1) ummmm pretty much most of the 90's :0) Seriously, about ten years ago
there was a space of a few weeks during which my husband filed for divorce, my
foster sister died of cancer, I moved out of my own house and into a shared
apartment, and I had to have a pacemaker implanted. I wasn't even sure if the
world really was going on. It was out there somewhere, but I could barely make
contact. However, (and this is something that comes into play as they push into
Mordor) sometimes it is easier to keep putting one foot in front of the other
than to just give up.
2-4) For this reason, it is a good thing for Sam that he has a purpose to take
up and especially wonderful that it is one which draws him closer to the person
he has lost. I see him internalizing Frodo here. Yes he puts on Frodo's things,
but through his conversation with him, is incorporating him into his own world.
The questions he asserts to Frodo are, of course, his own questions. But they
are a means of keeping his Master with him and yet making him a part of
him.
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...each of us is an allegory, embodying in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time and place, universal truth and everlasting life. (Letters, 163)
