Argues that J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” is an adventure in reverse, an “argument” for “your” regression. Rather than play with your ability to maybe succeed in threatening environments, it confirms your worst suspicions about yourself, lending you in mood to cling to others in a master-slave relationship, so long as they’ll agree to protect you. First of four essays on this subject, in regards to Tolkien’s masterpiece, with this essay making the overarching argument concerning the whole series, and the others involving themselves in the dynamics between characters vis-a-vis one another in the text, and the reader with each of them, as well as the text itself, as they exist particular to a particular volume of the series. The readers’ identification with the hobbits is basically assumed. They are “show” of our worst suspicions of ourselves, a “test” of them.