Mrs DTB’s disclaimer: We are writing about the movies, not the books. We want to be clear about this as we know that Tolkien fans can take this subject seriously and quite rightly so!
Tolkien talked about themes not as allegorical but applicable to his work.
“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”
Master KAF says: He lived through both world wars and all but one of his friends died in WW1 so you cannot blame him for drawing influence, unintentionally, from these experiences. I personally don’t think that he drew influence from them on purpose.
MrsDTB says: I think that there are lots of references to the Industrial Revolution. As he was growing up in Birmingham, the mechanisation and industrialisation of the city were underway. The cutting down of the trees at Isengard is an example of this. Tolkien was also not a fan of the motor car; in a letter to his son in 1944, he said “It is full Maytime by the trees and grass now. But the heavens are full of roar and riot. You cannot even hold a shouting conversation in the garden now, save about 1 a.m. and 7 p.m. – unless the day is too foul to be out. How I wish the ‘infernal combustion’ engine had never been invented. Or (more difficult still since humanity and engineers in special are both nitwitted and malicious as a rule) that it could have been put to rational uses — if any.”
Master KAF wonders what he would have thought about Electric Cars and whether he may have liked them better because they are not as noisy. Also, since the electricity can be generated from wind or solar, for example, it can be a lot less harmful to the environment. We are not sure he would have liked the electric bicycle though as it takes all of the physical- exercise out of the experience (so essentially it is the lazy person bicycle).
Next time we are going to write about influences to costume and set design/places.
