[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

Yes, I also think that it's both. However I think that it is more towards machinery and technology. Think about tolkien and his life. The industrial age had a great influence on him. 'War machines' were being made and destroying his beautiful childhood countryside. WWI like any war calls for a conversion in production. If they don't have enough factories they make more. It doesn't matter where they are made just as long as they are made. So, like Kalessin said, this can represent the Scouring of the Shire. The shire is a simple area of middle earth that is untouched by the outside world. They find joy in having and keeping it a simple life and land. Hobbits are like the amish in a way. The hobbits like the amish stay underdeveloped as a way of life (although the amish are more extreme). The Shire looks beautiful and that is the way that they want to keep it. When sharkey makes changes around the place it is like the coming of an industrial age to the hobbits and could be related to tolkien's personal experience.


This paragrapgh won't really help answer your question because it kind of strays from the topic.

I say that the scouring of the shire and tolkien's experience can be related. I'm not saying they are though. Tolkien said that the lotr does not represent specific events or people in his life. I believe him, but I think that they could have a large influence on how and what he wrote. He left it open for any reader and that is one reason his books are considered classics. He allows you to fill in the blank. If he said that the ring represents the nuclear bomb and that sauron represents hitler, then this book could have been limited to one or two generations. Since he says that lotr does not represent specific events or people in his life, it allows you to think of sauron as bin laden or anybody else you want to think of him as. People can do this for many years to come. However, this does not mean you have to this. For me sauron is just sauron.

I watched the National Geographic- Beyond the Movie for lotr. It came with the collector's dvd set for the extended fellowship. You should watch it too, it shows some valid points.