Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Difference between revisions

[[Suicide Mission|Suicide Missions]]s don't grow on trees; also the "Mission" part trumps "Suicide." Not every character to whom life has become a burden can kill themselves or even allow themselves to die. Sometimes there's a task or an obligation that must be discharged before they can ever have peace. It might be some grand quest only they can complete, or it might simply be the knowledge that people are depending on them, or will be devastated by their loss. Sometimes such a character must reluctantly fight to survive even though they don't want to. They might be allowed to "die trying" to do whatever it is, but not until they've exhausted every possible effort they can make.

* Both Frodo and Sam in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', in different ways. Frodo is committed to carrying on towards Mount Doom--ultimatelyDoom—ultimately even crawling on hands and knees--despiteknees—despite a long, quietly deepening certainty that the quest is hopeless. Sam tends to take a more one-day-at-a-time approach, but when he finds Frodo, apparently killed by Shelob, his first instinct is to consider suicide, or be cut down by Orcs defending Frodo's body. Only with great reluctance does he realize that the responsibility to destroy the ring trumps his personal despair and resolves to carry on alone. Often, later, he regrets bitterly that the two of them cannot just "lie down and go to sleep." Sam, incidentally, does recover his will to live an ordinary life, while Frodo doesn't.