This was going to be just one post, but I lost control. So pardon me while I post it in two parts this morning.

Here is my outline for the more interpretive part of the article on The East:

3) Interpretations
        …
        b) Symbolic meanings – coherent with real world
                i) Birthplace of the races – Eden equivalent
                         (1) Corruption by Morgoth at birth incomplete
                         (2) No Jerusalem, No Christ, no rebirth in the East.
                ii) Medieval three-level world transposed onto earth.
        c) Differences from Medieval Myth
                i) No Christianity
                         (1) Jerusalem, Eden do not exist
                ii) No metaphysical Hell to balance Heaven
                         (1) Hell is on Middle-earth, within the souls of its inhabitants
                iii) No advanced civilizations – no trade with the Exotic East
                         (1) Prester John myth – desire to Christianize pagan lands
        d) Many symbolic interpretations depend on Flat Earth for effective meaning
                i) Distance from the Light – Flieger
                         (1) Complexity of movement back and forth
                ii) Jungian – Need for psychic balance between East and West
                iii) Sun Journey – move East underground represents spiritual rebirth
4) Conclusion
        a) Moral Geography
                i) Relative rather than absolute.
                ii) Contrasts with medieval and modern concepts connecting lands with peoples.

East vs. West. To me the most significant feature about The East in Tolkien is its role as counterbalance to The West. The West, of course, is the direction of Elvenhome and Valinor of the Gods, whether still literally on Earth or not. It is heavily characterized as Good, and as the source of Light and Peace, and it is the direction that the Elves go in search of their long immortal homes. It is the most important direction of the four, in Tolkien.
By contrast, as we saw yesterday, The East is inhabited by evil Men and/or spirits; and is characterized as Dark or Shadowed. In Tolkien’s world, the human races of Elves and Men are “born” in the far East of the land, but are compelled to travel West if they are to escape the evil influence of Morgoth, which is strongest in the East because of its distance from the Light of the Valar in the West.
That’s just a thumbnail, of course. The West/East duality is complex and deep, is one of the central themes of Tolkien’s cosmogony, and is perceived to some degree by almost any attentive reader.
In this regard, East is best thought of as a direction, not a place. Going East is a negative thing, no matter how far West one happens to be: it’s the direction one is going, not where one is, that determines one’s moral danger.

I found, after some trouble, three identifiable critical interpretations of the “meaning” of the West/East duality. Here are my notes from reading these critics.

Flieger: Silmarillion uses East-West to illustrate Shadow-Light divide in book.
Kuznets: The Hobbit is cleanly divided into West=safe, East=dangerous
Lobdell: Tolkien uses language to characterize, not describe, so the “eastness” comes through without being literal. Middle-earth is three-directional instead of the medieval three-tiered moral structure. East/Middle-earth/West replaces Hell/Earth/Heaven.
O’Neil: Jungian archetypes in which the East-West symmetry is key
Green: Jungian archetypes and solar journey applied to Hobbit.

Suppose I boiled these critics’ fine nuanced arguments down to this: There are three ways to think about the West/East duality in Middle-earth: 1. Light/Shadow; 2. Conscious/Unconscious; 3. Heaven/Hell.
A. Which do you like best? Which least? Could you argue against any of these critics on this issue?

B. What do you think Tolkien meant by it all?

Two of the critics are really talking about The Hobbit.
C. Is there a West/East divide in The Hobbit, and if so what does it mean?

God bless Verlyn Flieger. Her Splintered Light was the first serious writing I found that recognized and interpreted the East-West duality in Tolkien as part of a larger critical and theoretical argument. In fact, I struggled to find any other interpretations that I could seriously present, compared to hers. I did, finally – but in the mean time, for weeks I took comfort in having her on my side already.
D. Have you read Splintered Light? Do you remember her argument, and does it inform your reading of Tolkien?

Flieger makes the subtle point that in The Silmarillion, advancement comes to those who pass both ways, east and west, between Light and Shadow.
E. Is this true in LotR, too? How does this tie to the Jungian theory that a healthy individual must integrate his negredo and his albedo, as O’Neil explains?

O’Neil explains the Jungian idea of the quaternity with a 3+1 structure making a whole.
F. Can you think of any examples of this structure in Tolkien? Is Jungian theory a good path toward understanding some of Tolkien’s symbolism?

Lobdell points out the conflict between the medieval three-tiered cosmos, with a “fallen” Middle-earth below Heaven and above Hell; and Tolkien’s three-part world, with Middle-earth East of Heaven (Valinor in the West) and West of Hell (The East). He argues that Tolkien’s Middle-earth cannot be entirely fallen, since either Valinor is on earth, or West and East meet on the back side of a round world.
G. Do you agree that this makes a fundamental difference between Middle-earth, and our own Earth’s medieval cosmogony?

Hey. Isn’t this more fun than the Easterlings? Anyway, this stuff is what sucked up the word count  – this is where I spent the money.

Link to squire’s adventure