As I have been wrapping up The Return of the King and through the class's discussions on The Hobbit, I have been reminded of a feature of Tolkien's writing that I find very interesting. In both of these books, the story does not end with the completion of the central quest. In The Hobbit, the book does not conclude with the defeat of the dragon. While the main plot revolved around the company of dwarves' retaking their homeland through destroying Smaug, Tolkien surprises readers by having much more to say even once Bard the Bowman smites the evil beast. Similarly, in The Return of the King, the ring's destruction does not draw the curtains of the story. Six more chapters remain between the climb up Mount Doom and the departure to the Grey Havens.
While I believe that Tolkien intended the dragon's defeat and the ring's destruction to be the mechanisms for moving the story's plot, I also think he is intentional in choosing not to end the overall story with the conclusion of the central quests. If the story were to end with Smaug's death, then we would never have fully seen the completion of Bilbo's dramatic character development. While Bilbo had changed much from the dinner party at Bag-End, he still had yet to fully demonstrate his courage by going behind Thorin's back and delivering the Arkenstone to Bard. While confronting trolls, orcs, Gollum, spiders, and the dragon were all incredible feats of courage, Bilbo's "betrayal" of his dwarven friend was actually his most significant show of bravery as he knew Thorin in his madness would despise him for it. Tolkien needed his protagonist to finish his story arc, and that required an extended plot beyond the golden cavern of Smaug.
Likewise, in The Lord of the Rings, destroying the ring ended Frodo and his friends' quest, but the story still required appropriate denouement. Aragorn had to fully embrace the kingship of Gondor, and the four hobbits still had to confront the reality of their pleasant, pastoral land being ravaged by Saruman. And even beyond this unexpected setback, Frodo's story ended with his leaving the shores of Middle-Earth with Gandalf, Bilbo, and the elves. The quest of the ring brought all these characters together, and they all shared common experiences. In the end, each had his own ending, and Tolkien wished to share these with his readers.
I am glad Tolkien wrote these stories' endings the way he did. I believe they are more reflective of how real life works. After tackling present obstacles, a person's life and story do not end there. There is more to do and more challenges to face. Tolkien demonstrates this by adding so much more after those chapters that would normally (and arguably are) the points of highest emotion. That Tolkien has more to say is another reason why I think both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are still so popular today.
I totally agree that the stories needed to continue to show how far the characters have come. Without Bilbo returning to his home in Hobbiton his dramatic development wouldn't have been as apparent. I also think that the additional content after the main quest is completed serves as a reflection period for the characters. In both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Bilbo and Frodo take pretty much the same path back to their home. For both hobbits the road back to the Shire illuminates how much they have changed and how much of an effect their journey's had on them. We see that the effect on Bilbo was much more positive than the post traumatic stress which Frodo faces after his journey is complete.
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