rings

[Boromir88]

ivo,

So, Hobbits live in harmony, without much knowledge of the outside world. It's a paradise like state. When Frodo embarks on his quest, he gradually learns more of the world and thereby of himself. He becomes self-conscious, as we see at the end of the Fellowship when he gets the clear insight that he has to fulfill this task alone.

I think that was the sole purpose of Tom Bombadil. If you think of Tom, many people aren't "distraught" on why he was left out of the movies, they find him just as some jolly man that hops around and sings (to some point I agree). I think Bombadil helped the Hobbits realize their's more to the World then the Shire, that people lived in the Shire before Hobbits, and people will live there after Hobbits. We see this same device also from Farmer Maggot, who spent time with Bombadil. We also can see a bit of it from Treebeard, to Merry and Pippin. Treebeard is like that historian, full of stories from the old days, where forests were plentiful, the Entwives, Celeborn's youth, Saruman....etc.

These three characters all help the Hobbits grow, and mature, into the type of characters they become by the end of the book. I love the symbolism behind the entdraught, not only did Merry and Pippin grow physically, but they grew mature wise. We can also see in the beginning chapters, Frodo (and the hobbits) can't face the evils of the world, they must seek help from other sources. Gandalf, Aragorn, Maggot, Bombadil, Rivendell, Lorien. Then as Frodo matures, his "help" from other people decreases, basically after Rivendell, the only person other then Sam that helps Frodo is Faramir. By the end of the story, Gandalf leaves the Hobbits, saying his time is over. And the hobbits are able to overcome the Evil of the Shire, and Saruman, because they have matured, and now learned about the World, it's not just about Hobbits.

I wonder if Tolkien was a satiric writer. If anything I imagine he is a horation satirist, not juvenilian like Jonathan Swift, or George Orwell. Chaucer in his Canterberry Tales, uses both Horation and Juvenilian. Satire gets confused with sarcasm, they are much different. Just for general knowledge, to make sure everyone understands my point . Satire draws an attention to a problem using wit or humor. There's horation satire, which is more gentle, "Good toned" satire, and then there's juvenilian which is more spiteful, and hateful. Sarcasm is intended as a personal attack against someone(s), you may get a laugh at it, but you were intentionally trying to hurt somebody else.

There are some cases where Boromir seems like a juvenilian satirist. When the company faces problems, its Boromir who adds in the wittiness, to adress the problems.

The Great river.
And Even if you pass the Gates of Argonath and come unmolested to the Tindrock, what will you do then? Leap down the falls and land in the marshes?"

The problem is where this journey down the Anduin is leading them. And Boromir attacks it with his wittiness. This seems to me as more Juvenilian then Horation.

Another example-

A Journey in the Dark
"We do not know what he expects," said Boromir. "He may watch all roads, likely and unlikely. In that case to enter Moria would be to walk into a trap, hardly better then knocking at the gates of the Dark Tower itself....