Beginning and End

[littlemanpoet]

I think that Tolkien's stories are fantastic allegories, just naturally produced ones that grew into allegories on their own without any conscious effort on his part.

Sigh. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] You are welcome to your opinions, of course, Kalimac, but by asserting that what Tolkien did was "without any conscious effort on his own part", you defeat your assertion because allegories are "the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions truths or generalizations about human existence".

As Tolkien explained over and over again, he did not write that kind of fictional story. Rather, there are many APPLICATIONS of meaning to be found in LOTR.

And yes, it's true that readers can FIND all the allegories that they wish in a work, whether they should or not. Allegory is indeed the cheapest form of creative writing, and frankly it's no compliment to the author to read any number of different allegories into his/her story. Usually all one does is cloud the issue or lose the beauty originally intended.