Just give it a though, is this our situation in Iraq? and other capmaigns?
"I can't do this Sam"
"I know, its all wrong by rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. Its like in the great stories Mr.Frodo the ones that really mattered, full of darkness and danger they were and sometimes you wouldn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy, how could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end its only a passing thing. this shadow. even darkness must pass. A new day will come And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you that meant something even if you were too small to understand why but I think Mr.Frodo I do understand I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back but they didn't, they kept going because they were holding on to something"
"What are we holding on to Sam?"
"That there some good in this world Mr.Frodo and its worth fighting for."
2007-07-06 04:05:56 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
Just think outside the box for a second and think about the story of the movie not Tolkein and that era, but today and our war. Thats why I said "The War on Terror"
2007-07-06 04:18:58 · update #1
Dude...now that you mention it...it's true. I didn't expect the lord of the rings to relate to real life, but those are words to live by, especialy:
"Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back but they didn't, they kept going because they were holding on to something"
"What are we holding on to Sam?"
"That there some good in this world Mr.Frodo and its worth fighting for."
2007-07-06 04:29:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
J. R. R. Tolkein HATED allegory. Many people at the time (late 50's early 60's) said the ring represented nuclear power, and that in the hands of anyone, even good people, it corrupts. This is true - but the ring is not meant to represent that. The ring is the ring - it doesn't stand for anything. That is the reason why the story is powerful, because the ring is power (possibly power through evil) itself, not representative of some other thing which would make it and the story weaker.
I'm sure you could draw paralels between it and the war on terror. You can make literature play any role, back up pretty much any argument you like. Hitler twisted Neitzche to support nazism for instance - that wasn't Neitzche's intention at all. But as far as I can see the only relationship between it and the war on terror is both are evil - and that evil will pass. It's more of an overarching theme rather than a specific one.
2007-07-06 04:12:10 · answer #2 · answered by Mordent 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, yes I think they could be linked to the war, and I'm sure that Bush's speech writers could attest to that, too. Bush is portrayed by his PR people to be noble and brave, and his speeches are written accordingly. I do not see, however, any paralells between Frodo and Bush, or the situations in the movie and real life.
2007-07-06 04:38:44 · answer #3 · answered by red 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mordent needs to look in the frontispiece of one of the books to see that Tolkien wrote the trilogy not in the 50s and 60s but in 1938 and 1939 as Nazi bombs were falling on his head in England, and Sauron did not sit in a mountain hall, but in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin .
The gates of Mordor had opened and all of civilization was ready to fall under the tide of the Nazguls......gee, what word in the sentence above does THAT sound like?......and I am sure Tolkien had Winston Churchill's voice echoing in his head as he wrote
"Someday the courage of Men may fail.
But I say to you today is not that day."
So members of the Western Democracies, what shall it be: A victory for the forces of intolerance and Islamofascism, where you either worship their god or die?
Will you listen to those who a generation ago did not have the courage to fight for principles and commitments and promises made to allies in Southeast Asia?
Will today be the day that the courage of men may fail?
I pray for myself and my son and for generations yet to be that today is not that day.
2007-07-06 07:17:15 · answer #4 · answered by yankee_sailor 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Tolkien also hated war having been in the trenches himself in WWI. He saw more than his share of the horrors of warfare, and even though he knew it was sometimes necessary, he abhored it. I don't think he'd be all about our little "war".
2007-07-06 04:14:31 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree totally. There are also many others. It was a story about a traditional fight of good versus evil.
How else would your classify the jihadist other than PURE evil. They kill indisciminately. They openly sacrifice thier children (6 years and younger with suicide belts etc) that they might kill some of thier enemies.
I know of few other definitions of evil that would fit better.
2007-07-06 04:10:47 · answer #6 · answered by Jeff Engr 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
HAHA, that's funny like people quoting The Daily Show as a source.
2007-07-06 04:09:55 · answer #7 · answered by civil_av8r 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yeah i can see what you mean... man that's weird
2007-07-06 04:19:49 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No ... it's just fiction.
2007-07-06 04:17:04 · answer #9 · answered by Jack 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