LOTR: Is Gollum a BP?

[Guest guest]

For any Lord of the Rings Fans out there:

I just watched The Two Towers again last night. Does anyone else

think Gollum is BP, or perhaps BP's are like Gollum? And that KO's

are a little like Frodo?

This ties a little into whether or not BP's have any choice in their

behavior. I think Smeagol had no choice but to be Smeagol (except at

the very beginning when he took the ring), but he did have a choice

whether or not to be Gollum.

I thought it interesting, too, that the ring used to be Gollum's, and

without it Gollum preceived that he had no other purpose/life, and

that Frodo " inherited " the ring so-to-speak from Gollum. So Gollum

*needed* to be with Frodo, but he hated Frodo for that very reason.

It's like our nadas lost their " rings " to us, (we " inherited " it

against our will, a little like Frodo), but always want it near them,

too. And like Gollum vaccilated between his " two natures " as it

were, wanting to be good/loved/protected, but also wanting control

(alternatingly idolizing and hating Frodo, but either way never

leaving him alone) - I think BP's are very much like that with us

KOs. He even alternates between having dangerous rages and pathetic

wailing pity parties - whatever is most likely to help him get his

way.

The weight, the pull, the sensitivity to evil that Frodo experienced

because of the ring reminds me of myself, at least, as a KO. And the

way Frodo looked at Gollum and needed to believe that he could be

good, that he could be Smeagol, was so important to him because he

was afraid that the ring would turn himself into another Gollum.

Just like many of us are afraid that we might also be BP, or that

because of our inherited " ring " we have become something other

than " human " (ie: damaged goods as was mentioned in other posts).

Yet, I think in the end it is all about choices. Frodo could easily

have become another Gollum. He could have let the ring destroy him

and his whole world. And yet, inspite of the suffering, he continued

on his journey alone and misunderstood, and haunted. And yet he

refused to give up holding on to what was good in the world, and to

what was good in himself. Smeagol fought the same struggle, but

chose to surrender to his greed for control, until in the end he was

consumed by his desire and it virtually took away his ability to

choose.

Smeagol took the ring by choice in the beginning, but Frodo inherited

it. I tend to believe that most BP's have some choice, at least in

the beginning, whereas the choice of KO's is more of having it placed

upon us against our will, and struggling against it our whole lives

until it is finally destroyed after fighting off all our " demons " as

it were.

I was also thinking about Dan. In the end Frodo couldn't rid himself

of the ring and had to have his finger " amputated " from his body. I

was wondering if Dan's amputation desire might be similar. That the

will just isn't strong enough on it's own and an outside party has to

actually remove it. Since the soul can't be operated on, perhaps a

body part is the next best substitute (in his case a leg).

Also, in the end Gollum got his ring back and was destroyed with it.

Perhaps those of you who have " divorced " your parents have done just

that - given the " ring " back and destroyed them both (in terms of

their presence in your personal psyche).

Does this make sense to anyone else besides me?

If only we all had a Sam to help us along the way! Perhaps we do,

and perhaps we also have to leave our families and replace it with an

odd assortment of other people who happen upon the same journey with

us (as in the original Fellowship).

But, perhaps I'm speculating too deeply. I just thought it was

interesting.

Cathi