"In Tolkien, everyone’s in their place and happy to be there. We go there and back, to where we started. There’s no escape, nothing will ever change and nobody

"In Tolkien, everyone’s in their place and happy to be there. We go there and back, to where we started. There’s no escape, nothing will ever change and nobody will ever break out of this well-­ordered world." Apparently his copy of Return of the King had all the pages after Aragorn's coronation torn out? I wouldn't go as far as to say something along the lines of "you can't go home again" is the main theme of the book, but it's a pretty strong one (and based on Tolkien's experience in and after WWI). "Nothing ever changes" is about the opposite of what happens.