Thanks everyone for the compliments and responses. A lot of good stuff here and I didn't think about how their very different journeys/experiences impacted them in very different ways which made their return to home different. As others have said Bilbo goes off on almost a holiday (a dangerous holiday, but he's not setting out to "save the Shire."), Frodo is leaving Bag End because it will (he hopes) save the Shire.
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'I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt than an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold even if my feet cannot stand there again.'~The Shadow of the Past
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A couple things here...I haven't read LOTR in a while, but I just burst out laughing remembering Frodo admitting he's thought an earthquake or a dragon invasion would do the hobbits some good. Haven't we all felt that way about the places we live?
In the end though, we don't seriously wish ill-will upon meddlesome relatives and neighbors. The last sentence is nifty foreshadowing. Frodo's decided to leave and finds "wandering more bearable", as long the Shire lays behind safely. But Frodo seems to know already this journey is going to change him, it's much different from Bilbo's and he is attempting to keep the Shire safe and comfortable, but not for himself:
"even if my feet cannot stand there again."
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'Of course, I have sometimes thought of going away, but I imagined that as kind of a holiday, a series of adventures like Bilbo or better, ending in peace. But this would mean exile, a flight from danger into danger, drawing it after me. And I suppose I must go alone, if I am to do that and save the Shire. But I feel very small, and very uprooted, and well - desperate. The Enemey is so strong and terrible.'~ibid
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Frodo's imagined leaving as well, but more like Bilbo's journey. Yes, Bilbo face several dangers and came back changed, but it's quite different from fleeing from danger into even more peril. Bilbo's Took-side overruled his Baggins side of "what will the neighbors say and think?" He had a choice to leave. What choice does Frodo really have? I mean Gandalf comes in and pretty much details Frodo's only option is to flee with the Ring. No wonder he feels "uprooted."
Some other random musings on home and the estrangement from home. That's what sparked the idea to start this thread. I'm trying to find it, but one day I was reading commentary about sci-fi/fantasty stories establishing recognition and estrangement. Recognition being "home," or just having things from the readers' world that we recognize/relate to. The best fantasy stories are created when the author can establish recognition/home to the reader. Tolkien makes it quite easy to relate to Bilbo and Frodo, because even in his Middle-earth, there are simple moments he added to make us feel home, like Bilbo and Frodo. Bilbo chooses to run into this vast land of the strange and unknown, Frodo is essentially forced and thrust into it by the Ring. In both cases, the readers are going through the same exact experiences, we are following Bilbo and Frodo...out of home, into the strange "wide world." But as discussed, it doesn't end there. In fact, I would say it can't end there. We must return home, and either Frodo and Bilbo have changed, home has changed, or both.
Edit: I meant to say, for myself, recognition of home is immediate in
The Hobbit. That famous first line pulls you in to "home" right away, and then the description of Bilbo's home. Even if a hobbit-hole isn't my home...there's that saying "Home is where the heart is..." or something along the lines of "Home is what you make of it." The Shire/Bag End isn't our home, but it can feel like, remind us of what home is to us, because of Tolkien's story-telling brilliance.
