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Don’t Lose Hope, Even When Hope Seems to be Lost

Hannah Moulds

Humanities 30-1

Mr. Kabachia

March 24, 2010

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In the movie The Lord of the Rings- the Return of the King, by Peter Jackson, we begin to see a

character that is faced with competing demands. These demands are honour and certainty. The idea of

honour in this film is the idea of honesty and integrity in him and in his friendship. And the idea of

certainty is important when considering the task at hand and the belief that it can be done. A character

that struggles to restore honour and certainty The Return of the King is Samwise Gamgee. This is a

character that has shown a great struggle to support and protect his friend, Frodo, on their journey to

destroy the Ring at Mount Doom. There are three ways in which Sam struggles to restore his honour and

certainty: through understanding; he wants to understand what Frodo is going through but this only

leads to Frodo being threatened by his friends help, through stubbornness; even though Frodo sent him

away, Sam knew he could not make Frodo do this task on his own but the power of the ring becomes

reality to him, and lastly Sam uses force; he pushes Frodo along the path to Mount Doom, and even

though he knows that they may not have a return journey he remains hopeful to keep his friend strong.

The situations Sam is faced with push him to be as positive as he can be, but in some cases he loses track

of who he is and what he needs to do. Sam regains a sense of control and is able to support his friends

the rest of the way. This shows that no matter what situations an individual is dealt with, whether it is

hard on them mentally or physically, there must be some hope in order to keep them moving forward.

There are many scenes in which we see Sam trying to understand what his friend is going

through. The Ring is a very powerful object, and whomever it comes into contact with, it will try to

consume their mind. Frodo shows that he has become vulnerable to the Ring, and he is dependent on its

power. This is hard for Sam because he cannot put himself in Frodo’s situation because this task was his

burden. There is scene where Sam tries to help Frodo and in this scene Sam says, “I can carry it for a

while, share the load.” This was one of the turning points in Frodo’s character because he no longer sees

Sam as a friend and a support, he now sees him as a threat. This urges Frodo to send Sam away, and so

he does. This was hard for Sam because his intention was not to take the Ring; he just wanted to share

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the burden. And so through Sam trying to understand what his friend was going through, Sam was

betrayed and was sent away by someone who he loved and needed to protect.

Another way in which Sam struggles to restore his honour and certainty was through his

stubbornness. After being sent away by his friend, he knew that Frodo could complete the task alone. So

Sam decided to turn around and follow, but when he found Frodo, it was not something he was

prepared for. Frodo was stunned by the spider’s venom, and looked as though he was dead. So, thinking

his friend was dead, Sam knew he had to take the Ring and finish what they set out to do. From having

the Ring for only a short time, Sam came to realize the power the Ring truly had. Sam found Frodo under

the care of some orcs, and told Frodo that he took the Ring from him. Frodo saw that the power of the

Ring was consuming Sam’s mind, and told him that this was his burden, and the Ring will destroy him.

Sam, eventually, did not give into the Rings power and he gave it back to its rightful owner. From then

on Sam’s determination for destroying the ring became stronger. The power of the Ring was now reality

to him, and he could empathize with Frodo and the hardship he must be going through.

It is hard to maintain a strong mentality when you are trying to fight for your life as well as fight

for many others. Frodo had the task of destroying all evil, but Sam had the job of making sure he was

protected. Sam knew that Frodo’s strength was slipping away, and so he forced Frodo to keep on

moving. Mount Doom was so far away, and it was as though Frodo was giving up, but Sam gave Frodo

certain places to aim for. Once they reached Mount Doom, Frodo realizes that there won’t be enough

water for the return journey, Sam answered with, “I don’t think there will be a return journey Mr.

Frodo.” With this said, they both lost hope in returning back home to the Shire. But Sam knew they

could not lose hope of getting to the top of Mount Doom in order to destroy the Ring. Since Frodo could

no longer walk up the volcano, Sam decided to put him on his shoulders and carry him up. This shows

that even though they had no hope of getting back, the hope for finishing what they came to do was still

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intact. Sam built up the strength to push himself, with his friend on his back, up Mount Doom to destroy

the Ring.

Sam was an individual that was able to restore honour and certainty in his friendship and

allowed for the quest of destroying the Ring to be completed. It was not without a struggle because Sam

was faced with situations that he could not understand as well as situation he could not control. Sam

tried his best to empathize with Frodo, but the only time he could truly be empathetic is when he almost

lost himself to the Ring power. But Sam always managed to have hope and find some strength in order

to have the ability to protect his friend, even when his friend didn’t want his protection. He was a

stubborn character that did not give up when times got tough, and he was able to force Frodo to have

the strength to destroy the burden that was set upon him. It is important for an individual to remain

hopeful in the task that is set in hand, even when it seems all hope is lost, and to find the strength to

push yourself to do the impossible.