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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!

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