TIL I suck at this game . <| sep |> Courtney at K Jae Salon in NW . She is phenomenal , a very deft touch with color ! <| sep |> Yeah , Tolkien knows his own mind pretty well , but he agrees with uAle 4444 In his letters But of course if one sets out to address ' adults ' mentally adult people anyway they will not be pleased , excited or moved unless the whole , or the incidents , seem to be about something worth considering , more e . g . than the mere danger and escape there must be some relevance to the ' human situation ' of all periods . So something of the teller ' s own reflections and ' values ' will inevitably get worked in . This is not the same as allegory . We all , in groups or as individuals , exemplify general principles but we do not represent them . The Hobbits are no more an ' allegory ' than are say the Pygmies of the African forest . Gollum is to me just a ' character ' an imagined person who granted the situation acted so and so under opposing strains , as it appears to be probable that he would there is always an incalculable element in any individual real or imagined otherwise heshe would not be an individual but a type . See this post for more detail and context around the quote .