Behavioral psychology and geopolitical mapping of The Hobbit in my class? Yeah--of course--!

My creative writing class is reading Tolkien's The Hobbit, and we are focusing on narrative choices that the author has made, in addition to the plot, characters, settings, etc. We found ourselves going into a psychological analysis of Bilbo's first meeting with Gollum. This is where things got quite interesting: Gollum/Smeagol speaks in a sort of second-person point of view which is important, as the character's psyche is bifurcated due to the addiction to the Ring. When Bilbo encounters this ur-Hobbit creature so consumed by greed and possessed by his Precious, he is also confronting the repressed, uncivil part of being a proper Hobbit. This Id personality is deeply ingrained in all humans, and when it comes to the forefront, we have to confront it or we commit acts that, later, we regret or even deny. 

Hm! 

Then we started to map the alliances and hatreds among the groups represented in the novel, which turned into the beginnings of a geo-political discussion about Europe and WWI, with connections to current events. 

Now, please don't misunderstand-- my students are seeing this, but not able to follow it up fully (YET). But how cool was that for a Monday morning? I kind of can't wait to get to class today. Yes, students can backslide into lazy habits, but if given a little space and time and prodding to get them started, they surprise themselves. This, my friends, is why I will not resort to just pushing play on an audiobook in class as others have done with this crew. Reading a physical text slows them down, yes, and may be a little more challenging (it should be), but the results are so much better.

Have a super day-- 

C