the scouring of the shire

[Angry Brandybuck]

I always read the Scouring of the Shire chapter as an allegory

One needs to be extremely careful when saying this like this. Tolkien says in his Foreword to my edition that:

I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations

He says that instead he feels that history "true or feigned" has "varied applicabilty" to what the reader thinks or has experienced.

This distaste of allegory is one reason why Tolkien disliked C.S. Lewis so much, along with the fact that he wrote his books so quickly.