I recently finished my second trip through J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. My first trip was during sixth grade, and back then it was just a fun adventure story, if a little dense and hard to get through at times because of the slightly archaic language and sometimes mythological writing style. This time though, it left me truly astounded at Tolkien's genius, and thoroughly convinced me that it will go down in history as one of the Great Books of the Western canon. It's almost biblical in scope, symbolism, depth, and layers of meaning, and I've had about 300 different half-baked ideas for blog posts about single scenes, or even single images, from this book. I finally decided on a topic after finishing the book, and I want to talk about Samwise Gamgee's homecoming.

Sam follows Frodo Baggins on a journey that lasts not quite a year, but feels like a lifetime or more. He gets started on the journey by accident (that is, if you can call anything involving Gandalf an accident) after getting caught eavesdropping on Frodo and Gandalf's conversation about the One Ring and being ordered to go with Frodo so as to avoid the secret of his departure leaking out too early. He proves to be without a doubt Frodo's most faithful companion throughout the quest. Here are just a few of Sam's epic deeds:

• Sniffs out Frodo's intent to abandon the Fellowship and go to Mordor alone when no one else does, not even Merry and Pippin
• Fights the primordial demon Shelob to protect Frodo
• Rescues Frodo from the top of a tower fortress full of Orcs
• Walks with Frodo into the fiery wastes of Mordor, and carries him on his back up the final stretch of Mount Doom itself
• Aids in liberating the Shire from a resentful and destructive communistic regime imposed by Saruman, then employs his love of all things green and growing to heal, replant, and restore the Shire to its former idyllic wholesomeness

Sam's unshakeable friendship and faithfulness to Frodo is an overarching theme of the story, and without it, Frodo would never have made it anywhere near Mount Doom. Frodo and Sam literally walk to hell and back together, but the journey leaves Frodo's spirit irreversibly scarred. After they return to the Shire and get rid of Saruman and his goons, Sam makes himself at home again: tending to Frodo's garden as before, replanting the parts of the Shire destroyed by Saruman, marrying his sweetheart Rose Cotton, and having a daughter Elanor. But Frodo is not destined to find rest in the home he saved.

But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.

— Frodo Baggins, The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter IX: The Grey Havens

Frodo takes ship at the Grey Havens, privileged as a Ring-bearer to sail to the Undying Lands west of the sea with the last of the Elves leaving Middle-earth at the conclusion of the Third Age. Sam watches his best friend sail away, never to return; a friend with whom he has fought, bled, nearly died on countless occasions, and gone down into the blackest depths of hell both literally and symbolically. He is heartbroken, and spends the rest of the day and long into the night standing in silence on the shore with Merry and Pippin.

Then they turn around and ride back to the Shire, also in silence, and Sam comes home for good:

At last they rode over the downs and took the East Road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on to Buckland; and already they were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap.

He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said.

— The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter IX: The Grey Havens

And so ends the saga of the Quest of the One Ring. A story which begins with simple Hobbits living a simple life and expands out into an epic world-spanning adventure involving kings, massive armies, dark lords, wizards, sorcerers, demons, monsters, and magic ends with this simple image: a beautiful, wholesome, warm picture of a King returning to his Realm. It may not be Gondor or Rivendell, but it is Sam's home, and he is satisfied.

A Digression on Tears

Now, I'm not ashamed to say this story jerked some tears out of me, as it were. I'm fairly convinced at this point that a person oriented towards Good things can't read this book without weeping. If you find yourself dry-eyed throughout, I think Socrates would probably say you have a disordered soul (more on that later). Among all the aspects of Tolkien's literary genius, his sheer ability to evoke emotion in the reader has to rank up there with the best of all time.

On the subject of tears, Gandalf puts it best shortly before he boards the ship with Frodo at the Grey Havens:

Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.

— The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter IX: The Grey Havens

A similar idea is brought up earlier in the book, just after the final victory and destruction of the One Ring when Aragorn's host is encamped on the Field of Cormallen:

And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.

