In the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Frodo and Sam (two hobbits from the Shire) and others must set things right in Middle Earth. First, Mary and Pippin, hobbit friends of Sam and Frodo, are in a battle for Gondor against Sauron, a once powerful ruler, and his evil army. After that battle, Frodo and Sam are in Mordor, the wasteland of Sauron, traveling to mount doom to destroy the ring, which Sauron is powerless without. When the ring is gone, Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Mary return to their homeland of the Shire, which is very different than they remember it to be. They then return order to the Shire.
One possible theme of this book is that to destroy evil, Sauron in this case, one must destroy the root of evil, which is the ring. At Mount Doom, Golem "wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell [with the ring in his hand]" (240). When Golem falls in to the mountain where the fire destroys the ring, Sauron's chance of domination over Middle Earth is vanishes. Tolkien shows this through Frodo speaking with Sam. After they reach their goal, Sam points out that "this is the end, Sam Gamgee" (241).
This book is a wonderful tool to teach children that they must destroy the root of evil to destroy evil itself, therefore, this is a wonderful book for children and adults In this novel, Tolkien ingeniously uses songs to add an effect that lets the reader feel as if he/she is in Middle Earth listening to dwarves and elves sing. For instance, while Frodo is visiting his uncle, Bilbo, Bilbo sings "The Road goes ever and on- (288), which lets the reader imagine being with Bilbo, watching him sing his song. Although a fun to read book, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King may sometimes be hard to comprehend because of Tolkien's way of changing a words spelling for dialect. For example, in the Shire, it is not uncommon in this book to find someone shouting to another "Hullo, Rosie" (312).
