"The Hobbit", Ch. 1-5 Freewrite Exercise

             Tolkien emphasizes the importance of fairness or appropriateness as well as "playing by the rules" because it's something that is crucial to both the development of his stories and the connection we as readers have to the characters. Being able to identify this duty and honor within the characters, good, bad, or somewhere in between, allows us to either fall in love with them, sympathize, or hate them. Plus, this idea of fairness only further magnified the feats that Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, and other characters accomplished. Being of the character that, in times of extreme stress or crisis, to move forward with what you feel or know to be the right thing, the fair thing, is amazing. In fact, this whole idea reminds me of the moment where Gandalf told Bilbo that courage or something, I don't remember exactly what he said, is not killing someone but knowing when to spare them. Even when discussing the treatment of their enemies, Gandalf too recognized right, wrong, and acted honorably. This also brings me to the Code of Chivalry. The code of chivalry serves as a guideline as to how to behave and treat others. While it was originally intended or used by knights, the code of chivalry can be applied to everyone. I feel as though you could apply this concept to the characters of both The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. It seems, to me at least, that Tolkien emphasized this idea because he believed in good, in doing what is right and/or fair no matter the circumstances, something that could have been influenced by his experience in WWI.