— The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter IV: The Field of Cormallen

This is all some pretty heavy-duty philosophizing on the nature of emotion. We usually think of joy as a positive emotion and sorrow as a negative one, but in these images the two seem inextricably linked and interwoven together. And it's no wonder in this case: the war has been won and the world has been saved from Sauron, Gondor's King has returned and the process of healing the land has begun; but on the other hand thousands are dead including Rohan's King and Gondor's Steward, Osgiliath is destroyed and Minas Tirith lies mostly in ruins after a terrible siege, and the Ring-bearer who made the victory possible is spiritually scarred beyond hope of returning to his former simple life.

I'm wondering if this mingling of joy and sorrow has something to do with contrast. Some things seemingly can only be defined by reference to their opposites. A Tall man is Tall because he's taller than a Short man, but what is Tall? Six feet or taller? What if we're in the land of giants that is the Netherlands where six feet is the average male height? What about Bolivia where the average male height is only five feet three inches? A man of five feet eight inches might be considered Tall in Bolivia and Short in the Netherlands, because Tall is only defined with reference to Short, and vice versa. There are more things like this: Fast and Slow, Big and Small, Dark and Light, High and Low, Order and Chaos (there's a can of worms of mythological proportions).

Maybe Joy and Sorrow are like this as well. We feel Joy when the battle is won, but also Sorrow over the loss and sacrifice necessary to achieve victory. Maybe the loss and sacrifice give a small taste of the much greater Sorrow that would have happened had the battle been lost and Middle-earth dominated by Sauron, and without that taste of Sorrow it would not be possible to properly appreciate the Joy of the victory; there would be no contrast. After all, no good story was ever told in which everything goes perfectly for everyone and there are no problems. The magnitude of the suffering averted and the trials undertaken to achieve victory are directly proportional to the Joy experienced at the end of the task.

Another powerful moment like this is when Frodo and Sam lie exhausted on the slope of Mount Doom after the Ring is destroyed, although in this case the sorrow seems to overshadow the joy. The task is complete and the Ring is no more, but Frodo gave in to its seduction in the end and was unable to complete the task were it not for the intervention of Gollum. Frodo and Sam fully believe they are about to die and will never see their home again. But even in their despair, Samwise the Brave drives them on just a little further down the slope, and evokes the joy of the tales that will be told about them long into the future.

'But after coming all that way I don't want to give up yet. It's not like me, somehow, if you understand.'

'Maybe not, Sam,' said Frodo; 'but it's like things are in the world. Hopes fail. An end comes. We have only a little time to wait now. We are lost in ruin and downfall, and there is no escape.'

'Well, Master, we could at least go further from this dangerous place here, from this Crack of Doom, if that's its name. Now couldn't we? Come, Mr. Frodo, let's go down the path at any rate!'

'Very well, Sam. If you wish to go, I'll come.'

'What a tale we have been in, Mr. Frodo, haven't we?' he said. 'I wish I could hear it told! Do you think they'll say: Now comes the story of Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom? And then everyone will hush, like we did, when in Rivendell they told us the tale of Beren One-hand and the Great Jewel. I wish I could hear it! And I wonder how it will go on after our part.'

— The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter IV: The Field of Cormallen

All of this to say that I think I've landed on one of the biggest aspects of The Lord of the Rings that makes it Great: its ability to make the reader feel joy and sorrow at the same time, just like the host at the Field of Cormallen. These are the sweet words that wound the heart.

What Every Man Wants

The purpose of that little digression was to say that the sweet words that wounded my particular heart the most, even more than Frodo and Sam on Mount Doom or the Ride of the Rohirrim, were the ones in that final paragraph: the image of Sam returning to his warm and welcoming home. The joy and sorrow are intermingled in that image as much as any: Sam's sorrow at the departure of Frodo, and joy at the welcoming of his family.

There's a real sense of Belonging in that image: the day ending, a fire in the hearth, and food on the table. The phrase "and he was expected" really gets me, man. If Rose wasn't there, there would be no one to do the expecting and it wouldn't feel as much like home for Sam. I wonder a little if part of the reason Frodo can never really spiritually return to the Shire is that he doesn't have a Rose like Sam does. He's not expected when he returns, because there's no one to expect him; all of his best friends are the ones who undertook the journey with him. Friends to go on the journey with you are fantastic, but someone to keep the fire in the hearth and expect you when you come back is another kind of Good.

