Joey Chmelik
Cook County High School Junior Joey Chmelik won first place in the 2012- 13 WDSE·WRPT annual High School Essay contest. Students throughout the Northland had the opportunity to submit an essay of up to 500 words on the topic: Select a creative work—a novel, a film, a poem, a musical piece, a painting, or other work of art that has influenced the way you view the world and the way you view yourself.
Among all the students throughout northeast Minnesota who submitted essays, Chmelik won a $500 prize for first place.
Congratulations Joey! His award-winning essay follows:
Of Hobbits and Hill Climbing
Joey Chmelik
Hardships are something we all encounter, whether it’s defending your
existence against a redoubtable enemy or writing an essay for English class.
Struggles, both internal and external, can bring out the best (or worst) in all
of us. If it weren’t for our struggles, we’d never get a glimpse of perseverance
and determination in their purest, most agonizing forms.
A great work of art that skillfully exhibits both horror and happiness is one of
my favorite stories, The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
As well as being highly mysterious and entertaining, with its scenes of
adventure and talking trees, it also became highly apparent that Tolkien
had modeled the War of the Ring after World War I, in which he had been a
soldier, as well as World War II. The dark lord Sauron’s lust for dominion over
all Middle Earth is tied with Nazi Germany, as is a hobbit from the idyllic Shire
with a farm boy from rural England.
Parallels between the struggles of our world and theirs are so numerous
and exact, that for me, The Lord of the Rings has become an allegorical look
at the first half of the 20th century, cleverly altering my view of mankind’s
history. After all, Tolkien himself admitted, “I didn’t create Middle Earth. I
rediscovered it.”
However, effort in the face of tremendous adversity appears much
more frequently in situations smaller than the world scale. One of the
main characters in The Lord of the Rings, a hobbit named Frodo Baggins,
encounters such a struggle when he steps up to bring the ring of power into
the heart of Mordor, Sauron’s dark kingdom, and destroy it in the fires of
Mount Doom.
This bizarre and extremely dangerous fantasy escapade seems
overwhelming to poor Frodo at first, a feeling that all but goes away towards
the climax, when he finds the strength in him to take the final step. As a
cross country runner, Frodo and I can find common ground when it comes
to adversity. Through grueling periods of meets, strength routines, and hillclimbing sessions, I’ll occasionally question, like Frodo, why on Middle Earth
I’m doing this. The answer comes with success.
Achievement decorates people with a great sense of pride.
Acknowledgement is the best kind of reward, whether it’s by a chevron on a
letter jacket or a standing ovation in Minas Tirith.
Hardships are intrinsically human, but they’re also relevant to elves, dwarves,
and hobbits. Through their struggles, the characters in The Lord of the Rings
have given me a dramatized picture of myself and the world I live in. When
I look at this image, I see an earth set aflame by war, power, and greed … as
well as a small person running half-naked up a hill. By means of subversive
comparison and heroic inspiration, The Lord of the Rings has influenced my
view of both society and myself. Tolkien rediscovered Middle Earth. All we
need now is someone over there to rediscover us.
Leave a Reply