The Hobbit Summary

“The Hobbit” is a novel written by J. R. R. Tolkien. In the novel, there are many themes presented to the reader through different characters, situations, and their morals and ideas. The themes vary in importance throughout the story, but all are given to help explain or push the story onward. Most of the larger themes are centered around the species and races of characters, as well as showing the characters act the way they do, as well as focusing on the main character of the story, Bilbo Baggins. Smaller themes are also given in the story which help and support the larger ones. For example, two of the largest themes would be the theme of race and lineage deciding your morals and personality and the theme of heroism. The smaller themes that support these are loyalty, bravery, cleverness and cunning, the security of home, wealth, greed, exploration, luck, magic, metamorphosis, and property and community.

One theme within “The Hobbit” was the theme of race and lineage. Race comes in the story through all of Tolkien’s characters and depending upon the species of the character, had the same, or similar, traits as every other character within that same species. For example, all elves are considered to be good while all goblins are considered to be evil. The good races are also shown to be in harmony which is made clear in Chapter 6 when the eagles decided to save the dwarves instead of helping the goblins since the goblins are evil, meaning that they are against nature and at odds with it. Lineage comes in the story in many different ways. While the race of a character is shown to determine the moral standings among other species, it is often their lineage that determines their specific personality. Using Bilbo Baggins as the examp...

... middle of paper ...

...heir uncle. Race also determines grudges and hatred. The goblins want revenge on the dwarves because they killed the Great Goblin and the elves hate the dwarves because of a disagreement about payment for treasure.

The theme of bravery is something that is shown in different types of intensity. There are characters like Bard who have no doubts about their courage or ability. He represents the human armies, confronts Thorin, and fights during the Battle of Five Armies where he also shoots Smaug with a bow and arrow. However, while Bard is openly brave, Bilbo is courageous without knowing what he’s going against. He’s most vulnerable and least experienced character in the novel, but he is also the one most willing to walk into the unknown by himself. He shows this by facing down Gollum in the goblin tunnels and approaching and talking to Smaug in the Lonely Mountain.