Tom Bombadil Character Analysis

The 1998 movie, Bulworth, dives into the realm of the scandalous American political system. From income inequality, to corporate greed, Bulworth manages to put a comedic twist on a very serious set of topics that politicians and the American public face daily. The main character, Jay Billington Bulworth is a liberal democratic Senator from California who is running for reelection (Bulworth: 1998). He has recently accepted millions of dollars in financial campaign donations from large corporations in order to combat his younger, populist opponent. At the beginning of the movie, Bulworth is sitting in his office, re-watching an old commercial from a prior election campaign. He hasn't slept or eaten for days and is considering ending his life.

Tolkien creates the ring as the epitome of evilness to give it a mind of its own. With this symbolism, the ring is able to maneuver itself and corrupt whom it pleases. It takes on the evilness of the beholder and enhances their evil thoughts to the point in which evilness is the only thought that consumes them. As described by another hobbit, Frodo, the ring has “an unwholesome power that sets to work on its keeper at once.” In Sméagol’s instance, the ring is able to take a strong hold of his soul with just a look at “the bright and beautiful” gold that it entails. Such evilness is personified by Tolkien because Tolkien sees it as something that takes action, not something that is acted upon. The power that the ring possesses eats away at him until he is an entire different creature. The ring destroys Sméagol and creates Gollum, an outcast and a murderer. The theme of temptation displayed by Tolkien coincides with the temptation that evilness

Illogical as it is, Lord of the Rings greatly relates to society as it is today. It really shows through the views of logos, ethos, and pathos, especially when you examine and explore the movie’s genre reflection on modern culture and society.

In The Hobbit, Tolkien created cultures and values that are represented often in certain characters and groups of characters. These translate to character traits, which can be positive or negative. After reading up to this point in the story, one can infer that Tolkien considers focused to be a positive character trait, greed to be a negative character trait, and he also feels intelligence more important than physical strength.

*Quotes from The Lord of the Rings, or The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Nothing written in italics applies to the

In observing congruencies between The Lord of the Rings and Christian thought, Colin Gunton notes, "Evil is an essentially alien power which corrupts and destroys the work of God, and so has to be destroyed" (Gunton 128). This critic believes that God is present in some form in The Lord of the Rings, and that evil in the story is a force against God. He is saying that where there is evil, there is also God, and that in The Lord of the Rings, evil is a power against God that God must eradicate. Because there is evil, and a demigod, Sauron, representative of it, there must be an opposition for the side of good, and this entity must eradicate the evil.

evil. An example of when Gollum was evil is found on page 105. The text say’s “and still sometimes he put it on … when he was very, very, hungry, and tired of fish. Then he would creep along dark passages looking for stray goblins.” You can see in this quote that Gollum uses the rings power for evil. Gollum hides in the shadows until he finds a right target to capture and eat. This also shows that Gollum is very sly. Another example of when Gollum was evil is found on page 96. The text say’s “He was anxious to appear friendly, at any rate for the moment, and until he found out more about the sword and the hobbit, whether he was quite alone really, whether he was good to eat ...” Gollum thought. You can tell by the tone of Gollum’s thought that he was trying to be sly, and evil. Gollum was trying to get to know more information about Bilbo, so then perhaps he can eat Bilbo. One more example of Gollum portraying evil and greed can be seen on page 108. The text say’s “Bilbo could not guess what had maddened the wretched creäture, but he saw that all was up, and that Gollum meant to murder him (Bilbo) at any rate.” You can see by the tone and mood of the atmosphere and the narrator that Gollum was so attached to his precious ring, that he got so angry and; wanted to kill Bilbo. As he thought that Bilbo had his ring in his

Another aspect of evil developed in Tolkien is the insatiable hunger to possess, to rule, to dominate. The Bible captures the same idea with pictures of locusts, of the sword, of wild beasts, of striving kings, and of Satan going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour. "Devouring" is an apt symbolization of insatiable lust. It closely parallels the Trilogy's symbol

“I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look—wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there,” a quote said by Tom Joad from John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath. Written during the great depression, John Steinbeck depicts a Oklahoma family traveling to California for work after losing their farm. The main character Tom Joad is first seen as caring only for himself and his family. By the ending the novel Tom has grown from caring about himself to caring and seeing the whole world as his family.

Gollum, previously known as Smeagol, is one of the first bearers of the ring of power, and when he comes into the ring’s presence for the first time, the power makes him so corrupt that to get his hands on it he kills his friend Deagol. “‘ Smeagol had been watching him from behind a tree, and as Deagol gloated over the ring, Smeagol came softly up behind. “Give us that, Deagol, my love,” said Smeagol, over his friend’s shoulder. “Why?” said Deagol. “ Because it’s my birthday, my love, and I wants it,” said Smeagol. “I don’t care,” said Deagol. “I have given you a present already, more than I could afford. I found this, and I’m going to keep it.” “Oh, are you indeed, my love,” said Smeagol; and he caught Deagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful. Then he put the ring on his finger’” (Tolkein Pg. 52). This text shows that Gollum, or Smeagol, is corrupt due to the rings power only by being around it. The need for the ring was so great that it pushed him to kill, a devastating act on its own, but he kills his own friend. This proves that with the power of the ring Gollum becomes immensely corrupt. After Gollum first obtains the ring he grows to feel a great hatred

Tolkien was also known to have referred to Hitler in his letters as a “ruddy little ignoramus” (qtd. Goodreads). The man behind the Lord of the Rings used his position of power to declare his distaste for the Nazis and showed an admirable kick of fear for the consequences. It is obvious that as a soldier and a public figure Tolkien did more than his part to attack the Allied forces of the World Wars by using both body and

Both of the evil characters, Sauron being the one in "The Lord of the Rings", are hungry for power. They both need to gain back what they lost in order to restore the power they crave. There is a kind of mystery kept around the main antagonists in both "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings". We can see that the main similarities in the two novels lie within the main characters.

Before the reader can identify good prevailing over evil, they must know who represents the evil and who represents good. For example, the monster, Grendel is a symbol of evil. He is characterized as a demonic creature, living down in the darkness. He gets exasperated rather easily and

"Three Rings for the Eleven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his Dark throne, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie(Tolkien)." Master of storytelling J.R.R. Tolkien continues the lives of the fictitious creatures that he introduced in The Hobbit, in his modern classic The Fellowship of the Ring. He artfully illustrates the truths of the evil that plague the hearts of man. He tells a story of greed, destruction and how mortal men are enslaved by

The universe is composed of both good and evil beings. The good humans are always nice and thoughtful of other people. The evil characters, on the other hand, keep on hurting and harming their fellows. In most cases, people do not like associating with evil characters. These people are avoided, and they live a lonely life without friends. The reason is that good and evil will always be two parallel elements that will never meet. In a typical and real-world setting, good and evil characters are determined by their actions. For instance, an evil person could set a trap for luring their closest friend into danger. Conversely, in the fictional world, evil characters are differentiated from the good ones by giving them terrifying and monstrous images. The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker is one book that uses vampires to portray evil. Some people find pleasure in doing good while others find joy in doing evil to others. But everyone is entitled to choosing their paths and personalities. The question is, between good and evil, what is the noblest thing to emulate? The Dracula novel gives a series of events that answers the question. Evil will never surpass goodness, and neither will the two ever cross lines; instead, goodness will always win the battle.