I'm going to make a bold claim that this is what every man Wants: to have a home where he is expected, appreciated, and welcomed. Yes, I realize there are lots of men who say (and probably believe) they want other things: fame, fortune, loads of women, the newest iGadget on the market, dominance over their enemies, or other such things.

One subject that keeps coming up in Online Great Books discussions is the nature of education; what it means, and how to achieve it. A true philosophical education, it seems, is not a simple process of filling up a mind with facts and abilities, but a process of bringing one's soul into proper order and learning to love the Good. The Good is an ideal that exists as a Form: not a thing to be finally and fully grasped, but a thing to be approximated to a higher and higher degree as our philosophical education continues.

I won't go on a lengthy tangent about the picture of a well-ordered soul presented in Plato's Republic because it would take too long and I wouldn't do it justice anyway. Just go read the Republic. Everyone should. For now, a short summary of the parts about the soul will have to suffice. The human soul has three parts:

• The animal appetites, some destructive and some necessary for life
• The higher human reasoning faculties
• The spirited part, or Guardian class, which I tend to think of as human emotion

In a well-ordered soul, the higher reasoning part is in command and rules the other parts, with the spirited part as its ally to enforce its decisions over the appetites and also protect it from outside corrupting influences. But the appetites are not subjugated or enslaved; they have their proper role to play and are content to play that role, not trying to usurp the reason's decision-making power. There is harmony in a well-ordered soul: the reason is a true benevolent King, the spirited part a stalwart Guardian, and the appetites the subjects who are loyal because they understand that following the King and keeping the law is good for them.

Degeneration and disorder of the soul happens when this harmony is upset. First, love of honor, victory, and reputation creeps in and usurps the Good as the ultimate object of the soul's attention, and the spirited part of the soul begins to take over decision-making from the reason. Next, the profit motive and drive for gain takes over and the higher appetites move into the driver's seat. Third, the idea arises that all appetites are equally valid and worthy of fulfillment, constructive and destructive ones alike, and disorder increases as more appetites compete for decision-making power. Finally, a singular tyrannical appetite rises up and wrests control from all the others, steering the soul in whatever direction it believes will gratify it, regardless of the consequences or moral value of whatever actions it must take.

Again, seriously go read the Republic. Plato/Socrates takes about 250 pages to explain this much more convincingly than I ever could. The point is that a well-ordered soul is oriented towards the Good. To the extent that it pursues honor, reputation, profit, equality, or any other thing generally considered good, it is not for the sake of that particular thing itself, but for the sake of its utility in pursuing the Good. If a soul finds itself desiring honor for its own sake, or profit for its own sake, or anything besides the Good for its own sake, it is an indication that there is some disorder present. The best part of every soul desires the Good. To the extent that a person fails to pursue the Good, it is because some part other than the best part is exercising too much control.

I've been using this capital-G Good term to describe something like a Platonic Form, but what actually is it? Well, it's an ideal not visible in the physical world, like a circle. We can describe a circle mathematically. We can draw and look at approximations of circles, and with modern technology we can do it pretty well. But we cannot and will never be able to see a perfect, unblemished Form of a Circle in the physical world. The best we can hope for is an ever-closer approximation.

As physical representations of circles point towards and hint at the Form of a Circle, so good things in life point towards and hint at the Good. So the question is not so much what is the Good, but what things in life most closely point towards and represent the Good, and how can we tell? That's a huge philosophical can of worms beyond the scope of this essay, and I have more questions than answers; so I can't tell you the answer, but I can tell you what I think Tolkien's answer is.

It's very interesting that Tolkien chooses to end his epic on this particular image of a simple hobbit coming home to his family. It's not Aragorn riding off into the sunset at the head of a magnificent army, or sitting on his throne with loyal subjects cheering his name, or even marrying Arwen. There's no epilogue detailing the lives of all the characters beyond the time frame of the story (these details exist elsewhere, in the appendices and the Simlarillion, but not in the novel itself). Even Frodo the Ring-bearer, usually thought of as the protagonist of the novel's hero's journey structure, doesn't get the focus in the final few closing sentences.

As Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin draw near to home, Gandalf warns them that Saruman has taken an interest in the Shire after his defeat at Isengard, and that things may not be as they were when they left. Merry says that Gandalf is with them, so they'll be fine and everything will be set to rights shortly. Gandalf answers thusly:

'I am with you at present,' said Gandalf, 'but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for. Do you not yet understand? My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you.'

