After finishing Lord of The Rings and the Hobbit my attitude towards the books is easy to describe; I'm in love with the books. As much as it is a struggle to get through Lord of The Rings I enjoyed every word of it and the Hobbit only made me like J.R.R Tolkien even more. One thing that made me love the books was Sméagol (Gollum). The character added a lot of entertainment but also food for thought in so many ways. We are constantly thrown between Sméagol and Gollum and the inner fight he has with himself of what he is.
The reason for me feeling so connected to Sméagol is probably due to the fact that I believe everyone can relate to the feelings he is going through, especially in the society now-a-days where we often let our urge of having something can lead to us changing our behavior completely.
Sméagol is one of the few characters in the book that is not purely good or bad, he switches between the two, in extreme ways. As strange as it might sound, he is just an exaggerated version of every single one of us. As yin and yang states, everyone has something good and bad in them. This is something Frodo sees in him but Sam tends to only see Gollum which brings out the bad side even more as it would do to us too. If someone constantly judges you, you will start showing your bad sides because you have no reason to be good.
Spoiler alert: Sméagol has the ring but loses it to Bilbo. When doing that he loses himself in a way. It's his precious as he constantly repeats. It's the thing that means the most to him and it gets taken away from in right infront of his eyes. Anyone would go a bit crazy if that happened, or at least not deal with it well. Sméagol acts like any jealous ex would do, try to get his most precious back, He is so obsessed with this product that he would be willing to kill for it.
Even if the society isn't that extreme it is very easy to see how Gollum is just a simple representation of the materialistic society. People are willing to treat other people badly so they can earn more money and buy more things. We become like animals when we want something, just look at how people behave on Black Friday. Sméagol is just giving in to this and as much as I disagree with this behavior it doesn't make him bad. It simply makes him confused and the need of guidance.
I know I'm talking about a fictional character but as any author J. R. R Tolkien was probably trying to send out this message to people. At least that's the message I got.
We all go through inner fights with ourselves and sometimes we let the bad sides take over. That doesn't make us bad people, it simply makes us people that make the wrong decision. A psychologist would call it multiple personality disorder, I call it lack of guidance and support. The times when Frodo believes in him he is Sméagol because all he needs is some love. Because Sméagol is the only character that actually goes through the struggle of feeling unwanted he is the character I actually can relate to and see his good sides. That is why he'll always be Sméagol to me.
The reason for me feeling so connected to Sméagol is probably due to the fact that I believe everyone can relate to the feelings he is going through, especially in the society now-a-days where we often let our urge of having something can lead to us changing our behavior completely.
Sméagol is one of the few characters in the book that is not purely good or bad, he switches between the two, in extreme ways. As strange as it might sound, he is just an exaggerated version of every single one of us. As yin and yang states, everyone has something good and bad in them. This is something Frodo sees in him but Sam tends to only see Gollum which brings out the bad side even more as it would do to us too. If someone constantly judges you, you will start showing your bad sides because you have no reason to be good.
Spoiler alert: Sméagol has the ring but loses it to Bilbo. When doing that he loses himself in a way. It's his precious as he constantly repeats. It's the thing that means the most to him and it gets taken away from in right infront of his eyes. Anyone would go a bit crazy if that happened, or at least not deal with it well. Sméagol acts like any jealous ex would do, try to get his most precious back, He is so obsessed with this product that he would be willing to kill for it.
Even if the society isn't that extreme it is very easy to see how Gollum is just a simple representation of the materialistic society. People are willing to treat other people badly so they can earn more money and buy more things. We become like animals when we want something, just look at how people behave on Black Friday. Sméagol is just giving in to this and as much as I disagree with this behavior it doesn't make him bad. It simply makes him confused and the need of guidance.
I know I'm talking about a fictional character but as any author J. R. R Tolkien was probably trying to send out this message to people. At least that's the message I got.
We all go through inner fights with ourselves and sometimes we let the bad sides take over. That doesn't make us bad people, it simply makes us people that make the wrong decision. A psychologist would call it multiple personality disorder, I call it lack of guidance and support. The times when Frodo believes in him he is Sméagol because all he needs is some love. Because Sméagol is the only character that actually goes through the struggle of feeling unwanted he is the character I actually can relate to and see his good sides. That is why he'll always be Sméagol to me.
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