What Does Greed Symbolize In The Hobbit

In The Hobbit, Tolkien uses many different techniques as he writes. The main techniques he uses are symbolism, poetry & songs, and aims to get readers to predict and relate to Bilbo. Throughout Tolkien’s writing, he uses not only objects as symbols, but characters as well. In The Hobbit, Gandalf symbolizes as inspiration to Bilbo. During the expedition, Gandalf had been constantly pushing Bilbo to do things greater than others expectations, instead of always staying inside his little hobbit hole. From the start of the journey, Gandalf had pushed Bilbo to join Thorin and the dwarves on their expedition to the Lonely Mountain, to defeat Smaug the dragon and claim all the treasures that lie inside. An additional symbol in The Hobbit is

They sang this song about the beautiful artifacts crafted by hands as well as magic moving throughout the song, painting vivid images of many emotions, and thoughts, “As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things...a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.” (page 15), Bilbo could feel the dwarves burning love for gold. During the song, even Bilbo himself wanted to see the mountains, the pine trees, explore waterfalls and the depths of caves, he wanted to go on an adventure with the dwarves to explore places outside the Shire. However, in the text it may say that, ”...the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things...a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.” (page 15), which many interpret as the dwarves expressing their emotions, some might argue that the songs and poems represent objectives or goals for the characters. The dwarves had sang a song about the Misty Mountains as mentioned before, instead of representing the dwarves passionate feelings for the expedition, it could simply represent their

Tolkien wants the readers to relate to Bilbo, because as the main character Tolkien wants the readers to think what would they do if they were in Bilbo’s shoes. An example from The Hobbit is chapter 8, when the dwarves were all tied up by the spiders. During this point Tolkien had risen the stakes, saying that if Bilbo didn't do something his companions would be dead, making the readers to predict what Bilbo would do if the readers were in Bilbo's situation. Another example from the book is in chapter 16, when Thorin and the other dwarves were desperately looking for the Arkenstone. However, Bilbo had already found the Arkenstone and was hiding it, he noticed that Thorin’s behavior had changed a lot, he had become overly obsessed with the Arkenstone almost to the point of being insane. During this part, Bilbo had to do something or else Thorin will remain overly obsessed with the Arkenstone stone forever until he finds it. Tolkien had built up many events in order for this problem to occur, he wants the readers to predict what will Bilbo do to save Thorin, if they were in Bilbo’s