— The Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter VII: Homeward Bound

When the hobbits return, they do indeed find Saruman, now known as Sharkey among the people of the Shire, in a position of dictatorship and in the process of ruining the formerly idyllic country. It is up to them, without the aid of Gandalf or any other of their powerful new friends, to set their home back in order, and they do so relatively easily with the courage and virtue they have built up throughout their journey. What I find most interesting about this is Gandalf's statement that the hobbits have been "trained for" this task. It's like the purpose of the entire journey for the hobbits was to train them to take care of their own home.

Though it spans an entire continent, the story of The Lord of the Rings begins and ends in the Shire. For the hobbits, the entire focus has always been the Shire. For them there would have been no reason to go on an epic quest, or even to care at all about goings-on in far-off places like Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor, were it not for the impact those events could potentially have on the Shire. In the beginning the Shire is vulnerable and its people naïve, because they have lived in peace and comfort for so long that they've forgotten how ugly and dangerous the world can be. Four hobbits go on a journey and see that ugliness and danger up close and personally, being fundamentally transformed in the process, and in the meanwhile the gentle nature of the rest of the hobbits causes them to be overtaken by an outside force which is just a small piece of the ugliness and danger that the travelers encountered. The travelers return and use their newfound skills to awaken a stoutness and resilience in the rest of the hobbits that has apparently always been there, but lain dormant in their years of comfort. The Shire is delivered from the iron-fisted rule of Saruman, and through the whole experience is itself transformed into a country considerably less naïve and more vigilant against forces that would attempt to take advantage of its good nature.

In short, the four travelers become responsible for setting their homeland in better order, and their journey trains and enables them to do so. But the journey was just that: training. It wasn't the purpose in itself for the hobbits. Just as honor, profit, or equality in themselves aren't the ultimate aim of the well-ordered soul, the effects of the hobbits' actions on the wider world aren't their ultimate aim. They certainly do plenty of good for the wider world through their actions, but their ultimate purpose, the Good for which they have been aiming the whole time (whether they've known it or not), is the betterment of themselves, their families, and their community. As we draw closer to the end of the story and the focus narrows back in on the Shire, we are honing in on a closer approximation of the Good: a well-ordered home country.

After the Shire is set back in order, we zoom in even more to one final level of detail before the story closes, the closest approximation to the Good that the story gives us: a well-ordered soul in a well-ordered family in a well-ordered community, living in harmony with itself at every level of resolution. This, I believe, is what the best part of every man wants. To the extent that a man doesn't want this, or doesn't think he wants this, it is because there is disorder in his soul and some part other than the best part has taken over the rule.

Personal Philosophy

You man have noticed that I've been talking about what every "man" wants this whole time, and I've been doing that on purpose. I suppose the reason I'm more interested in talking about men than women is that I am a man, and much of the purpose of doing this writing is to organize my own thoughts about these subjects and how they apply to me. I don't think philosophy was ever meant to be an academic subject, at least not as far as the true philosophers are concerned. Every time we get together to talk about the nature of justice, honor, the Good, or well-ordered souls, we are doing philosophy, not studying philosophy. We also do philosophy when we organize our lives according to the truths that have revealed themselves to us through reading, discussion, and argument, and that's probably the most important part. If I somehow land on a perfect picture of the Good through discussion but then fail to actually pursue it, what would be the point of having had the discussion at all? Philosophy is a personal thing, and I don't mean that in a "just do what feels right, maaaaaan" kind of way. I mean it has to be applicable to a real life, or it becomes just an academic exercise and no longer true philosophy.

So my purpose in writing this is to try to flesh out my picture of what the Good is and how to pursue it, and the reason I've been focusing primarily on men is that though the Good might look pretty similar for men and women, I think the corrupting influences that we face look very different. As a man, I will never fully understand what it's like to be a pretty teenage girl around hormone-fueled teenage boys and to be simply handed an unimaginable amount of power over those boys by way of the boys' desire for attention and validation from a pretty girl. And a woman will never fully understand what it's like to be one of those boys desperate for the girl's attention, and to not be able to get it.

