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I am not deeply interested in Science Fiction, I probably just know popular movies, books. Thus this will be the only question which I will ask in this site most probably please don't misunderstand me I am really curious about this.

In the map of Middle Earth which I saw, mordor in east . And good guys are in west part of the map. And also phrases like "man-of-west" are repeated many times in the movie. In third movie I remember there were elephants and persian like man were riding them again like bad guys.

Again please don't misunderstand me I am asking this question as a guy who doesn't in any religion and I am proud of my culture but I can't count myself very very nationalist. I am part of east culture and feeling a little bad about these facts. Am I mistaken in my observations or did Tolkien really meant what I am feeling? Anyways love you guys all.

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While there's a real temptation to look at the major themes seen in LOTR (e.g. war, loss, east versus west, etc) and imagine that the book is intended to be a crude parable about the recent World Wars, Tolkien stated very clearly that he hated the concept of allegory and that any connection between his books and real-world events was unintentional.

“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

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    Tolkien may have claimed that, but he used allegories a lot in his works. The industralisation of Isengard at the expense of Fangwood, for example, is an allegory for the destruction of nature for industry in his own Britain. – James Sheridan Feb 15 '14 at 22:28
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    @JamesSheridan - no, you're reading it as an allegory, but that doesn't make it one in the author's intention. – user8719 Feb 15 '14 at 22:46
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    I have to agree with @JamesSheridan. I suspect Tolkien wasn't entirely honest when he claimed he didn't attempt any allegories; I suspect he merely didn't want to explain them. By the way, for a human author, I think avoiding allegories is next to impossible. – Andres F. Feb 15 '14 at 22:56
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    @AndresF. - Human history and ideas tend to be highly repetitive. You are bound to see patterns, especially in works intended to be epic mythos. Claiming that something fits a pattern due to intentional allegory is beyond ridiculous unless you have at least some proof of intent OTHER than the pattern. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Feb 15 '14 at 23:10
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    Andres F. is right; it is impossible for a human author to avoid allegories. One may be able to avoid intentional allegories, but even that is doubtful. And while Tolkien was a heck of a linguist and very good at syncretising multiple mythologies into his universe, he was by no means an innovator, which one would have to be to avoid allegories in a work the sheer size of The Lord of the Rings. – James Sheridan Feb 16 '14 at 1:53

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