The Hobbit Thesis

Michael Shermer, a science writer and historian of science said, “Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not.” In J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, the main protagonist, joins a group of dwarves to recover their lost, forgotten gold from Smaug the dragon. Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with a Thousand Faces, he states that many legendary heros follow a pattern in their adventures. Matthew Winkler has his own ideas of the heroic quest pattern, stating the hero's follow a pattern of eleven stages. Both The Hobbit and the heroic journey have similar elements with departure, initiation and then return.

He becomes a hero when he: helped the dwarves escape the jail, then he put everyone in a barrel to go down the river, and then he fought the spiders. First, Bilbo helped the dwarves escape from jail. When the dwarves got caught he put on the ring. After he put on the ring he followed the dwarves to the jail. He sent a message from Thorin to the dwarves not to reveal their mission to the Elvenking.

Bilbo is a major hero in The Hobbit, he always does his best to help everyone even at his own risk. When the dwarfs got captured by the trolls, bilbo found a way to get them out alive. He put them all in barrels in the river to flow away safely, but he forgot to find a way for himself to escape. He always thinks in the best interest for everyone, not just his friends. Like when he gave the Arkenstone away to the people of Laketown to provide leverage for them over Thorin.

“Sorry! I do not want any adventures, thank you.”- Bilbo Baggins (Chapter 1, page 7) I believe that Bilbo Baggins is the most affected by this adventure. At the beginning he was an ordinary hobbit sitting on his lawn, by the end he has killed Spiders, escaped from goblins and most impressive of all, stole the Arkenstone from Smaug. This journey has changed Bilbo as a mold would shape clay. Imagine Bilbo as white play dough, he has been put into the molds (the molds of the tasks he has done.

One day a man came to Beowulf’s throne to show him that he had found a golden goblet from a hidden hoard guarded by a dragon. When Beowulf heard this news he knew he had to fight the dragon to let his people take the treasure and become wealthy. During battle, Beowulf realized he wasn’t as young as he used to be and could not fight without the young Wiglaf by his side. The struggle continued until the giant beast sunk his razor sharp teeth deep into Beowulf’s neck. Weak from loss of blood Beowulf stumbled back.

Courage A single feat of daring can alter conception of what is possible. In the novel “The Hobbit” Bilbo Baggins shows immense courage by plunging into the depths of the caves now controlled by the great and terrible Smaug. The insurmountable amounts of courage that he took with him was immense compared to the small groups of courage that I have gathered up over the years of my life. Bilbo has been a great provider of courage and bravery throughout the entire journey because he has saved all of the other companions from death and being eaten by spiders. In the book the dwarves have gone through a vast change of feelings for the hobbit because of his actions.

Bilbo and his friends were sleeping out said and the goblins found them and took him to their king. The goblins were bigger then them and the kind was june meris. The gobblings started singing a song about eating them. Then the wizard Gandalf came and got their swords and weapons back and they fault the goblins and won. I couldt have never done that i would have played dead.

They could tell when the dragon breathed fire. It was very hard to see, the dragon clawed Bridgett’s leg but Renda finally killed the dragon. It was very hard for Bridgett to walk but they finally made it out of the cave

Bilbo Baggins the Burglar Thesis: In the book The Hobbit, the character Bilbo Baggins is a middle class hobbit who must challenged his introverted nature to help the dwarves reclaim their land. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit, who lives in his hobbit hole. Hobbits are generally short and fat introverted people who don’t leave their house much. Bilbo Baggins was living like that, until one day, thirteen dwarves and his old wizard friend(Gandalf) enter his house and start eating and talking like it was their house. Bilbo feels perplexed, but treats them like guests anyway.

But it is something bigger than the battle with Grendel and Grendel’s Mother. It’s a dragon who has come and is trying to take over his world. He fights the dragon and he has defeated but the wound the dragon had gave him is getting worse. He comes to an end and the last words he says is that he would have wanted to bestow his armor to his son, but he does not have one. The geats bury jewels, gold and treasures in the barrow to honor Beowulf.