NancyL
Member
I think i'm having a "American Modern Person" moment. I just can't seem to wrap my head about Frodo's desire to settle down with Bilbo (either in Rivendell or the Shire). Imagine any other orphan, adopted by a wonderful old fellow who raises you and then leaves all his stuff to you when he leaves. Would your expectation be that said orphan would long to rejoin his mentor above all other options available? Visiting regularly? Sure. Move in with and do absolutely NOTHING else with your life? Not so much. Where are Frodo's personal aspirations? Things he wants to achieve? I'm missing where he uses his adulthood to DO SOMETHING.
Now here's what I think is wrong with my gut-level expectations: i'm perceiving the lack of ambition/goals from outside The Shire life goal environment. If the ring had never entered Frodo's life, he would have been expected to marry and raise a family of Baggins' to continue the tradition and that would have been largely it. Could he have done something like founded a school? What for? Hobbit children learn what they need from their parents and don't need anything else. We're in a middle-ages things-were-better-before, not a modern things-should-be-improved place. So Frodo's perceived (by me) lack of ambition to do anything is caused by my modern expectation - not by anything lacking in Frodo.
YMMV but I'm just putting out there that Frodo's desire to curl up with Bilbo forever makes me feel slightly creeped out.
Now here's what I think is wrong with my gut-level expectations: i'm perceiving the lack of ambition/goals from outside The Shire life goal environment. If the ring had never entered Frodo's life, he would have been expected to marry and raise a family of Baggins' to continue the tradition and that would have been largely it. Could he have done something like founded a school? What for? Hobbit children learn what they need from their parents and don't need anything else. We're in a middle-ages things-were-better-before, not a modern things-should-be-improved place. So Frodo's perceived (by me) lack of ambition to do anything is caused by my modern expectation - not by anything lacking in Frodo.
YMMV but I'm just putting out there that Frodo's desire to curl up with Bilbo forever makes me feel slightly creeped out.