Lord of the Rings and WWII

It is a highly believed theory that the Lord of the Rings series is an allegory for the tragedies that happened in WWI and WWII. The similarities between the two are extremely interesting. How the characters and the scenery paint the image of war stricken Europe leads you to believe that this could be a fact. J.R.R. Tolkien was in fact a soldier in WWI. Even though he did enlist late he still saw some of the gruesome images that happened in the war. He wrote, "Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute.” These gruesome incidents could have possibly led to one of the most famous books in the world.

It could be just a coincidence but the characters in the movie not as individuals but as entire races seem to be based on the separate nations and parties. The Hobbits could represent the French. They were taken over by the orcs who could represent the lower ranked German soldier. The main group of hobbits including Frotto and Sam could represent the French resistance who escape to Britain represented by the elves. The French resistance and Jews were chased by the lower ranked S.S. soldiers, the Uruk-Hai.  The city of Minith Tirith has very similar qualities to the Russians and their leader Joseph Stalin. The Ruler of Minith Tirith was not the true king as Joseph Stalin stole power from Trotsky as Denethor was not the true king of the city Aragon was. These little coincidences make this theory very believable.

Two of the biggest character relations for me are the similarities of Adolf Hitler and Sauron and the use of the eagles at the end of the movie. Sauron was an evil ruler who made his own power and killed thousands if not millions. He created the witch kings, who could represent the S.S. leaders, as his loyal servants who do his bidding and patrol the land in search of the ring as the S.S. would run the camps and search for the Jews. But as soon as Sauron’s eye is destroyed representing Hitler’s death everything collapses, the fall of the German empire. Also the use of the Eagles seems to represent the United States. They were not there in the beginning but come out in the end to save Frotto and Sam, the French resistance, and after that all of the orcs and other bad guys die or run away, this seems awful familiar to how the Germans abandoned the concentration camps and many killed themselves.

Although J.R.R. Tolkien denies that one of his greatest works is based on the war, he does admit that the landscape was influenced by it. For some it is easy to believe that the events in the Lord of the Rings could somehow be influenced by the events in WWII. But even if they are not it just makes it that much more interesting to believe it.

Explication of "The Term Paper Artist"

In Nick Mamatas' The Term Paper Artist, he explains how his career as a professional writer started. "After all, nobody ever puts a classified ad in the paper that reads “Writers Wanted.” Then, in the Village Voice, I saw just such an ad." He stumbled upon the oppurtunity for a job writing term papers for money. "Term paper writing was never good money, but it was certainly fast money" states Nick. He could charge whatever rate he wanted per page and alot of them would pay just so that they could pass. He could charge $100 dollars a page and could write up a nine page paper and make $900 dollars in a night. Nick says that "The secret to the gig is to amuse yourself. I have to, really, as most paper topics are deadly boring." When he was given a vauge assignment to write about a book or story he states that "My own novels and short stories were the topic of many papers — several DUMB CLIENTS rate me as their favorite author and they've never even read me." In the end he does not blame these "DUMB CLIENTS" but instead he gives this opinion, "They are being cheated by the schools that take tuition and give nothing in exchange."

Nick Mamatas' The Term Paper Artists not only explains the flaws of those being educated but the educators themselves. The students are not the only ones to blame they can only absorb what the tearchers give them. If they are never told or even showed what a term paper is how are they suppose to write one. Nick never felt bad writing these papers because he had sympathy for those who were the "DUMB CLIENT" because they were never really given the attention that they probaby desperatly needed to write these papers themselves in any level of education not just in college. The educational system has many flaws in it and cramming classrooms with more and more students so that less teachers can be hired or just so that they can give students something to do is not helping the matter either.