The Hobbit

The book The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is about a character named Bilbo Baggins that goes on a very long journey. Bilbo is a hobbit (which are small, big footed and home-body type creatures) and the journey is to regain treasure stolen from the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain by the dreadful dragon Smaug. A pattern I have noticed in the book is that even though the hobbit seems to think he is very uncourageous, he saves the dwarves from harm multiple times. This is important because by the end of the book, Bilbo seems very brave indeed! But before Bilbo does any very courageous acts, he happens upon a ring that renders him invisible to others. I infer that it is the ring that makes Bilbo feel Brave.

                One example of Bilbo’s unexpected braveness is when he saves the dwarves from the giant monstrous spiders that try to eat the group of travelers (Bilbo and the dwarves). All the other dwarves get captured by the huge spiders and are stuck in the web, but Bilbo is not caught and is able to help them. This connects back to my theory about the ring, because the way that Bilbo saves the dwarves is by wearing the ring and luring the spiders away from their webs, and then slaying them. The spiders cannot see Bilbo and that aggravates them. Then, when Bilbo is rescuing the dwarves he takes the ring off for a second and that’s when things start to go wrong; “He had taken off his ring when he rescued Fili, and forgotten to put it back on” then after that line the spiders find them and Bilbo and the dwarves narrowly escape. However, I believe that the only reason he is able to do this is because of the ring that sort of protects him.

                Another example of the courageous Bilbo brought out by his ring is when the dwarves are caught by the elves of the woods and are locked up in dungeons. Bilbo was not captured because he wore his ring and followed the elves to their palace. After a little while he was able to set the dwarves free out of cunning and courage. He stole the jail guard’s keys and unlocked the prison doors. He then packed all the dwarves inside barrels that the elves shipped food in. The elves unknowingly shipped the dwarves to safety! This connects to my theme because saving the dwarves was very brave, and Bilbo did so with his ring. But as well, sometime when Bilbo was unlocking the dwarves chambers I read “And his heart was often in his mouth, in spite of his ring, for he could not prevent the keys from making every now and then a loud clink and clank, which put him all in a tremble” this quote shows that anything that reveals to someone where Bilbo is, he is quite afraid of. I think Bilbo actually becomes much less careful as the book goes on because of the ring.

My last piece of evidence is when Bilbo steals a bit of treasure from Smaug for the dwarves. The first time he does this, Smaug is sleeping, so Bilbo gets away just fine. However the second time he does this, he encounters Smaug. But, he is able to talk to Smaug while he was invisible, and Bilbo gets away. But while he is running away from Smaug, the dragon tries to scorch Bilbo with his fiery breath, “It was an unfortunate remark, for the dragon spouted terrific flames after him.” Bilbo gets scorched (nothing too serious) because he had the ring and was sure the dragon had no clue where he was, but Smaug did have an idea of where Bilbo was!

All in all, Bilbo feels courageous only when he has his ring on! I think this is a weakness, or will be his downfall because sometimes he is too sure the ring will fully protect him, and it doesn’t. Readers can learn from this because it shows the life lesson: Don’t be overconfident! That’s what happens with Bilbo! I predict that the ring might be Bilbo’s fatal flaw in the end!