There are a thousand different forms of male disorder on full display in the world, ranging from relatively benign to outright evil. Simping over e-girls on OnlyFans might be one of the easiest to make fun of, and the murderous impulses of serial killers and other violent criminals might be some of the scariest. If you ever want to dive down a rabbit hole, there's a whole YouTube subgenre dedicated to analyzing, commentating on, and making fun of the pedophiles exposed on the Dateline NBC show To Catch a Predator back in the early 2000s. On the less overtly evil end of the spectrum, plenty of men have married bad women for their looks, had kids, and ended up getting dragged through divorce court and ruined. Others become so terrified of that possibility that they decide it's not worth it and don't pursue relationships with women at all. What these things and plenty more all have in common is that they are conditions of men's souls that have become focused, for whatever reason, on something other than the Good.

You could fairly say that it's pretty important to figure out what the Good is and how to pursue it, so you don't end up off on some sidetrack that more or less approximates your own personal hell. The conclusion I've come to is that it definitely involves having a family, which means finding a woman. As far as I know you still need both a male and a female for that, no matter how much the postmodern critical theorists hate biology for being oppressive.

So if I'm looking for a woman to build a family with, my choice has to serve the Good. The important characteristics are the ones that do that. I'm thinking of things like truthfulness, kindness, good looks, responsibility, and any other positive characteristic a man could want in a woman. These things are all desirable not for their own sakes, but for the way they contribute to serving the Good. It's not that they aren't good on their own, it's just that none of them are the ultimate end. I'm betting that for any man with disordered relationships with women, if you really dug in, you would eventually find that he's been pursuing some characteristic for its own sake, or for some reason other than its usefulness in serving the Good. Yes, I've been there, and my experience checks out with this.

There's also a good reason I think instruction given to boys about this topic by their parents often fails, if it's given at all. Having grown up in a nondenominational Christian church, I was taught that the proper thing for a man to do is to find a wife and have a family, and all dating should be strictly done for this purpose. The reason that instruction failed is not that there was no truth in it (I think there's a fair bit of truth in it actually), but that there was no philosophical grounding behind it. There was no reasoning or explanation beyond saying that God made things this way and it's what's best for us.

Maybe that works for some people, but it falls into the category of what Socrates would call True Opinion, or information that happens to be correct but for which the speaker can give no account. If I want to go to Albuquerque and I ask someone who knows the way how to get there, he'll tell me the way and I'll get there easily, because he has Knowledge of the way to Albuquerque. If I ask someone who doesn't know the way but just picks a direction and points, I still might make it by going in that direction, but if I do it's by chance. If I ask the man who knows the way to give an account of how he knows, he could explain that he's either been there and seen the way himself, or seen a map, or has some other evidence that the way he tells me is correct. He could even show me a map and make a demonstration and pass his Knowledge on to me. On the other hand, the man who doesn't know the way but happens to point in the right direction couldn't give an account, because he doesn't have Knowledge; he has only True Opinion.

Now, if I were talking to that man who doesn't know the way to Albuquerque and realized that he could give no account of why the direction he's pointing is correct, I would be completely justified in choosing not to follow his directions. And that is why so much instruction to boys fails. Their parents, teachers, pastors, and anyone else in authority over them often have only True Opinion of what they're saying and not Knowledge, because they can't give an account. If they try to give an account that they don't have, it often falls flat to a boy of reasonable intelligence because he sees through the false front. Some part of him realizes that the account isn't true, whether consciously or not, and he justifiably decides not to follow those directions. Our True Opinion man would be even less credible if he pointed south, then said he was going to Albuquerque himself and turned around and walked north. If he truly believes the correct direction is south, and he wants to get there, why would he walk north? Why would we trust people who don't follow their own directions? Plenty of us see this kind of thing from our authority figures as well.

So I'm at a point in life where I'm starting to discover and try to flesh out a philosophical account of some of the True Opinion I was taught as a child. Some of it might end up not actually being True either; that's what happens when you don't have a real account of something. I don't know what the Good is definitively, but there are a lot of shadows of it in The Lord of the Rings. Emotions and appetites don't rule the well-ordered soul, but they do have a place in the overall harmony. That means the way I felt reading that final image of Sam Gamgee's home ought to mean something. There was nothing quite as stirring as the feeling of being expected. I'd overlook a lot of flaws for someone who could provide that.