Skip to main content

A Hobbit's Journey

The Hobbit, the fantasy classic by J.R.R. Tolkien, is the embodiment of the Hero’s Journey, leading us through Middle Earth on the formulaic Campbell’s path of tropes. Bilbo Baggins is a middle-aged hobbit, which is essentially a short human-like creature who lives a quiet life of comfort and luxury, who gets swept up into a quest with a troupe of dwarves to win back an abandoned mountain kingdom from the dragon Smaug. His life gets turned upside down as he’s plucked from his easy-going life, but after primarily refusing this call to adventure, Bilbo realized that he’s wanted something like this to come along. A great adventure, something to interrupt the routine life he’s lived. He, the troupe of dwarves, and Gandalf the Wizard trek along on the typical Hero’s Journey, complete with a road of trials, apotheosis, a magic flight, becoming “master of two worlds,” and returning back home as a new man- or, hobbit.


Unlike a lot of Lord of the Rings fans, I actually really enjoyed the Hobbit movies as much as the book. I may be biased since I saw the movies before reading the book, but I feel that they do Middle Earth justice. Martin Freeman makes for an incredible Bilbo Baggins, and the dwarves all have personality and a bit more individuality than in the books. Visually, the movies are stunning. I feel enthralled by the worldbuilding, and the films do a wonderful job of bringing that world to life, in my opinion. No, they aren’t perfect- useless love triangles are added, important dwarves are made to be more attractive, and the most obvious change being the extended length of the short book into three full length films. This, however, doesn’t stop them from being special films to me.


The Hobbit started out as a story Tolkien told his kids, slowly transcribing it as time went on. This means that the story is formatted more along the lines of an oral epic rather than a classic novel. I chose to listen to the audiobook of The Hobbit, and I could tell that this story was written to be read aloud. Multiple songs are included (and sung in the audiobook, to my delight), words are written with dialect accents included, and the worldbuilding is vivid but not too extensive. Speaking of the worldbuilding, Tolkien’s ability to create the complex, detailed, and expansive world of Middle Earth is impressive. This world has its own history, its own society, its own races and species and legends. Tolkien’s Middle Earth is known as one of the most in-depth fictional worlds ever created. I really admire him for this; worldbuilding can be a critical part of a narrative.

The Hobbit is a great book full of fantasy, adventure, and comedy. I enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend it to everyone!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ocean at the End of the Lane- An Urban Fantasy

The Ocean at the End of the Lane , by Neil Gaiman, is an urban fantasy about a man coming back to his childhood home and remembering a long forgotten otherworldly experience from his childhood. As a seven year old, his life changes for the weirder when an opal miner,  who had been renting out a room in the boy’s house, commits suicide in their family car. The death opens a door for a mischevious cloth-like spirit to start messing with the locals’ lives in twisted ways of giving them what they want. The boy meets the Hempstocks, an immortal family of three who live at the end of the lane, and accompanies the youngest, Lettie Hempstock, on a journey to bound the spirit. However, the spirit latches on to the boy and uses him as its gateway between worlds. Parading as a nanny named Ursula Monkton, the demon torments the boy through herself and his father. It’s up to the boy and the Hempstocks to send the demon away and restore reality. Gaiman’s imagination makes the book take fligh...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Bloodchild" Assessment

"Bloodchild" by Octavia Butler My first reaction to Octavia Butler’s   Bloodchild is a mix of interest and disgust. Using humans as a subservient society to the Tlic rather than having humans assert power over the aliens is a fresh twist on the usual sci-fi story. I’ve never read or watched a story that had humans as powerless as they are here- there’s no way for them to fight back, really. The human race has been completely taken over, and they’re generally okay with it, which is unsettling. It was an interesting read, that's for sure. Such a unique story gets the mind wondering about a world where humans aren't the superior species and don’t come out on top after an invasion, a concept far less explored in the sci-fi genre. The disgust I felt is, of course, for the humans’ role in the Tlics’ lives. Parasites are a big fear of mine personally, so reading a story where humans exist solely to be hosts to the worm-like children of the Tlic is absolutely terrif...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Next 50 Years

Ever since the turn of the century, technological advancement has skyrocketed. Even in my own short 19 years of life, I have seen technology go from the simplest cellphone sans touchscreen and chunky computers to face recognition on Iphones and Virtual Reality as an available college major. If we continue at this pace, the next 50 years are sure to be full of giant technological leaps for mankind. I predict that by 2028, holographic imaging will have changed exponentially. Rather than using a touchscreen to communicate, holograms and VR-like screens will be used a la Tony Stark’s tech. We’re about to break the mold of the IPhone already. Google Glass will have been adapted into a more practical form, but no matter what I think it’ll become mainstream. Entertainment will be venturing deep into VR. By 2038, robots will have most likely taken over the workforce, causing a crisis for employment. This will effect the topics of films, books, and social media as people scramble to decide...
Post a Comment
Read more