In
closing, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is an excellent literary work
that combines the moralities and standards of fairy tales with the history and
depth of an epic novel. It is escapism at its best and is an excellent series
to introduce young readers to the fantasy genre. Tolkien treated women with
respect and did not fall into standard fairy tale stereotypes with them.
The drawback to the book is that there is not
a consistant strong female presence throughout the book, thus making this story
much less appealing for young women than young men to read. This book makes
for an excellent classroom book because it has a strong plot, several layers
to the story, clear declarations of "good" and "evil", redemption,
consequences and elements of strong characters. Each is fertile material for
discussion.
