Comparing Good and Evil in Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

Finally the last example of Bilbo’s heroism is a battle against himself when he goes to visit Smaug the first time. In The Hobbit Tolkien states “[Bilbo] fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait” (200). Bilbo had to urge himself to continue down the tunnel to Smaug’s lair. Only a true hero would continue to walk towards a certain death, and that’s just what Bilbo Baggins did. Not only did Bilbo continue but he, being a burglar, stole a golden cup right in front of Smaug to! Bilbo is a hero for facing his fears and continuing to fulfill a promise.

By putting his life in danger Bilbo shows a true example of heroism. Though the dwarves were still skeptical of his abilities, they were starting to take into consideration of what Gandalf had said about this little hobbit. Continuing their adventure the group is attacked by goblins where they are eventually saved by Gandalf. Throughout the turmoil of the attacking goblins Bilbo gets lost in the caves and finds himself alone in the darkness. It is in this event when Bilbo finds Gollum’s ring. Gollum was a sickly looking creature that had been dwelling in the caves for many years. Bilbo used his wits to outsmart the creature by playing a riddle game with him and eventually made it to safety. Having Bilbo win the riddle game shows that his smart and witty mind aids him in becoming the hero. Bilbo wasn’t some tough strong stereotypical super hero, he used his smarts to outwit his foes and to triumph over evil. Though Bilbo at the time did not know the power of the ring that he had retrieved from Gollum’s lair (the power of invisibility), it was his heroic fate that he found it as it assist him in becoming the hero of the story. Fate has it that Bilbo will become a hero, but Bilbo also has the courage on top of his fate to get the dwarves out of life threatening situations.

Not only does the portrayal of Bilbo’s character and underlying courage convey his heroism, but so does his sense of ethics. This is what truly makes him a unique, caring hero. While a typical hero’s motive is wealth and fame, Bilbo gave up his share of the dwarves’ treasure to help avoid war between two nations that severely despise one another (the elf and dwarf kingdoms). The fact that he was willing to give up his wealth to avoid war and for the good of other people marks a significant aspect of his heroism and explains why he is “more worthy to wear the armor of elf-princes than many that have

Going forward, in this essay, topics such as heroism and transformity will be strongly analyzed through quotes directly from the book The Hobbit and opinions formed while reading. Through the book The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien is able to show how a hero isn’t always the typical buff and boots with a cape on his back kind of person. Tolkien shows the reader that a hero is made by the struggles he conquers and isn’t just a perfect character thrown into the beginning of the story.

First , Tolkien has a totally different mindset than we do. The positive character traits are being adventurous and being wild minded, and when bilbo accepted the challenge to go to fight the trolls. He went to go get back the treasure that belonged to him and other people that smog stole. He went on this long trip just to get back what’s his. He was very positive about going on this trip. He thinks that tookish side on chapter one to be very positive. These are some things that J.R.R. Tolkien thinks

One of the traits of an epic hero is the love for their people or people in general. This type of love is illustrated through the hero 's actions, through the love of people around them and the sense of being a team player. Bilbo invites strangers into his house and feeds them. Bilbo says "I am just about to take tea;

The conflict of good and evil is a major theme throughout the Lord of the Rings. Light

First, Bilbo is selfless. He shows this to be true during many troubles on this journey. As he travels with twelve dwarves and a wizard, who has now left them, through many lands, their journey brings them to Mirkwood, a very large, dark wood with many dangerous and horrifying creatures. In this forest, the company encounters giant spiders and the dwarves are captured and wrapped in spider silk, while Bilbo hides by using a magical ring that he had found earlier in their travels. He then uses his sword to fight the beasts and save his friends. After this, they notice that Thorin, the king of the dwarves, was missing. They searched for him and the path which they had lost before their quarrel with the spiders. Then, Wood elves with bows and swords surrounded them and captured all but Bilbo, for he had once again used his ring to ‘disappear’. The elves took the dwarves to their palace and locked them away in the king’s dungeon, where Thorin was also.

This carried a great responsibility, especially to someone as plain as Bilbo. When the time came, however, Bilbo rose to the challenge and saved his friends. When they were attacked by spiders, for example, Bilbo made all of the spiders chase him so that they would leave his friends alone. If it were not for his courage, the dwarves would have perished. Another example of Bilbo’s courage is when they reached the Misty Mountains.

Bilbo meets various races along his journey to the Lonely Mountains. When the dwarves sent Bilbo up to explore the light in the forest Bilbo already wants to prove that he is a value to the group and tried to impress them. Going toward the light in the forest, he sees that there are three trolls. In an attempt to impress he tries to steal a wallet from one of the trolls, Bilbo is showing a very highly admired virtue and that is courage. “Then Bilbo plucked

Although this may seem like something your typical hobbit would stray away from, Bilbo is not your typical hobbit. In this moment, Bilbo truly becomes a hero. Before Bilbo was needed to save the dwarves, he was all by himself facing off against a spider. Once he had killed the spider with no help from any dwarf or wizard he became very confident. The book says,”Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark without the help of the wizard or the dwarves or of anyone else, made a great difference to Mr. Baggins.” Bilbo knew that he was capable of being a hero, which aided him in becoming a one. After this, with the help of his magic ring, Bilbo was able to rescue the dwarves from the other evil

‘Something is the matter with you! You are not the same hobbit that you were.’”. This is proof that a hero sacrifices what they want for ‘the greater good’ because Bilbo had to give up his former personality and former attitude and life to become the hobbit he is now. Bilbo was a hero because he gave up what he wanted and was selfless to help others out.

In the book The Hobbit Bilbo has saved or helped the dwarves a couple of times. Well this prompt is times where Bilbo went from Hobbit to hero. For example when the dragon had thought that a little town had stole his gold when he went to attack they attacked back they shot arrows and Bilbo told them about the weak spot when they took him down. That day Bilbo save many lives and is a hero for it . At the lonely mountains when Bilbo distracted the dragon from killing the dwarves and they headed to safety.

One of the most fundamental concepts of human nature is balance, which Tolkien achieves using contrast and parallelism in his writing style. Every level of his writing, from the syntax to the story elements, reflects this idea. For instance, as one literary analyst comments, his“heavy usage of a coordinating conjunction and the resultant parallelism in multiple clauses, often grouped in one sentence, is a stylistic feature … worth noting on its own.” (Reid ). In other words, he repeats certain words or phrases (in this case the word “and”) to help connect and compare elements of the story. An example of this can be seen in this excerpt from The Hobbit in the chapter entitled “Fire and Water” (another example of his use of contrast), describing the attack and defeat of Smaug, the dragon, on a lake town, Esgaroth:

That is the theme of The Hobbit, the definitive fantasy novel that birthed a generation of inspired literature. The heroism that Bilbo lacked, the heroism that he later earned in his own rite of passage. Becoming a hero is no easy feat, but we must all make our own attempts at becoming a hero. No matter how comfy and cozy we are sitting around in our holes and feasting on snacks between first and second dinner. Tolkien shows us the journey of a simple hobbit, a representative of our own laziness and cowardice, in order to encourage heroism in all who read his