The more things Change the More they stay the Same.

Of all of JRR Tolkien's great works I probably dislike the lord of the rings the most. While the hobbit is a fantastic fairy tale and the Silmarillion is a mythic cosmology, and the Akallabeth brilliantly turns the human existential drama on its head (more on that later) the lord of the rings merges those two worlds to essentially tell the story of a servant who selflessly and heroically saves the world to claw his way up to the middle class. Lowly servant Samwise Gamgee saves the world out of moralistic devotion to his master and is then patted on the back, given a ceremonial title of mayor (which Tolkien actually goes out of his way in the "concerning hobbits" forward to emphasize has no actual power or influence) and then goes right back to being a servant gardener only now he not only has to be a worthy servant he has a heroic reputation that precedes him to live up to. While most of the characters in the Lord of the Rings, from Gandalf to Pippin, are changed and grow as a result of there experience, Samwise Gamgee is a force of consistency and perseverance. He doesn't have much of a character arc. As Frodo is irreversibly damaged in the quest for MT. Doom, Sam is the direct complimentary counterbalance to the dynamism that pervades middle earth at the dawning of the 4th age. He is what he is and never wavers from it. Steadfast. A virtue to be sure, and model we can all learn from. But not my favorite plot line, and not much of a character arc. 

TC