A complex Gollum

[Rosa Underhill]

There's one thing that keeps popping up in my mind and that is greed. Gollum's people were closer to the race of Men in behavior back in his youth (since Hobbits hadn't yet fully come into their own yet). I do think his on greed brought this all down upon him. He wanted the Ring upon first sight and it drove him to kill his dearest friend. (Recall that Deagol had the honor of being his love before the Ring nad perhaps, though less likely, before himself.)

By the end of his life, I think Gollum was begining to become more than what he had been before he saw the Ring. He was almost willing to sacrifice something for the sake of Frodo instead for the Ring and himself. But then Sam yelled at him and that truely set his resolve. We don't know if he would have done any different had Sam not yelled at him. (That was the only time I got mad at Sam, justified as he may have thought himself to be.)

Gollum is the fellow we truely have a love/hate relationship with. For me, Gollum is horrible reminder of what a man can do to himself and I can't help but pity him because I don't think he would have turned any different in the end. Ultimatly, it's not one's circumstances that makes one who he is, it's what one chooses to do with what one is given.