Opening Lines
“The tall grass of desert farm in Bloemfontein, Africa, almost hid him from view. His nurse screamed his name, her voice chasing him, but he kept running from her—a pale three-year-old child in a white blouse and shorts.” These are the opening lines of the book, constituting the entire first paragraph. Imagery is used to situate the background in which Tolkien was raised—Africa—as well as imply a certain strong rebellious spirit developing quite early in the future author. The screaming nurse foreshadows a lifetime of people around Tolkien expressing concern or even fear about the consequences of his rebellious spirit.
Inspiration
One of the most difficult things for writers to recreate is the power of creative inspiration. One successful example is this image of what is, essentially, the precise moment in which the entirety of the adventures taking place in Middle-Earth was born. Based on this passage, it would seem that the key is an understatement. Rather than hyping the moment of creative inspiration as something that a writer or composer recognizes instantly, the imagery here actually illustrates the influence of the subconscious in infiltrating conscious desire and intent.
Ogres
“A mill worker, covered from head to foot with white bone dust, always yelled at the boys to get away from the doorway. Ronald called him the White Ogre—choosing the name Black Ogre for the mean-faced farmer on the hill, who chased him for picking mushrooms and who was said to whip country boys.” This imagery is another of the many examples in the book that illustrate how real-life sights for the young Tolkien informed the creation of fantasy fiction of the adult author he became. A million children could witness this very same image of a dust-covered adult and produce nothing creative based on it. Once again, the imagery also conveys the power of the subconscious in sparking the creative fire, though in this case, the wick took much longer to burn its way to ignition.
Speech Builds Character
“On Middle-earth, language could soothe or stab, be exalted or weak, sound coarse and common or ripe and brave…Orcs spoke the harsh, guttural Black Speech of Sauron, pronouncing words at the back of the throat (`Uruk-hai’), in contrast to the silken sounds of elf language (`Lothlórien” or “Elendil’).”
The imagery here conveys how Tolkien developed the races of his characters from the inside out. The passage demonstrates how the very sound of the language as spoken becomes a means of identifying a cultural background applicable to everyone raised within that culture.
