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How Does Bilbo Baggins Change Throughout The Novel

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A quiet cozy house, a warm cup of tea, and a filled pipe. These are all the things that Bilbo Baggins wishes for in his life. Subconsciously, however, he decided that he wanted an adventure. Throughout the story, Bilbo undergoes a significant change in his character, and there is one person very important to this change. At first glance, you would assume that this person would be Gandalf. He was the one who pulled him out of his house and into this adventure that he didn't want to partake in. Gandalf also forced him to think about what he needed to do to benefit his group. But at the end of things, it was actually Bilbo himself who contributed the most to his own character development. At the beginning of the story, The conflict that arises …show more content…

You can see this happening in chapter 5 when we get introduced to the character Gollum. When Bilbo first met him, he was lost, scared, and tired. Bilbo then met this terrifying creature who wanted to eat him, and the only way out was to play a riddle game, which happened to be Gollum's specialty. In this situation, Bilbo had to swallow his fear and use his wits to defeat Golem and get back to his group. Bilbo has “little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort. (1)”, so he couldn't rely on some sort of magical power and could only use his own mental strength and cleverness. Another important part in the story that really changed Bilbo is after Gandalf left. When he left, he instructed Thorin to be the group leader. However, when they were ever in a situation that needed some assistance, Bilbo was always the one to step in because of his wits, and save them. This happens many times throughout the story but the next thing that really helped grow his character was when he saved the whole group from being kidnapped by the king. Saving them not only changed the dwarves' perspective on him, making them see him as “ reliable”, but also made Bilbo acknowledge how he is the new savior of the group. This was a big change considering at the beginning of the book he was the one always needing to be saved and now he is the one who is helping

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