April 29, 2002

Great Answers, Movies, and Interpretations
Diana

You all provide such great answers in your essays, and help me to see Tolkien's works from different point-of-views. Your responses and interpretations are all better than mine, with many good ideas.

Mark, I agree that Peter Jackson did a good job despite the deficiencies. As I mentioned, I had trouble following the movie before reading the book. I felt the Shire scenes were rushed, too. Merry and Pippin just seemed to pop out and run into Frodo and Sam. I was thinking, "Who are they?" "Where did they come from?" and "How did they know about Frodo's leaving the Shire?" Then, as we were saying, the Lothlorien scenes were disappointing. They cut off too much and made it too dark. The beauty was kind of destroyed. I think the biggest problem was their not doing a good job on introducing characters and places. They probably assumed that everyone who would watch the movie had read the books.

Janelle, you are right. The interpretations and symbolism vary by individual. They are subjective, and our life, backgrounds, and personalities will affect how we see things in a story. We went through so much figurative language and symbolism in jr. high and high school English classes. As we were saying, too much analysis spoils the story. I remember talking with classmates about authors probably failing a test on their own book: They were just writing a story without thinking about all those allegorical and symbolical materials, but modern readers suddenly just came up with them.