"Surroundings" 2012 Free Response Essay & Reflection (Blog Post #6)

             “One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness, bind them” (Lord of the Rings).  It is evident that J.R.R. Tolkien intentions super seceded that of the simple tale of fantasy or adventure through a mysterious land.  Rather, his masterpiece “The Lord of the Rings” and subsequent literary works paralleled the stories of the bible, and exemplified the impact of nature’s formations and geography upon the multiple cultures that inhabited the realm of middle-earth.  This was best done in portraying the journey of Frodo, a simple Hobbit of the Shire, through the multiple realms of elves, men, and dwarves to vanquish the ring from the fiery chasm from which it came.  Along the way, the psychological burden of carrying the Ring, in addition with the geographical obstacles that stood in their way, ultimately portrayed the mental and physical endurance of Frodo, while elevating him to a higher, self-actualization in attempting to save the peoples and of middle-earth.

                The Lord of the Rings were separated into three novels.  Throughout these novels, Frodo ventured from the reclusive Shire through multiple geographic settings, including mountains, tunnels, caves, rivers, and forests.  The laborious nature of hiking on foot through these geographical features helped to demonstrate the toil of the Fellowship of the Ring, in addition to underlying the daunting physical challenge that weighed on Frodo.  In particular, travel up geographical features seemed to challenge Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring most.  It was at points like these that Tolkien would pause the actual ascent, to elaborate through characters like Sam or Frodo, the overwhelming desire to quit, and forget the burden of the ring.  At the end of the first novel, the Fellowship was disbanded, and the unique travels of each member of the Fellowship highlighted their unique physical and even emotional toil, some fighting battles against orks, and some like that of Gandalf the Grey returning to the residence of the White Wizard, Saurman, now corrupted by a device of the evil Sauron.

                A most distinguished part of The Fellowship of the Ring, emphasizes the Fellowship’s journey through the Mines of Moria, a journey of darkness far greater than that of any journey through middle-earth.  The trip through the abandoned mines, without the light but that of Gandalf exemplifies the resounding contrast of light and dark.  The appearance of the Balrog, an ancient evil, personifies the archetype of Satan and his demons in the modern world.  The underlying theme that Tokien demonstrated was the furious contrast of the good and that of the evil.  Both permeated the land of middle-earth, and both helped to define Frodo’s dynamic character throughout the journey.

                Finally, Frodo’s emotional and psychological transformation is perfectly visualized by his journey through middle-earth to vanquish the ring.  At the beginning, it could almost be said that Frodo was xenophobic much like the earlier Bilbo Baggins from “The Hobbit.”  Throughout the journey, the significance of his quest and the burden of the ring contribute to his significant physical and emotional suffering.  The ring not only tempts him with greed and desire, but it threatens to destroy his individuality and succumb to evil, like that of Smeagol.  However, Frodo never succumbs to the temptations of the ring.  He completes his quest, destroying the ring in the land of Mordor, ridding the evil being of Sauron from middle-earth forever.  At the end of his quest, Frodo returns home to the Shire, but can never seem to find the same contentment that he once experienced at the Shire.  The last novel ends with his departure from Middle-Earth to a land faraway across the sea.  While Frodo’s burden and journey were unique, it is a fine example of how the land and those that inhabit it, impact each other as cultures who reside together in middle-earth. 

 

Reflection



              After having written the last type of essay that will appear on the AP Literature Exam, I believe that many of these essays require the same type of improvements and goals that I have been advocating for myself in earlier reflections.  I also feel that this essay topic has a lot of potential, since it is a free-response essay, and can be based on a variety of literary works.  It also has the potential for significant trouble, especially if one has to describe literary works that they are unfamiliar with.  Something that I seemed to struggle with in this particular essay, was creating a coherent, well-organized body, that addressed the how and why.  It seems that this essay best compares to a "ramble of thought."  I believe this was due to the novel I chose to cite in my essay, that being "Lord of the Rings." The literary work itself was perfect for the topic, but my personal comprehension of the work and the fact that I had not familiarized myself with the literature in over four years, made it significantly more difficult to cite actual names as examples of surroundings.  It was also difficult to connect how the surroundings changed the character, because my thesis was unclear and ambiguous. 

            To focus on improving my writing, I need to gain a better comprehension of organization.  I have written the five paragraph model for a long time, and the higher scoring essays consistently demonstrate a higher control of organization in body structure.  However, more does not necessarily mean better.  Some of the better written essays utilize this same structure or less paragraphs, but the level of sophistication in the writing raises the score of the essay.  In writing a well-organized essay, my goal would be to at least identify three things that contribute to how a form of meaning is conveyed.  Then, time permitting, the focus on complexity could be described in another paragraph that would help transition the five-body essay into six bodies. 

           I want to focus on improving the cohesiveness of my essay.  I believe this comes in time, with practice by writing multiple essays.  My continued efforts to establish a clear thesis, and then write for that thesis, usually allows for my essay to have a sense of cohesion.  This essay lacked cohesion, because it strayed from the original prompt, including multiple characters other than the main character that I was utilizing to describe a change.  It also lacked cohesion in providing redundant information.  I felt that many paragraphs were re-iterating what I had already described in previous paragraphs.  Eliminating redundancy, will help to establish a better organized and more cohesive essay.

           Finally, I want to focus on improving the sophistication of my writing.  This, like any writing skill comes with practice in time.  Throughout my writing, I often have simple grammar mistakes or incorrect diction.  The ultimate goal would be to study new vocabulary and improve upon the grammar that I already possess.  In addition, identifying complexity (the why) behind the analysis, will help to reveal the sophistication of my writing.