A Broken World

Finally, a post of my own ^^;;

The WWI had influenced so many things: politically, economically, socially, etc. It had also influenced literature greatly. Among the writers that were influenced by the war, I would like to introduce J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is so famous that almost everybody knows this book. He is known as the father of Fantasy because of his wonderful new world he had created. When you first think of Fantasy, you would think of books that are made only for entertainment like exciting scenes of wars, love stories, etc. On the contrary, if you have read this book, it is totally different from those light written stories. It contains a whole history in it, and I would rather call it a great novel like Shakespeare’s or George Orwell’s novels. This amazing story, however, contains the bitterness of war.

Tolkien started his series with “The Hobbit.” He abhorred the kind of love stories of D. H. Lawrence. Instead, he wanted to write a book that he could read it to children. Because of this background, the ring in “The Hobbit” is not described as that dangerous. However, things have changed when he started write “The Lord of the Rings” in an adult version. The World War 1 broke out, and he had to go and fight also. He went with his three friends (Rob Gilson, Geoffrey Smith and Christopher Wiseman) in T.C.B.S. (stands for Tea Club and Barrovian Society). They had promised one another that anyone who survives should continue their writing for the others’ sake. They fought in the Battle of Somme, and two of them died in the battle. For Tolkien, this was a great shock. When he came back to Britain, he continued writing “The Lord of the Rings.” The terrible war changed the atmosphere of his writings, and the atmosphere worsens as the tale goes on.

As Sauron conquers the Middle Earth little by little like the totalitarianism of Germany or Stalin, he wants to control the whole Middle Earth with his “one ring.” However, Frodo destroys the ring by throwing it in the hot lava. It is like the World War ending when the devastating atomic bomb drops in Hiroshima. His story flows like the history of the war at that time. It is a story of elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs, and men, but it is also a sad story of men who do not repeat it again.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 16th, 2007 at 12:16 am and is filed under World War I. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.