the hobbit

For this week’s reading I read J.R.R Tolkien’s the Hobbit. The Hobbit, in short, is about a hobbit. His name is Bilbo Baggins, who lives a quiet life in his hobbit hole, and doesn’t seem to have any problems in the world until he is visited by Gandalf, a big old wizard that needs his help. Gandalf along with a band of dwarves enters Bilbo’s home and is requesting him for a journey to defeat a dragon. Though he seems quite the opposite type of person for their journey, Bilbo progressively throughout the story learns to be the hero. Though he is just a hobbit that seems to have never done anything in his life, he starts to grow as a character initially when he takes charge and agrees to go on the journey in the first place, though he denied it in fear. He also discovers one of the most important items of the story, the ring. In the classic hero fashion, he becomes more powerful than those around him but it doesn’t seem to change him in any negative way. He uses these things to his advantage, taking on villains and outsmarting those who capture them with the help of the thing he discovered. In the end, with the help of some friends, they all pull through and win the battle they had set out to fight. But when Bilbo returns home, he doesn’t get a grand welcome, in fact no one really wants to associate with him now that he’s buddied up with elves and wizards. Though the hobbit doesn’t mind, and is just happy to be in the comfort of home again. Even though Bilbo isn’t the most classic version of a hero, he found his own way to conquer his quest, and he still came out on top in his own world.