Heroism In Lord Of The Flies Essay

1 Where do humans fit in among the other races of Middle-Earth? Are humans a “good” race?

As we have seen, the various races shown in Middle-Earth each demonstrate very specific invariable characteristics. Human goodness does vary, however. Tolkien shows that in the human race, each individual determines his or her goodness. Bard, for instance, is a hero and a kind man, though grim. But the old Master of Laketown is greedy and manipulative in an almost pitiful way—he dies out in the desert, clutching gold stolen from the town. Humans seem to be more often good than bad but mostly somewhere in the middle. The elves are the truly good race, and the goblins the truly evil one. Humans can match either race in kind but rarely in degree.

2 Given

Thorin comments that if more of the contentious warriors of the world lived the way hobbits do, it would be a happier world, and Bilbo’s return to Hobbiton seems an acknowledgment of the same idea. Heroism is important in a world beset with evil, but Tolkien suggests that if everyone lived the simple life of hobbits, evil would be obsolete. So, in a sense, Bilbo does belong in Hobbiton, even if he does not in the eyes of the hobbit community.

3 Is Thorin in any sense a heroic leader? Do his actions in the novel make him deserving of his death at the end?

By the time the Battle of the Five Armies commences, Thorin has incurred the contempt and disrespect of many of the book’s characters (and probably most readers). But to Thorin’s credit, he shows tremendous courage in attempting to reclaim his ancestors’ treasure from Smaug. We come to learn that his failings—which become apparent once he is inside the Lonely Mountain—are common to all dwarves, who possess a great desire for gold and a fierce, even arrogant