After thinking for a while about what I wanted to focus my blog post on it finally hit me that there is a perfect example in one of my favorite movie series of all time. This would be a combination of the trilogies Lord of the Rings and The hobbit. More specifically The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. For a little back story on The Hobbit, it follows a hobbit Bilbo on his adventures with a group of dwarves whose leader is Thorin. Their adventure is to reclaim Lonely Mountain (past home of the dwarves) from a Dragon who guards the mountain and all of the treasure that it holds inside. Throughout the movies Thorin is generally a character that most people back and he seems like he is doing things for right reasons, this all changes once wealth is involved. When the dwarves eventually force the dragon out of the mountain it goes and terrorizes a nearby town where it is later slain by the people of the town. The only problem is that the dragon caused enough damage that the town had to just be called a total loss. All of the towns people flee to Dale which is basically right out the gates of Thorins new fortress in Lonely mountain. When Thorin notices this he orders the entrance to be sealed off so nobody can get in. Once he obtained a mountain full of gold he changed immensely. He no longer was a man of his word, he promised the towns people their share of gold to help with the dragon which he denied. Even when the innocent towns people were in direct danger from enemy orcs Thorin did not bat an eye at leaving his keep to help them. In his mind he had his home and his gold and nothing else in the world mattered. Not promises he made, relationships he created, or peoples lives that he put in danger. At this point without a doubt Thorin has become a complete monster. His mind became corrupted by wealth just like all typical money hungry stories go. In ways this could be compared to modern day leaders and wealthy people lesser developed countries. They use their power and money to completely distance themselves from the poor people and violence that goes on in their nation. In their mind they have their money and thats all that matters just like Thorin and his gold.
(I will say that there comes a point in the movie where Thorin snaps out of it and changes his ways and becomes good again)
I am kicking myself for not using this as an example from Lord of the Rings, I instead used the example of all the people who became corrupted by the Ring. Once again, Lord of the Rings provides us with a great example of how greed can corrupt those who attain great wealth and power. The transformation that Thorin undergoes into becoming a monstrous person is alarmingly fast as well. It only takes a few hours for him to transform and to become selfish,greedy, and put the needs of maintaining his wealth and supposed power above the needs of his friends, and the townspeople who became endangered through the actions of him and his group. Another example from within this story that I would like to also add, is how even after Thorin had acquired all of this wealth, his desire was not yet sated, for he still lusted after the Arkenstone. The Arkenstone to Thorin was the ultimate representation of Dwarvish pride and significance. The Arkenstone was previously owned by his grandfather before the dragon Smaug drove them out of the mountain. While Thorin's grandfather was in possession of the Arkenstone, he was madly obsessed with it and was even willing to sacrifice his life just to find the stone during the turmoil that Smaug caused when invading the mountain.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a perfect example! I definitely can see how it fits with money and power can create a monster. Like John said, when Thorin found all that gold and jewels he started to change. He cared very deeply about his companions but once the dragon was gone and he had everything, he even started turning on his own friends. He was so obsessed with getting the Arkenstone that he left his cousin alone to fight the battle outside the kingdom. This is all too common with people who get into a lot of money.
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