In Chapter 9 of Book 2 in The Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkein, the scenery and sadness that is illuminated from where the Company is at that point in their journey contrats with the scenery in Chapter 2 of Book 3 in The Gulag Archipelago, by Vintage Solzhenistyn. As the Company continues on their journey throughout Chapter 9, Tolkein uses interesting language and imagery to describe the scene in correlation to the mood of the group. This is displayed when he writes, “ Sam looked from bank to bank uneasily. The trees had seemed hostile before, as if they harboured secret eyes and lurking dangers; now he wished that the trees were still there. He felt that the Company was too naked, afloat in little open boats in the midst of shelterless lands, and on a river that was the frontier of war” (Tolkien 381). The mood and scenery are also described when Frodo expresses, “How wide and empty and mournful all this country look! I always imagined that as one journeyed south it got warmer and merrier, until winter was left behind for ever” (381). Both these quotes exemplify how the moods and overall feelings of the scene are described through Tolkein’s imagery and the similes he uses. Through this, it is clear that the Company is experiencing danger and trouble since the trees are no longer hiding them, suggesting that the trees are a symbol of safety. Similarly, In The Gulag Archipelago, Chapter 2 starts off with describing imagery as seeming bright and happy, although terrible events happened in that place. This is shown when Solzhenistyn quotes, writer, Prishbin, when he says ‘“‘In all this brightness it is as if there were no sin present…It is as if nature here had not yet matured to the point of no sin” (181). Solzhenistyn continued to write, “And grew bright once again and warm once again, and the fir trees grew and thickened, and the birds cackled and called, and the young deer trumpeted- and the planet circled through all world history, and kingdoms fell and rose, and here there were still no beasts of prey and no human being” (181). These quotes are significant because they describe the Solovetsky Islands, where prisons were made. The language and imagery suggests that it is a place of peace with “no sin present”, however, the prisons there changed that aura of peacefulness and bliss. The imagery that Solzhenistyn writes contrasts with the events and what was really going on on those islands. Overall, Tolkein uses imagery to present the mood of the scene, while Solzhenistyn uses it to contrast the mood of the scene.