peer review work shop
Adam1712
Greddraft.docxWilson 1
Greg Wilson
Dr. Christopher Venner
PHIL 253-009
17 April 2019
Rough Draft
The Lord of the Rings series is a famous story of a hobbit and his friends who set out to destroy an evil weapon and defeat the forces of darkness. It is essentially your typical tale of friendship, courage, and heroism in the middle of the never-ending conflict between good and evil. While this story may take place in a world vastly different from ours, we share many similarities when it comes to our ideals and sense of morality. But the Lord of the Rings also builds off of our understanding of these ideas and morals by using them in ways that would not be possible in our daily life, which is why we don’t pursue the kind of way of life that these fictional characters live.
By analyzing the ideals and moral values illustrated in the Lord of the Rings series we can compare them to the ideals and moral values expressed in the real world using real-world scenarios. In order to explore these concepts more thoroughly, we must analyze both the Lord of the Rings books and movies to find out what morals and ideals are expressed or ignored in specific scenarios where a character must make a decision based on their own specific moral values and ideals. The heroes of the Lord of the Rings express values of standing up for others, loyalty and friendship, honor, and courage, which are important concepts for the youth of today to become accustomed to so that we can ensure that their future will be as successful as those of the fictional characters in the Lord of the Rings.
The most important thing to know about morality is that morality is easily corrupted by people’s desires, poor judgement, and misunderstandings. This is one of the most important concepts in the Lord of the Rings as The One Ring itself is the very embodiment of what corrupts morality. “The One Ring” is a weapon of unlimited power which belongs to Sauron, the stories primary villain. The ring has the ability to influence those who come in contact with it by making them cast away any sense of morality so that they can give into their deepest, most selfish desires. The best example of this would be when Boromir, an honorable knight of Gondor, attacks Frodo in an attempt to steal the ring of power from him. Boromir would have never acted in such a manor if it were not for the rings influence. He had the good intention of locking the ring in the heavily guarded vaults of Gondor or even using the ring as a weapon against evil, but the ring saw his desire to do good and warped it into a misguided desire to do whatever it takes to take the ring back to Gondor. In his book The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, Gregory Bassham explains that the nature of The One Ring is “a representation of the idea that unlimited power cannot co-exist with morality; the Ring represents the idea that absolute power is in conflict with behavior that respects the wishes and needs of others” (Bassham 18). While we do not have mystical objects of absolute power in the real world, we do have something that can have an effect on people similar to that of The One Ring, and that is money. Money may not be able to buy happiness directly, but we’ve created a society where money helps to provide us with the resources one needs to create it and because of this, people can end up casting aside their morality in the pursuit of money so that they can achieve happiness. A good example of this would be a man robbing a bank because he can not afford to pay for his daughter’s
chemotherapy. It is important for us to remember that “good intention” is no excuse for performing immoral and unjust actions.
Our sense of morality determines how we may act in certain situations and how we feel when we see or experience something. But why does the concept of morality exist and what benefit do we gain from it? In theory, we follow our own moral codes and ideals that we create for ourselves because we believe that doing so will bring us closer to achieving true happiness. It is evident that the elves and hobbits of the Lord of the Rings have achieved this ultimate happiness, if not something close to it. Unlike us with our modern technology advanced forms of entertainment, the elves and hobbits of the Lord of the Rings life much simpler lifestyles and, therefore, require much less to achieve happiness. The hobbits spend their days eating, drinking, smoking, and gardening. They have all that they could ever need out of life and are completely content with that fact. They also tend not to dwell heavily on their problems as Gandalf mentions that “hobbits will sit on the edge of ruin and discuss the pleasures of the table, or the small doings of their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and remoter cousins to the ninth degree, if you encourage them with undue patience” (TT 178). While the elves tend to take their problems a little more seriously, the homes of both elf-kind and hobbit-kind are quite similar in how humble and quaint they are. In both the Lord of the Rings books and movies we never hear any mention of crime sprees in Lothlorien or hatred amongst the hobbits of the Shire, maybe petty gossip but never hatred for others. The elves and hobbits of the Lord of the Rings follow their ideals and moral values with out hesitation in order to achieve happiness, if we can learn to do the same then there’s no reason that we shouldn’t be able to achieve happiness too.
When we think about the many differences between our world and the world illustrated in the Lord of the Rings, one thing that comes to mind are the forces of evil. In the Lord of the Rings Sauron is an evil being whose primary goal is to enslave the world and destroy all who oppose him. Thankfully, there is not anyone like that in the real world, although that does not mean that there are no forces of evil in our world. In the real-world evil would be defined more as being something or someone purposefully attempting to make your dreams and ambitions harder to achieve. This can range from being something as insignificant as stealing your coworkers favorite pen to something more serious like committing murder. But the evil that exists in the real world can not be destroyed as simply as it can be in the Lord of the Rings series, in fact our evil can not truly be destroyed, only endured or overcome. More often than not, the evil that exist in our world originates not from some other entity but from within ourselves. We face a constant struggle within ourselves every day trying to keep the evil within us at bay, but it always slips out in some way or another: in our hatred, in our greed, even in our lust. The evil within ourselves feeds on our deepest desires much like The One Ring. But just as there are many ways for the evil within ourselves to act out, there are also many ways for us to overcome that evil. Just like in the Lord of the Rings when the forces of men and elves joined together to defeat Sauron, our unity with each other is what helps us overcome the evil within ourselves. Your friends help you to forget about your troubles and to only focus on the good things in life, your family helps you to forget about all of the hate and anger in the world, and the love of your life will always be there for you in your darkest moments to bring light into your world and remind you that there is still hope.
We think that because the world illustrated in the Lord of the Rings is full of enchanted forests, magic forces, and mystical beings who harness untold power, that the real world could never compare to that of Middle Earth. But in truth, our worlds are actually more similar than we could ever imagine. All of the characters in the Lord of the Rings are just as flawed as we are and experience all of the same feelings that we do, which means that all of their morals and ideals are just as achievable for us as they are for them. Even though our lives may never be as exciting and adventurous as Frodo’s and the other members of the Fellowship of the Ring, we can strive to live like they do by taking on our problems head on and without fear, fighting for what’s right, and following our hearts while making new friends on our journey through life.
Works Cited
· Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. Print.
· Tolkien, J.R.R. The Two Towers. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. Print.
· Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. Print.
· The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Produced by Peter Jackson et al., directed by Jackson, New Line Cinema, 2001.
· The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Produced by Peter Jackson et al., directed by Jackson, New Line Cinema, 2002.
· The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Produced by Peter Jackson et al., directed by Jackson, New Line Cinema, 2003.
