The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 4: "A Journey In The Dark"
During class, I wanted to share my thoughts on this chapter in particular, as it pertained to a major theme in the story.
In this chapter, I decided to focus on the scene where the company is patiently waiting for Gandalf to decide which of the three paths to take in Moria. In general, Tolkien focuses a lot on comradery and sticking together regardless of or despite uncertainty or disapproval. In the entirety of chapter four, there are three times where the company disagrees about their path: First, in deciding to go to Moria in the first place, a vote must be taken to reconcile different thoughts; second, when everyone must wait and depend upon Gandalf to get passed the "Doors of Durin" into Moria despite impending doom and feelings of imminent danger; third and finally, when they sit and wait for Gandalf alone to decide which "tunnel" they will follow. Despite almost exclusively lacking consensus, the company sticks together and trusts one another.
Even thought the company later breaks into factions because of necessity, each faction upholds this theme. Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli remain together as an unlikely representation of the major species in the fantasy, and Frodo and Sam stick together despite controversy over Gollum and The Ring. Tolkien cares about dedication to one another despite controversial beliefs as well as the unification of different thinking peoples.
1 comment:
This is interesting to me because we see later on that they have placed faith in each other despite being different races. You would think that they would feel more comfortable around their own kind, but we see this is not true. It is around each other that they place their trust in, and that they are even weary of others later on, because they do not want to put their trust in the wrong person.
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