As Frodo, Sam, Gollum, and the rest of the characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings progress along their respective quests to further the decided goal of destroying the one ring, they face a changed society under the totalitarian control of Sauron and his forces because they have managed to force an understanding of their own version of the permanent lie onto the people of Middle Earth. The main aspect of this permanent lie that transfers over would be the aspect of “Constant Fear”, as Aleksandr Solzenhitsyn depicts in his Gulag Archipelago, as the fact that such an “aggregate fear led to a correct consciousness of one’s own insignificance and of the lack of any kind of rights” (Solzhenitsyn 321). With the people of Middle Earth in their own belief of their individual insignificance, nobody would have any strength, hope, or belief that they could stand against such an incredible opposition and obtain a good outcome. Sauron’s permanent lie was able to act as a wall of belief against most who opposed such rule yet were coerced into believing they could not do anything to change it.
Of course, Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, and the rest are not your typical everyday Middle Earth inhabitants though, so this overbearing permanent lie does not affect them as much as it affects the rest of the general population. What helps Frodo, Sam, and the rest get through this permanent lie though, even in the darkest of times, is the willingness to accomplish their goal in the hope to end such a rule once and for all. Even the most miniscule reminders of such hope in this time are of the greatest aid to them, giving them just the extra push of confidence to move forward. As Gollum leads Frodo and Sam to the Cross-roads, they come across a statue of one of the former kings of the land, deteriorated and desecrated into a shrine for none other than Sauron. They then see the chopped off head on the statue on the ground, growing out a new crown of golden flowers around it, to which Frodo exclaims “they cannot conquer for ever!”, acting as this aforementioned recharge of hope (Tolkien 702). Directly after this statement though, the “Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell”, acting as the reminder of Sauron’s permanent lie still protected in its place until the destruction of the ring (Tolkien 702).