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Child- this might tie in with your "childlike nature" of hobbits. Children rarely think about death either. But I haven't thought much about this yet.
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Interesting Sophia! It's quite true that children do not normally focus on death, although they may do so if death strikes very near or in a violent way. Given the fact that Tolkien lost both his parents so young, I suspect he gave an unusual amount of thought to this subject even in childhood. As he stated in his Letters, "death" was the central theme of LotR. So he was not adverse to exploring 'death' in the context of his stories. Yet, even given this stated theme, the Shire and hobbits were, for the most part, curiously protected from premature death. Looking at the geneologies, I see only a few hobbits who did not reach at least 90 years of age. An enviable record!
Frodo and Bilbo were a little less lucky in this regard. Bilbo's father died at age 80. Frodo's father was 72, and his mother 60 when they experienced their "tragic" accident. But even Primula and Drogo would not be considered "young" by our standards. Also interesting, Tolkien makes Frodo an orphan but no mention is made of that fact by Frodo or the narrator. The only real commentary comes from hobbits having a discussion in the Inn. It almost seems as if one of the reasons the hobbits thought Frodo "odd" was that he was the son of hobbits who'd died too young and in an unusual way. Such strange doings were seen as outside the norm--another proof that an unusual or violent death simply wasn't part of hobbit culture.
None of this would be particularly remarkable except that death and tragedy so heavily overhung much that Tolkien had written up to this point. It was only in telling a story beside his own children's bed, that he could break out of this pattern and yet still remain within the Legendarium. Or was he actually within the Legendarium when he began crafting the tale and designing the Shire? Most likely the Hobbit tale was intially seen as something totally separate from Middle-earth. Only gradually was it (and the Shire) pulled inside. But the remarkable thing was that it
was pulled inside, and that the idealization of the Shire remained basically intact, with the exception of a character like Frodo whose journey took him outside its bounds in more than one way.
It's a dangerous thing to try and deduce the answer for a puzzle like this from inside Tolkien's head. And the author would definitely not like it! But I can't help wondering if the Shire wasn't a kind of "safe haven"--a place where death was orderly (unlike the experience in his own life) and problems were small and manageable. All his life, Tolkien seemed to be struggling with doubt and worry. Given his pessimistic nature, what better gift could he give his children than a tale like this?