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Originally Posted by Galadriel55
Very interesting thread, and very interesting ideas!
As I was reading this thread, it occurred to me that an additional difference between Bilbo's and Frodo's returns is their feeling of responsibility. Bilbo never felt responsible for the world, or for the Shire more specifically. Meanwhile, Frodo knows full well the gravity of his mission - it's not just adventure for him - and it weighs down on him, especially because he transposes that sense of responsibility onto his home. He goes through the entire journey in part to save the Shire, to keep it whole.
Of course, that's a perilous path to take just on its own. If your beacon of light is your memory of a person or place, coming back to realize that it (or you) changed in your absence and there's no going back to the way it was before is harsh. But in Frodo's case, there's the added sense of responsibility. He felt it was his duty to keep the Shire safe and hobbitishly unconcerned about the greater troubles of the world. He came back to find that he failed on that count, and he failed to keep the Shire from "growing up" character-wise (becoming worldly-wise?) even when all the repairs were finished. In a way, the Shire as a whole developed during that year like Bilbo during his trip. The Shire changed too, not just Frodo.
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What's interesting to me about Frodo's journey versus Bilbo's is that Bilbo was out on a treasure hunt, something that's not going to affect the Shire at all. Frodo is going out already knowing somewhere within himself that he might die trying to save everything he's ever known. The Shire might die in the process, it might not. Frodo has no idea what the end of his adventures is going to bring. What you said earlier,
G55, about Frodo's beacon of light really shines true for a lot of people, including myself. If you idealize wherever you came from to cope with your long and hard journey, you're going to find home not quite as homey as it was when you left it. Frodo and the Shire changed in a way that is irreparable. One of the saddest parts of the Scouring to me was the destruction of the party tree in Hobbiton. It was beautiful that Sam was able to replace it with the seed and soil from Lothlorien, but it was a loss to the Shire all the same. That moment struck me as the hardest tangible change the Shire had to pass through. Just like Frodo had to deal with the physical harm he endured on his journey, the Shire must deal with its physical scars as well.
I'm not entirely sure where I was going with this, to be honest. But I think I was just trying to say that Frodo and Bilbo's changes were fundamentally different. Frodo's change coupled with the Shire's change made it hard for him to have peace, while Bilbo's adventures brought him a comfortable life and more friends. Bilbo had peace, Frodo didn't.