Mood:

Perhaps the single piece of advice occurring most frequently in the life of the Hobbit is to "be yourself." Whether it was Bilbo or a vocational mentor, the message sent was the message received; that a "phoney" stands alone and unwelcome. Frodo had never really considered that this single piece of purported wisdom was actually something more than good intentions shrouded by poor preparation. That is, until Willard Mitt came along.
Do you suppose, dear reader, that Willard Mitt's Daddy never told him to "be yourself"? Why else would a Mormon who has established residences that range from Massachusetts to California begin talking about developing an affinity for Southern people, much less their accents or their dietary preferences? Listening to this buffoon's bulbous bifurcations in Mississippi would have brought Mark Twain to his knees. Frodo supposes that Fitzgerald, Morris, Percy, Wolfe, or anyone else associated with Southern literature would have denied the existence of a character so transparently, well, phoney.
True it is that people of all kinds and origin, be they in Michigan or Nevada, have come to the conclusion that this character (for want of a better term) not only fails to interact with people, but he insists on portraying himself as something familiar to them. Southern people all identify with Gatsby, or Tom Sawyer, or even Skip the dog, because they seem to appreciate something native. So what does Willard Mitt do? He wades into the crowd seemingly trying to trade recipes for peach pie.
He might as well have farted on stage.
Perhaps he did.