The Growth of Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Compared to eastern styles of storytelling, the classic western story The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien places a significant amount of attention to the individual and individual glory over the glory of a group or lineage. Due to this fact, it seems only fair to analyze how The Hobbit approaches it's single hero as he finds a place within his world.
Bilbo is not your typical hero. As a middle aged hobbit, he is at first incredibly set in his ways. He declines his natural urges to explore and curiously question things in favor of comfortable ignorance. Rather than the usual young and eager hero, Bilbo expresses no desire at all to change the world or his place in it. He is neither trained nor motivated to help the party's quest.
Bilbo's resistance to become a hero or feel like a hero helps me see the average person in him. Normal people don't feel like heroes, they don't know that they might also be on the hero's journey. Most people aren't agile, eager, starry eyed young boys or girls ready to take on the world like many stories would have you assume. Bilbo is just a grumpy man, busy trying to deny his true nature and pursue his passions. It allows the reader to slip into the frame of mind that anyone could be a hero, or that a hero could emerge out of anyone at any point.
Our hero's willful ignorance is something he must learn to overcome. Multiple occurrences in the story, Bilbo makes assumptions about other people, other races even, and forms his own opinion of them largely before getting to know them. Bilbo learns that his prejudices about himself are as incorrect as his opinions about others. He is capable of so much more than blowing smoke rings in his hobbit hole, but he would never know it unless he broke out of his comfortable world into a newer, albeit darker and harsher world.
As the dwarves and Gandalf discovers matters of gold and dragons, Bilbo can no longer go back to the innocence and ignorance he felt before the information the dwarves and Gandalf showed him. He can never unsee the visions of adventure. He would not be able to suppress the thrill of doing something far outside of the comforts of the Shire. He discovers that he must persevere through his clouded visions of a plush, regular life within his hobbit hole to actualize something real in his life.
At each of his trials, such as helping cut the dwarves free from rope or spider web, Bilbo finds himself facing a new challenge. At each challenge, Bilbo becomes more and more realized. He discovers himself capable of things he never would have had he stayed at home. Bilbo's fighting skill was tested with the spiders, his wit with Gollum, charisma in his attempts to lie and charm strangers, and in many instances, as a burglar.
The very first time Bilbo ever tried fulfilling his role as a burglar, he was almost immediately caught. At first first attempt to lie, he nearly reveals his friend's position to three massive trolls. And yet, at the very end, Bilbo is able to outwit, charm, and steal from an infamous dragon.
"Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages. He loosened his dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and went on." (Tolkien 72)
Bilbo faces many points in the story where he wishes he had not accepted the quest, as we all do. We all doubt ourselves. And yet, Bilbo presses on. It is because Bilbo presses on that he is alive, and that in that moment he is making an active choice to be strong, to find and push the limits of his strength. He earns grace with this knowledge and this power of choice. He must miss his hobbit hole a hundred times before he can finally actualize never needing it again.
Bilbo is not your typical hero. As a middle aged hobbit, he is at first incredibly set in his ways. He declines his natural urges to explore and curiously question things in favor of comfortable ignorance. Rather than the usual young and eager hero, Bilbo expresses no desire at all to change the world or his place in it. He is neither trained nor motivated to help the party's quest.
Bilbo's resistance to become a hero or feel like a hero helps me see the average person in him. Normal people don't feel like heroes, they don't know that they might also be on the hero's journey. Most people aren't agile, eager, starry eyed young boys or girls ready to take on the world like many stories would have you assume. Bilbo is just a grumpy man, busy trying to deny his true nature and pursue his passions. It allows the reader to slip into the frame of mind that anyone could be a hero, or that a hero could emerge out of anyone at any point.
Our hero's willful ignorance is something he must learn to overcome. Multiple occurrences in the story, Bilbo makes assumptions about other people, other races even, and forms his own opinion of them largely before getting to know them. Bilbo learns that his prejudices about himself are as incorrect as his opinions about others. He is capable of so much more than blowing smoke rings in his hobbit hole, but he would never know it unless he broke out of his comfortable world into a newer, albeit darker and harsher world.
As the dwarves and Gandalf discovers matters of gold and dragons, Bilbo can no longer go back to the innocence and ignorance he felt before the information the dwarves and Gandalf showed him. He can never unsee the visions of adventure. He would not be able to suppress the thrill of doing something far outside of the comforts of the Shire. He discovers that he must persevere through his clouded visions of a plush, regular life within his hobbit hole to actualize something real in his life.
At each of his trials, such as helping cut the dwarves free from rope or spider web, Bilbo finds himself facing a new challenge. At each challenge, Bilbo becomes more and more realized. He discovers himself capable of things he never would have had he stayed at home. Bilbo's fighting skill was tested with the spiders, his wit with Gollum, charisma in his attempts to lie and charm strangers, and in many instances, as a burglar.
The very first time Bilbo ever tried fulfilling his role as a burglar, he was almost immediately caught. At first first attempt to lie, he nearly reveals his friend's position to three massive trolls. And yet, at the very end, Bilbo is able to outwit, charm, and steal from an infamous dragon.
"Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages. He loosened his dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and went on." (Tolkien 72)
Bilbo faces many points in the story where he wishes he had not accepted the quest, as we all do. We all doubt ourselves. And yet, Bilbo presses on. It is because Bilbo presses on that he is alive, and that in that moment he is making an active choice to be strong, to find and push the limits of his strength. He earns grace with this knowledge and this power of choice. He must miss his hobbit hole a hundred times before he can finally actualize never needing it again.
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