About the Baggins: Frodo or Bilbo?
Middle Earth and Tolkien never stop to amuse and inspire me. I realize how brilliant Tolkien was, it isn’t when I read his books, but when I contemplate my life with it.
In the last two months, I always pursued something that I doubt it was right for me or not. I worked my heart out like hell, studying English and those IELTS things. In the very same times, I am preparing all the requirements for the scholarship. But I never sure, that this is the most suitable path for me.
For not long ago, my friend told me: Did you realize you’ve become more like Frodo rather than Bilbo? Her words pierce me right into the core. I concur with her.
People always think about how others see them. They worried about their wealth, look, achievement and the other thing that really considered by society. They had themselves taken for granted, consumed by fear of being rejected and try their best to fulfil what the other people want them to be.
Tolkien already made a character that most people tend to like to. It was Frodo. Frodo was a man from Baggins of Shire. He took the burden by becoming ring bearer for the fellowship, the white council and the freedom of Middle Earth. He never thought twice about the risk and the pain that surround the one ring, for he was the only one that can bear the ring into the mount doom and destroys it.
But the world never asked about Frodo’s will nor do they explained clearly about the death that may appear ripping his life. Frodo consumed by friends and the name of freedom.
People are all the same.
They feared rejection. So they walk the path that the others made for them. They never stepped aside and try to guess where those roads lead: their own happiness or to make the others happy?
As soon I figured out that I was the Frodo, I crashed my head down into bitterness. Why I become the person that jailed with the stigma and another person’s demand? Their happiness is not my responsibility and never be anyone except themselves.
So I move on, try to figure out how to change from Frodo into Bilbo.
However, As my head tries it’s best to find the way, I came into a different conclusion.
Bilbo never was the freeman of Middle Earth. His bonds with the ring occupied him, made him controlled by the ring itself. Whenever my friend agrees that Bilbo successfully overcame the fears about leaving his home at the Shire, I doubt him. It was true Bilbo set his hobbit foot outside the Shire then wanders into the Lonely Mountain. But after he defeated the Gollum, he constrained himself within the ring, on the others name: within his own ambition.
Neither was wrong between becomes Frodo or Bilbo. Although Frodo went in hardship for the others, the stories stated that he was happy in the end. Bilbo is doing the same despite losing the ambition he kept dear within him.
But once again, I appreciate the flawless stories about the Red Book of Westmarch. The characters made a human human. In conclusion of this, it is up to you: whether you choose the path of the others or make your own path. But choose it dearly and fairly in regards to your own happiness.
Grey Havens, Before set sail to the forever
