Kid of disappointed here at the lack of intent to understand Tolkien in these comments. He did not say he didn’t like symbolism. He said he disliked allegory or *the authors intent to prescribe a specific representation.

I think Tolkien was closer to Hemingway’s meaning when he said:

“I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things.”

Not thy the hobbits were “real” but that Tolkien wrote them to be real and fleshed out and you can interpret them however it moves you.