One of the things I like most about The Lord of the Rings is that like
Swift's Gulliver's Travels it transports the
reader to another world.
Tolkien, who served in the first World War well understood the horrors
that men face when confronted with the inhumaneness of it and of the
calculated cruelty that mankind shows each other in times of war. The
first World War was also a time when trench warfare was developed and
when the mechanization of war began, a fact that shines through in his
writing as he describes the machines with which the Orc army assaults
Gondor with in Return of the King.
Another strong point in the book is that through the Hobbits Tolkien
shows that sometimes it is the smallest creature that makes the most
profound impact on the tide of a battle or conflict, a point I am sure
George 'blood and guts' Patton would definitely agree with.
We see this also as a coming of age story for the Hobbits, who leave
home and make the journey not only towards the dark land of Mordor but
also towards manhood as they face one conflict after another, sometimes
external conflicts but sometimes also conflicts that arise within. I do
believe this is a book well worth reading however I am forced to ask
the question of why Tolkien invented Middle Earth in the first place
when he had so much experience to share with the world about his time
spent in a real war and in a real world? Nevertheless, The Lord of the
Rings is a book that changed the way people looked at fantasy. One
person even remarked that it was like a bolt of lightning out of a
clear blue sky. Many since have tried to imitate Tolkien in the fantasy
genre but as they say you can't hold a candle to an original.