The Fellowship Of The Ring Good Vs Evil

I heard once from my high school English teacher that, “the conflict of good and evil is at the heart of all great stories, it's only some that offer insight”. This sparked my curiosity and interest leading me to conclude that we spend the majority of our life learning right from wrong as if it is as simple as black and white. We believe heroes and villains are easily distinguishable, but what if it wasn’t so black and white? What if we got the villains mixed up? J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel, The Fellowship of the Ring, the novel takes place in the Second World War, when evil was at an all-time high. Even though Tolkien’s novel takes place in a different realm, the story still relates to the good and evil in our world. In the novel, Tolkien uses

By using the opinion of many characters such as elf Elrond saying, “Nothing is evil in the beginning, even Sauron was not so”, it supports Augustine’s idea that we are all naturally born good but it is the corruption of desire that leads us to evil. The emphasis on providing information that Sauron was not always evil is significant to the writing because it supports the idea that Tolkien uses to convey that we are all naturally good which supports Augustine’s theory. Yet by using the ring as a symbol of choosing good or evil based on desire, Tolkien provides his own theory of how it is our never ending desires that can lead us to evil. We continuously see this pattern throughout the novel as many characters who are introduced as good of heart turn vicious due to the ring’s power over

Using the fellowship introduction scene, Tolkien shows the differences between each character, showing their balance of good and evil, remarking that everyone that’s part of the fellowship is affected by the ring and that no one isn’t. As they go through each character, the idea is presented by Boromir to use the power of the ring to defeat Sauron but as they claim, “you cannot fight the enemy with his own ring without turning into an enemy”(Book 2, Chapter 2, pg 282). Tolkien provides more evidence using this opportunity that although the Fellowship has good intentions, there’s still a chance for their desire to destroy the ring and corrupt them. This helps Tolkien challenge Plato’s theory of good and evil being equal parts within us by conveying that either good or evil dominates a being while the side left over is a small fraction that can come