While The Hobbit chronicles the journey of Bilbo Baggins, it forms also a journey for the reader.
It starts in the cozy hobbit-hole of Bilbo, who is very relatable. He is just a hobbit, content with smoking pipe, eating cake and drinking tea to fill the rest of his days.
And then, Gandalf appears. The wizard persuades the reluctant hobbit to aid, thirteen dwarves with their quest for stolen gold and revenge, in that order.
He also has to persuade the dwarves to hire Bilbo as a Burglar. Their leader Thorin doubts if the” little fellow” can help them to sneak in their former mountain, where the dragon Smaug slumbers, thief of their gold and killer of their kin. But a wizard can be very convincing, so off they go.
Tolkien’s mastery of the
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And so are we.
It proves to be an uncomfortable journey, with pouring rain and muddy tracks. And to top that, Bilbo learns he cannot longer lunch twice a day, which disturbs him deeply. He regrets his decision. “I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing!” It is clear Tolkien wrote The Hobbit to read to his children. There is a narrator who is not afraid to get involved in the story and to use exclamation points.
‘Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion.’
You can hear the excitement in his voice.
As result, it reads as an fairy tale for bedtime. Not the dull, sugary kind, but the enjoyable kind that causes children to listen with tinkling eyes, and to fear to breathe out at the scary parts, and finally, to let out a cry of agony when the parent closes the
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I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong, Thief in the Shadows!" he gloated. "My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"
Smaug is an interesting antagonist. Bilbo and the dwarves rightly fear him, but he is not the real villain.
The real threat in both The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings is the power, the temptation and the domination of greed. And it leads to self-destruction.
Tolkien brings that idea home to us in a poignant manner. When the dwarves reclaim their treasure, the villagers from around the Mountain, who got their houses destroyed by the fire of Smaug, enraged by Bilbo and the dwarves, come back to ask their part of the gold, and Thorin, the self-claimed King under the Mountain, refuses. Completely.
Immediately, the villagers, aided by wood-elves, declare a siege on the mountain, until Thorin complies. This goes on for days.
Bilbo, the only one who agrees with the villagers, is exasperated by this nonsense. He fails to talk sense in the dwarves. With regret, he notes that the adventure has taken a bitter course. His friends are now locked in an unjustly siege and he longs back to the simple days in his
The first character I want to talk about is Mr. Bilbo Baggins because in my view he is the character that went thorough the most change in compare to any other character that we read about so far. Mr. Bilbo Baggins is the main character/hero in the book and we can analyze and critique his journey from “Joseph Campbell: Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949.” In the beginning of the book, Mr. Bilbo Baggins is living in Bag End, a hobbit community, like every other hobbit he is comfortable and content. He loves his food, his pipe, and his snug little hole. This here, Bag End, is the ordinary world and this where Mr. Bilbo Baggins lives in, but there is more to Mr. Bilbo Baggins than what meets the eye.
The Hobbit Literary Analysis Archetypes Bilbo- the heros journey Irony Dramatic irony- Smaug doesn’t realize he is vulnerable located at the heart due to his armor that has fallen apart Conflicts Bilbo vs spiders Bilbo vs smaug Bilbo vs environment Bilbo vs himself Symbols Ring Arkenstone Treasure The Lonely Mountain Allusions Themes
There are many places on earth and across the universe that are unknown. In the book the Hobbit Bilbo faces the terrain of the Misty Mountains which is unknown to him. I've been to many places in my life where I have been unaware to where I am. There are many ways to cope or get through these unknown areas.
Paragraph #1 (Beowulf): When reading the epic Beowulf, I make a text to text connection because I notice the deep ties and similarities to the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The film was based off of J.R.R Tolkien 's novel, The Hobbit. Tolkien used Beowulf as his initial inspiration for his story, so distinct connections are easily found. For example, Beorn, a character who shapeshifts into a bear-like form, is closely related to Beowulf himself. Both of their names translate to “bear” and they have similar superhuman strength.
It opens with the wizard Gandalf visiting the hobbit Bilbo Baggins and inviting him to join in an adventure. Bilbo declines, reluctant to leave the safety and comfort of his hobbit-hole. The next day, he is visited by dwarves who believe Bilbo can be of use to them in their journey to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their ancestral treasure, now in the possession of Smaug the dragon. Bilbo realizes that Gandalf had represented him to the dwarves as a burglar. He reluctantly agrees to go,and they depart.
