How Does Bilbo Use Power In Lord Of The Flies

There are many themes woven into Tolkien’s The Hobbit, such as: The Evils of Possessiveness,Common Man vs Elite and Nature of Heroism.The two themes this essay will be explaining are The Responsible use of Power and The Relationship of Man and Nature. Also, it will explain the relationship to Tolkien’s life.

It is important to use power wisely and responsibly. We have an excellent example of this with Gandalf. In the novel, Gandalf uses his power mostly to help the dwarves. For example, he uses his staff to light up the goblin tunnels. Gandalf also makes beautiful fireworks with his magic to entertain the young(and old) hobbits in the Shire. Bilbo uses his power responsibly with the Ring. He in most circumstances uses it in self-defence. Bilbo also uses the Ring to save the dwarves many times. Such as, when he saved the dwarves from the spiders

Won’t you stop, Stop your spinning and look for me!”, ect.

A example of power being used irresponsibly is with Smaug. Smaug is a great and almighty powerful dragon; yet he uses his power of fiery breath to destroy towns and people.This relates to Tolkien’s life with the Germans in WWI. (World War One) The Germans were a very powerful nation, and they used this power to start a world war. Tolkien saw first hand the massive numbers of deaths in the war, all of his friends except one survived. This all happened because Germany used their power very unwisely and irresponsibly. This goes to show that power can be used to terrible effect.

The Relationship of Man and Nature can be paralleled with J.R.R Tolkien’s life.
Tolkien always viewed nature as something magical. Tolkien lived in a little town called Sarehole in the UK, which today is called Sarehole Mill. Sarehole was a beautiful town that was like the Shire in many ways. It had the same sunny skies, lush green land and rolling hills. The significant difference was that Sarehole had no hobbit