Examples Of Greed In The Hobbit

Power and Possession In all the earthly worlds and stories, greed has always existed. Greed for power, possessions, and everything else. In Tolkien’s fantasy world of fairy tale and wonder, it is no different; that same element still exists. Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit, uses three different, and seemingly unrelated events to express the evils of greed in our world, each very similar, yet very different. During The Hobbit, Bilbo finds himself in a game of riddles with Gollum, an underground monster. It turns out that Gollum has lost something of great value to him. It is, in fact, a certain ring of power that Bilbo picked up not too long ago. Gollum screams, “Where iss it? Where iss it?… Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!” (Tolkien, 78) Gollum has just lost his source of power: his ring, which he refers to as his precious. He goes into a violent fit afterward, wishing to destroy Bilbo in the hopes of regaining his ring, which he assumed was stolen by the hobbit. This is a perfect description of an addiction to power and possessions, which is always

Bilbo creeps down into the mountain through the side door, steals a golden cup, then runs back to the dwarves. Smaug’s reaction very similar to Gollum’s. “He stirred and stretched forth his neck to sniff. Then he missed the cup! Thieves! Fire! Murder!... His Rage passes description … his fire belched forth, the hall smoked, he shook the mountain roots…” (Tolkien, 203) This small excerpt shows that Smaug is every bit as angry as Gollum, and even more dangerous when it comes to rage. Smaug is described as “Shaking the mountain roots,” which is no little thing. Smaug’s rage and anger are very similar to Gollum’s, being over an object of high price. Smaug, just like Gollum, falls into an uncontrolled fit of anger, and the theme seems to remain: the addiction to power and