A wise man once said to live everyday like it’s your last, and to step out and stay out of your comfort zone. All of Bilbo’s life he lived as a boring old Baggins man, until the day that the dwarves showed up at his door and invited him on an adventure. His more so adventurous, or what he likes to call Tookish side, truly prevails in three spontaneous moments in the book which are when he attempts to pick pocket the trolls, when he plays a game of riddles with an interesting character named Gollum, and all together the fact that he went on this quest with a bunch of people he doesn’t know. In the book, The Hobbit, Bilbo and the dwarves happen to come across some very incredulous characters.
“Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a secession of trials.” (Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces). While traveling along in the mountains, Bilbo discovers three trolls sitting around a fire. Since he was the burglar of the group, he was assigned by the dwarves to steal an item from one of the trolls and bring it back to them to eat. However, while trying to complete the task he was caught.
In the novel, The Hobbit by J.J. Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins as a character grows tremendously. He goes from caring about nothing besides his cakes and tea, to opening up to a whole different world outside of the Shire. As the book begins, Bilbo is put to the task of reclaiming a place known as the Lonely Mountain by a wizard named Gandalf, after such request Bilbo states “Sorry! I don’t want any adventures, thank you”(Tolkien 4) and ultimately shows his cowardness. Throughout this journey, Bilbo changes for the best.
“Don’t be afraid to change. You may lose something good but you may gain something better.” In the Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien presents an unlikely hero, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Another important character in the novel is Gandalf, a wizard and an old family friend, forces Bilbo to come out of his comfort zone onto a journey to recover the dwarves name and gold from the evil dragon, Smaug. Bilbo fulfills the archetypal hero’s journey by starting of an in ordinary world ,facing Ordeal, Death, and Rebirth, and The Road Back while illustrating the theme of innovation.
Along the way, they overcome many obstacles that threaten their lives and put their trust for one another to the test. Bilbo learns that there is more to him than he realizes and through hard work and dedication, he can accomplish almost anything. Overcoming these problems and learning more about himself helped Bilbo change from an ordinary, self-doubting hobbit into a clever, courage-filled, loyal hero. In the beginning, Bilbo has no desire to go on an adventure of any kind, but he quickly learns about the cleverness he obtains when he is forced to make quick decisions.
But please come to tea -any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Good bye!” J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Hobbit shows The Hero’s Journey from the beginning of the novel, simply when Bilbo and Gandalf meet, to the end of the outlandish hero’s journey. However without the stock characters, the novel would be just a hollow donut missing it’s filling and glaze.
The company faces many challenges while Gandalf aids them. Eventually, Bilbo becomes forced to take charge and lead the company to the mountain. The experiences Bilbo encounters throughout his journey define and shape him into the hero he becomes. The Hobbit follows the story of Bilbo by mirroring the heroic journey, showing Bilbo’s dramatic change from the Hobbit he once was.
He enjoys staying where he is comfortable and where things are predictable. He believes that life should stay simple and plain, and that there is no time for adventures. On page 15, Bilbo says so himself. “I have no use for adventure, nasty disturbing uncomfortable things.”
Hero’s Journey Essay Literary Analysis of The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien What happens when one day a cloaked figure asks you to join a group of heavily bearded men in search for treasure in a dragon’s lair? Bilbo is fortunate enough to experience such a peculiar invitation, but the Baggins side of him is quick in refusal. Yet off he still goes from his warm and fuzzy hobbit hole in the Shire to the desolate land of Dain, where he learns to prove his worth amongst his hot-tempered Dwarf companions. Along the way, allies are made, secrets kept and human desires put into play, eventually culminating in the concluding battles where Bilbo plays a pivotal role in the management of order in the fellowship.
The Hobbit Literary Analysis Would you be able to step out of your comfort zone for the sake of adventure and a promise of treasure? This was the predicament Bilbo Baggins is unexpectedly presented with one sunny afternoon. Thirteen dwarves appear at his door and put forward their offer. Bilbo is a little apprehensive at first but soon comes to the realization that in his ordinary life of a Hobbit in the Shire he will never get another opportunity like this again. When reading The Hobbit, being able to step out of your comfort zone is a major key.