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The Hobbit or There and Back Again By: J. R. R. Tolkien Part 1 The Hobbit takes place in Middle-Earth. It starts in Bilbo Baggins's Hole in The Hill in the Shire in Hobbiton. Most of the book takes place on the trail from Hobbiton to the Wilder land.
This journey is taken during the Third Age of Middle-Earth. Tolkien recounts the journey of Bilbo Baggins and thirteen dwarfs on a quest to reconquer the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the Dragon. Tolkien leads the gang of dwarves, and Bilbo, through perilous mountains, danger-filled forrest's, raging rivers, and against all types of adversaries before even entering Smaug's dominion. But, as we read, this adventure brings out in Bilbo Begins, a Too kish side of him, that he himself never anticipated. Though there are many characters of great importance in The Hobbit, the four most important characters are Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Grey, Thorin Oaken shield, and Smaug the Dragon. The main character of the story is Bilbo Baggins.
For some reason, Gandalf chooses Bilbo to be the fourteenth member of the journey to Lonely Mountain. Early on in the story, Bilbo finds a magic ring that can turn him invisible. This helps Bilbo become braver. It is his bravery and fearlessness that grows in him from having the ring which gives Bilbo the resolution to rescue the dwarves many times.
Bilbo is deeply changed by his journey, but when he returns home, he is quite ready to live a simple life again. Gandalf The Grey is a wizard. He is a mysterious figure and the mentor of the whole group, thought through a good part of the end of the journey, leaves to go handle another problem, leaving the band to fend for themselves. Even though Gandalf is powerful wizard, he is not invincible, and his powers can only help the group so much. Thorin is the leader of the dwarves. He is the one who really wants to go re-conquer the Lonely Mountain because he is the heir to the title 'King under the Mountain'.
Although the dwarves look to him for command, he really doesn't do too much leading. It is really Bilbo and Gandalf that lead the group. Thorin shows himself to be nothing but stubborn and hardheaded. He refuses to make a treaty with the men and elves, he threatens Bilbo, and causes war because of his greed. It isn't till he dies that he sees the wrong in his decisions and apologizes. Smaug is the dragon of Lonely Mountain and the adversary of the dwarves.
Although he is not actually in most of the story, his idea looms in everyones mind. His conversations with Bilbo show that he is an arrogant and abominable beast who loves treasure only for the sake of having it. He is killed at the end by a townsman, Bard, instead of a dwarf. Bilbo Baggins is living a simple but happy life in his quiet hobbit hole when Gandalf appears randomly one day and asks him to go on an adventure. Bilbo is confused to why Gandalf would ask him and tells the wizard to come back the next day.
Gandalf does comes back, but only after thirteen dwarves come first. The dwarves sit down to eat, talking about their upcoming journey to their home of long ago and of the dragon named Smaug who chased their fathers from their mountain to steal the treasure. Eventually, it comes out that the group intends to take Bilbo along as their thief. Though he doesn't want to, Bilbo is forced along and they begin their journey. To get from Bilbo's home in The Hill to the Lonely mountain, the troop must go over goblin filled mountains, was filled woods, an endless dark forest filled with over-sized spiders, be captured by greedy Elves wanting their gold, and then, face a dragon.
When the group finally reached the Lonely Mountain, they cannot open the gate to get in. They have to wait for days when the moonlight hits the rock at a certain spot to show the hidden keyhole. It is Bilbo that is made to go into the lair. Turning himself invisible, he steals a golden cup for the dwarves.
When Smaug, realizes that part of his treasure is gone, he goes out from the mountain and pillages around the mountain side. Bilbo re-enters the lair to steal back more treasure and has a conversation with the dragon. During the course of the talk, Bilbo discovers that the dragon has a weak spot over its left breast. When Bilbo turns away and abruptly ends their talk after getting that information, Smaug is furious. For revenge, he goes off to destroy the nearby town of Esgaroth.
The dragon destroys the town but is killed by Bard, who was told of its weak point by one of the thrush's that live in the mountain. As the men from Esgaroth begin to rebuild their city, they realize that they have no where near the funds to do so. So some of them join the elf army in search of the late Smaug's treasure. The dwarves find this out from a raven, and decide to brace themselves and mountain for battle.
Thorin sends a message via another thrush to his cousin, Dan. When all the armies meet, Thorin refuses any settlement, being stubborn and absurd. Bilbo gives the armies a valuable stone, the Arkenstone, to bargain with, but this infuriates Thorin even more. With his cousin's army, the dwarves prepare to fight.
It was now that Gandalf reappears again and stands between them to warn that a great army of goblins and was are comming to avenge themselves against Thorin. Instead, the armies fight the goblins. They get much needed help from friends of Gandalf's that they met on their journey, an army of eagles and a man in the form of a bear, named Been. In the fighting, Thorin is mortally wounded and at his hour of death, asks for Bilbo's forgiveness. Of course Bilbo pardons him and all is forgiven.
So at last, Bilbo heads home with Gandalf, and after a very long journey, he is happy to settle down again, living a simple life after such a long a tale. Part 2 Greed would have to be the main theme that Tolkien trys to get across in The Hobbit. He shows it in many ways. First, even though the dwarves say that their journey is to reclaim their heritage or, the mountain, their real incentive is the treasure. This is obvious because the dwarves have spent over a hundred years working in mines, not trying to retake their father's gold because they know that they could never defeat or outsmart the dragon by themselves. It isn't until Gandalf shows them a map and a key to help them get their treasure that they consider it feasible.
Second, Elrond the Elf-Lord knows that the dwarves are taking the journey in search of gold and treasure. He denounces this because it is not a noble pursuit. This is the first time in the story that a character criticizes the dwarves' reason for making the long and dangerous journey. A third explanation for a theme of greed is Thorin refuses to tell the Elf-King why they are going through Mirk wood. There are two reasons for this. One, he is afraid that the elves will detain him and the rest of his home so they can't get the treasure.
Second, the Elves, being greedy themselves, would definetly ask for some of the treasure. A forth proof is that, when the dwarves hear that the men and elves are coming to the mountain, their first thought is to protect the treasure. When the armies arrive, the dates refuse to negotiate with them and eventually refuse to talk to them at all. This is all out of greed. The fifth and final display of greed is in Smaug. A Dragon is the epitome of greed.
All dragons collect treasure. They will even kill for treasure and has no use for it except as a bed to lie on. Tolkien uses him to show the absolute absurdity of greed. Once they get their hands on part of the treasure, the dwarves stop worrying about the dragon. Even tough they are running out of food, and Smaug could return at any moment, their worries seem to be blinded by the fact that they now have the treasure they traveled so many months to find. So Tolkien uses Bilbo to show a lesser kind of greed as well as how the lack of greed can be so great.
When Bilbo takes the Arkenstone for himself, it is in a moment of greed because of the stone's pure magnificence. Thorin cherishes the Arkenstone more than anything else because of the same reason. Bilbo knows this, so he gives it to Bard and the Elf-King to use as a bargain with the dwarves. Even though Bilbo may have been greedy for the moment when he took the stone, he wanted to use the stone, and Thorin's greed, to prevent a battle. Unfortunatly, this only makes Thorin angrier, none-the-less, Bilbo had good intent. Another time Tolkien uses Bilbo to show the opposite of greed is when Bilbo returns home.
Bilbo only takes with him two small chests of gold and silver from the loot of the mountain. Even though he went on the journey with the promise of treasure, he spends a lot of it on friends and relatives. It has no real meaning for him, and he does not miss it later in life.
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