"The Departure of Boromir" - Eric's Thoughts

We criticized over and over how this chapter would have been a more fitting conclusion to the Fellowship. I still stand by that sentiment, but I don't think it's as black and white as we made it.

To the contrary, this chapter is a fantastic action opener. It immediately begins with Aragon running around trying to piece together what has happened. You can feel his anxiety. When Boromir blows his horn in desperation, you can hear the horn blow.

Aragon comes across Boromir, and hears Boromir's confess that he tried to take the ring from Frodo. The scene is touching. Any hate towards Boromir is immediately erased, and you see that he really is a noble man who just happened to be the first to fall to the Ring's corruption. (Perhaps because he is the most desperate.)

What really struck me about why this particular scene works is that Boromir confesses, and repents. You can tell he is sincere. Perhaps Boromir says it to alleviate his guilty conscience, but I think it goes deeper--Boromir says it as a warning: "I tried to take the Ring from Frodo. I am sorry. I have paid."

These words prove critical as to what choice Aragon makes: whether to follow Frodo, or save the Hobbits.

This brings me to the second point I'm interested in discussing: the structure of the chapter. Writing theory states that good storytelling generally follows the following structure:

Goal --> Conflict --> Disaster --> Reaction --> Dilemma--> Decision-->New Goal (repeat cycle)

The scene follows this structure pretty closely. Aragon begins the scene trying to respond to the horn of Boromir, his initial goal. Conflict comes in the form of Aragon's race against time. Disaster happens when Aragon learns that Boromir fell to the Ring and that the Hobbits have been taken. Aragon reacts, feeling tearful. Gimli and Legolas show up, raise new questions, and a dilemma is presented: Frodo or the Hobbits? Aragon studies the tracks, comes to a decision, and formulates a new goal. The chapter ends. In theory, the cycle should repeat itself in the next chapter, and so on.

Little surprise then, when looked at from a bird's eye view, that the really compelling moments of a story come when a character is faced with a dilemma. This right here seems to be a textbook example of dilemma: pursue Frodo, maybe find him, and even if you do know that you may try to take the Ring like Boromir OR try to save Hobbits who are likely dead. As Gimli notes, maybe there is no good option.

Tolkien then walks the reader through the character's reasoning. Aragon reads tracks to decide what happened and to learn more information. In doing so, Tolkien makes Aragon's incredible decision to abandon the Ringbearer and pursue two stupid hobbits believable. In light of Boromir, this decision makes even more sense. This allows what seems like a silly decision to abandon the fate of the world with a Hobbit, to a more rational decision. And we go along with it.

In theory, this is a structurally perfect chapter. While Tolkien may not have been aware what a "structurally perfect" chapter is, what's interesting is when he stumbles upon the formula by accident, it makes for his most compelling writing.