Literary Elements In The Hobbit

The novel The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien holds many different literary elements and lenses. These different elements throughout the story are incredibly important giving us different descriptions and information to help understand the novel more. Each one of the elements such as, theme, character, conflict, and motif will be explained helping you understand the novel that much more.

Theme is the first element, and one of the most important elements to describe an understanding of the novel. Theme is expressed in this novel using martial heroism. The novel begins with Bilbo Baggins starting off inside of his home being more shy and timid than he is brave. And as the novel progresses he slowly gains and emerges with the more strengthened abilities

Bilbo is today’s society’s definition of a loner, he preferred to stay in his hut and didn’t enjoy to travel much. Bilbo is an unexpecting hero in the novel, acquiring different strengths throughout his journey such as bravery, and gaining the ability to sustain different amounts of obstacles and terrors. Over time on his journey he acquired the traits and characteristics that a normal hero would behold, along with his cunning abilities to think and react. "Bilbo Baggins is chosen as the burglar precisely because he is not a typical hero or warrior. He is small, rather than large; he is weak, rather than strong; he is timid, rather than brave; he is concerned with the comforts and pleasures of life, not combat and hardship. In short, he lacks the characteristics associated with the typical hero." (Dominick,

Character played a large role turning your everyday loner, into your basic, defined hero. Theme also played a role because of the way Bilbo began to show and use the martial heroism he began to gain from the start of his journey. Another element is motif because of the way symbols and details are used in the novel based on their meanings and so fourth. The last and final one is conflict, conflict played a large role because of how scared Bilbo was to really leave his home in general, but he was able to face his fears, and many different obstacles making him the hero in the