>The Shire stands as an ideal country, characterized by green hills, sparkling rivers, and pleasant woodlands. The inhabitants of that community are farmers, tradesmen, and country gentry, all of whom indulge in the innocent pleasures of rustic life: good food, strong beer, and idle gossip, all amply represented at Bilbo's birthday party.
>When they return home, however, the Shire hobbits discover their cherished ideal corrupted. A totalitarian state has replaced the carefree rural life, dominated by "the Rules" and suffering from "no beer and very little food."
>Bag End, lies abandoned and stinks of filth. Sam sums up the situation with his exclamation, "This is worse than Mordor! . . . It comes home to you, they say; because it is home, and you remember it before it was ruined."
>Mordor has come home; everything the hobbits have fought so hard for has been ruined. At first glance, Frodo and the others blame outside forces for the destruction. Evil men, brigands, and thieves have moved in while the protecting Rangers have gone to war. Sharkey, their leader, has urged them to "hack, burn and ruin" since his arrival. The hobbits soon learn that Sharkey is their old enemy Saruman, who has ravaged the Shire in revenge for his own losses.
>The outsiders are not the only ones to blame, however. Like the evil of the Ring, the evil that besets the Shire works from within, feeding on the hobbits' own desires. Lotho Sackville-Baggins, hungry for power and prestige, brought the first Men into the Four Farthings to protect his growing property. "Seems he wanted to own everything himself, and then order other folk about," says Farmer Cotton. Although couched in rustic language, the description fits Sauron as well as Lotho. Other hobbits also accepted and even enjoyed the changes, regardless of the cost.
We are living in the scouring of the Shire chapter of England, except this time Sharkey and Wormtongue are here to stay.
