One of the prevailing themes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is the juxtaposition between home and the outside world. Throughout the novel, Tolkien behooves the reader to wonder whether or not adventure is beneficial for Bilbo, as opposed to staying back at his home in The Hill. Tolkien himself does not take a clear position on this himself. Instead, he brilliantly juxtaposes Bilbo’s home with the outside world and leaves it up to the reader whether going on an adventure with Gandalf and the dwarves was the correct course of action. Or in other words, Tolkien conveys both the notion that Bilbo is better off at home, and that he is better off going on the adventure. This paper will examine each side of this conflict; reasons to Bilbo to stay home and reasons for Bilbo to embark on an adventure. Ultimately, I will attempt to show why Bilbo’s adventure was ultimately beneficial to him.
For reasons why Bilbo should stay home at The Hill, one need not look any further than the various settings in the novel. Through his robust descriptions of each setting, Tolkien thrusts the reader into the world of The Hobbit, so just as Bilbo experiences comfort at home and fear in the outside world, so too does the reader. Take for example, the first setting. As soon as the novel begins, the scene conveys comfort:
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. (3)
This is Bilbo’s home, and the way Tolkien describes it, it seems to be nothing short of perfection: it is not too wet nor too dry; it is clean; it does not smell; it even contains the luxur...
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... like quite a little fellow, out of his hobbit-hole for the first time and cast into a world of madness and danger. Ironically however, Bilbo was only little a figurative sense [in a literal sense, hobbits are always small] when he was cooped up in his hobbit-hole hiding from the vast world. When he enters that vast world for the first time, Bilbo becomes significant and plays an important role in the prosperity of an entire community of people. Although he looked small at first, when Bilbo is cast into the vast world, he actually becomes larger than ever. It goes to show that although dealing with the weather and creatures in the outside world was an arduous task, it was certainly worth it because Bilbo became a significant part of the world, rather than a little fellow in his hobbit-hole.
Works Cited
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit. New York: Mariner, 2012. Print
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Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit, one who enjoys peace and quiet, feasts and fireplaces, and the coziness of his home. At the beginning the The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Bilbo could not even imagine going on a tenacious adventure, but by the end he has survived the longest, toughest battle yet. Throughout the novel Bilbo Baggins changes from a prudent, typical hobbit into a courageous, sacrificing adventurer.
Bilbo Baggins is a very soft and quiet hobbit. He loves to eat, and is pampered by his own self. So when Gandalf arrives to take him on an adventure, Bilbo is a little hesitant –scared to death- to risk his life with Thorin and Company. “At may never return he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very soon it burst out like the whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel. […] The...
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