Making of a Hero: Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the Monomyth American mythologist, scholar, and author Joseph Campbell popularized the study of patterns within heroic narratives in his 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell’s theory, born from a lifelong study of heroic myths and narratives from around the world, is that the hero’s journey inevitably follows a common pattern of experience. By describing the universal stages (i.e., elements of the hero’s journey/story) that transcend temporal
In the fantasy novel The Hobbit, by J.R. Tolkien there are a lot of obstacles the character Bilbo Baggins has to confront. Throughout the book Bilbo seems to take on different challenges, which allow him to mature faster in a way that the Shire would not allow. In the Shire, Bilbo was just a normal hobbit who minded his own business and was never late for dinner. But after Gandalf and the dwarves came knocking on his door, his whole life seemed to change in an instant and it kept changing in a way
As the story of “The Hobbit” by J. R. R. Tolkien develops, readers of this book can see that one of the main characters experience a metamorphosis. From the beginning of the story throughout the end, Bilbo goes through a change, but for the better. Tolkien’s main character Bilbo in “The Hobbit” shows the theme of becoming a hero by gaining courage and confidence as the story progresses. During the beginning of “The Hobbit” Bilbo likes to stay to himself in his hobbit hole. We see that he is also