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Lord Of The Rings, a la Shmoop. My preciouss.... Are you a slave to a ring... like your Dad?

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In Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy, many characters find themselves tempted by the

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power of the Ring. With so many things that can entice us...

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...and with so many voices vying for our attention... ...will we be able to resist their allure

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and complete our own journeys, just as Frodo had to do?

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What are our 'rings'? What are we carrying with us?

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In Lord of the Rings, Frodo's ring holds a power over him, sometimes forcing him to act

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like... someone else.

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Do all of our digital gadgets and doo-dads possess us in a similar way?

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Seems there are rings everywhere you look. Do our 'rings' often steer us to where we're

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going? Like Frodo's journey to Mordor. Or are we letting these 'rings' and 'circles'

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distract and tempt us... What does it all mean?

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Do we have to travel all the way to Mordor and toss our rings into its fires to be rid

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of them once and for all? It seems there will always be temptation.

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Even the heroic Boromir couldn't resist the ring's allure.

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There will always be tough choices. And we'll always have to choose between giving

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in to the temptation of our rings... ...and fighting their urges, so they don't

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take over our lives. Poor Gollum didn't even see it coming.

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So, can we control the rings? Or do our rings...

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...our circles of power... ...have a hold on us?

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Will we be Lords of our own Rings? Shmoop Amongst Yourselves.

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