The Hobbit

The topic for this week's reading was the Heroic Journey, so of course it was only fitting for the novel of choice to be The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. I had never read The Hobbit before, but I am a fan of Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, especially the movies.

Reading the origins of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins is an adventure for the reader. The Hobbit was escapism for me as I read the novel, since it put me in a completely different time and space that I could not really connect to on any deeper level other than pure entertainment.

I can not say that The Hobbit is the best book I ever read, but I did enjoy the novel. I could not really connect with the characters though; it was more as if I was looking in on their adventure than being apart of it.

The novel went full circle. Bilbo is greeted by some uncanny fellows,the dwarfs and Gandalf, at his door one afternoon around tea time at the beginning of the novel. Bilbo is forced upon this long adventure for the head dwarfs family's gold that was stolen by the dragon. When the gold is finally seized and returned to the dwarfs, Bilbo goes home to the Shire. At the end of the novel, Gandalf gives Bilbo a visit, which if the beginning was any indication, means Bilbo is bound for another adventure.

As we learned in class, epic journeys tend to be circular in structure. The hero begins the journey, the hero goes on the journey, the hero makes his way home, and at some point will go on a journey again. It seems as if once on an adventure, the hero always wants to be on an adventure. Maybe at the time of the journey, the hero does not, but once he is home all he can think about is being out in the world discovering new things.

The Hobbit is my first J.R.R. Tolkein book I have read, and now I may go on to read The Lord of the Rings. I do not tend to read epic journey novels, but as my first one, I will probably branch out of my usual genre and read more.