The Hobbit's Impact On American Culture

The Hobbit was the first of Tolkien’s story of Middle Earth and was thought as a children’s book. “The Hobbit” explains, the main plot of the storyline is a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins goes on an adventure with thirteen dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf to reclaim the dwarves’ homeland in The Lonely Mountain from an evil fire-breathing dragon named Smaug. On the way the company encounters goblins, giant spiders, trolls, and many other undesirable things. While on the quest, Bilbo finds a magic ring which he steals from a slimy creature corrupted by the ring named Gollum. (95-101). The main characters include Bilbo Baggins (main hero), Gandalf the Grey, Thorin Oakenshield (leader of the dwarves), Balin, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin (the other 12 dwarves), Elrond (leader of the elves), Goblins (captures the company), Gollum (creature that Bilbo takes the ring from), Wargs (giant evil wolves). Bard (kills Smaug) (“The Hobbit” 95-101). The major themes of The Hobbit include the struggle between Good and Evil, Fate and Chance, Friendship, Death, and Valor (“The Hobbit” 95-101). “The Lord of the Rings was his second major piece of literature and was more sophisticated and considered a more adult trilogy. The Lord of the Rings” states, the major plot of The Lord of the Rings is that a hobbit named Frodo Baggins goes on an adventure to destroy an evil ring

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, better known as J.R.R. Tolkien, was born on January third 1892 in Bloemfontein South Africa and was the son of Arthur and Mabel Suffield Tolkien. After his father's death in 1896 Tolkien's mother moved herself and her two children, J.R.R (at the time called Ronald) and his younger brother Hilary to Sarehole near Birmingham. When Tolkien was twelve his mother died and he and his brother were sent to live with one of their relatives when a Catholic priest became their legal guardian. (biography.com J.R.R. Tolkien Linguist and Author) At the onset of World War 1 Tolkien did not immediately rush to join the war. He instead remained at Oxford and received his degree in 1915. During the time leading up to his

Tolkien was one of the most life changing events Lewis experienced because Tolkien opened Lewis’s eyes to a whole new world. Growing up, Lewis and Tolkien were exposed to some of the same authors and stories, giving them both a similar appreciation for literature. Tolkien expressed himself in a very creative and imaginative way, but he struggled with his writing being classified as children’s literature and had very little confidence when it came to publishing and sharing his works, whereas Lewis wrote very intellectually and philosophically and wasn’t afraid to get his works out into the public. A major conflict Lewis faced when it came to writing was not being able to balance both intellectual imaginative thought. He felt as though he needed to write to educate, but couldn’t do so while incorporating mythical elements, because he believed that you can’t teach important things to people in an entertaining way.

The Hobbit is an award winning novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book relates a lot to Tolkien’s life and supports modern values. Tolkien hated war. He and his friends went to war and although Tolkien made it out alive, few of his friends did.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit, this was the start to his rise in literature with many best sellers and movies based on his bestselling books. He was won many awards for his work including the “International Fantasy Award for Fiction” for the Lord of the Rings novel in 1957. He was well known in the writing community for his achievements on the Lord of the Rings as well as in poetry. In order to comprehend Tolkien you must first analyze his early life, his works, and how the world around him shaped his stories. Tolkien was a worldwide sensation to everyone who read his books and inspired many people into writing.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have been beloved works among many generations of readers since they were first published. The author of these two books, J.R.R. Tolkien is just as interesting a man as many of the characters he created in the world of Middle-Earth. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Africa to a banker manager and his wife in 1892 and had only one sibling, Hilary, who was less than two years younger (Wikipedia). When he was young both of his parents died (one from rheumatic fever, the other from diabetes) and he and his brother were raised by a Catholic priest in Birmingham (Wikipedia). Tolkien was involved in World War One and Two, first as a serviceman, then as a cryptographer (Wikipedia). Indeed he was very

Tolkiens perfectionism made it so that he would constantly revise anything that he is writing until he was satisfied. One example of Tolkien’s perfectionism would be after he wrote the main part of Lord of the Rings and it is said that, “Yet even now he did not finish. He revised, niggled, and corrected earlier chapters, spending so much time at it that his colleagues came to regard him as lost to philology” (203) Even after Tolkien was done revising the main work and showed it to the publishers he would continue to revises it and go through the entire story again and again. He revised the work for several months before it began to be published and printed.

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien is not often thought of as a Christian book. It is either viewed as a revolutionary fantasy book or an adventure book; rarely do people think of the book as having Christian roots. During his life, Tolkien was a devout Christian, so these morals and themes can be seen throughout his writing. By telling of the journey of an average fellowship, Tolkien tells a vast story with life lessons along the way. Rather than focusing on the developments of a single character, Tolkien develops several characters throughout the book, so comparisons among these characters offer valuable insight to human behavior.

The hobbit is not only a fantasy story for children; it reflects on society as well. The book was first published in September 21, 1937, after the First World War, which deeply influenced Tolkien. When WWI broke out, as an Oxford student, Tolkien joined the Lancashire Fusiliers as a second lieutenant so that he could serve his country. He had unique experiences on the front lines, experiences of both life and death, and saw “ordinary” soldiers both win battles and pass away every day. In The “Hobbit” (as well as “The Lord of the Rings”), Tolkien wrote not only about tragic warfare, but also about the elements of heroism that he observed in his service as a soldier as well.

Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings using his world which had few moments of brightness, but were clouded by the darkness of war and destruction. Tolkien served his country during World War 1 and experienced the tragedies of the new modern combat of the time. When he was able to be with his children, he was motivated to give them a better world to look at. Due to his studies in different cultures and languages he was able to create Middle Earth, a land where there are elves, orcs, dwarves, wizards, hobbits, humans, and many more mythical creatures some created by Tolkien himself. Tolkien was motivated to create a new world for his children to experience instead of the chaos filled world during their lives, and was inspired by his studies in

The article, Overview of "The Hobbit" written by Don Akers, examines John Tolkien's influential work and informs the reader about the impact that Tolkien aimed for while writing fantasy novels. The author begins with explaining Tolkien's philosophy on the importance of fantasy and mythology within a culture; stating that his main purpose is to link the cultures of the past and present and thus making myths more credible. Myths from the past were borrowed by Tolkien and used to develop his worlds, as mentioned in the article. Acknowledgement bestowed upon Tolkien for laying the strong foundation for future fantasy writers. He then goes on to explain how Tolkien's influence branches beyond writers and even into fantasy role-playing games. To

"Three Rings for the Eleven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his Dark throne, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie(Tolkien)." Master of storytelling J.R.R. Tolkien continues the lives of the fictitious creatures that he introduced in The Hobbit, in his modern classic The Fellowship of the Ring. He artfully illustrates the truths of the evil that plague the hearts of man. He tells a story of greed, destruction and how mortal men are enslaved by

Tolkien uses a Fantasy / Mythical theme throughout the book. The book has different battles and skirmishes that occur. They have to fight off Orcs and the Dark Riders all throughout the story. I believe this book is told by the third person point of view. It is a way to help the readers understand and relate to the story. The title gives you a hint and explains what the whole point of the book is about. In this book, Frodo’s biggest quest is finding all the people that will be a part of the Fellowship of the Ring.

Tolkien himself states that one indeed has to personally come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems he had been caught in the youth of 1914, which was no less a heinous experience of those in their youths in 1939. Yet the youth of Tolkien's experience stays with him as he states further in his foreword in the second edition, “By 1918 all but one of my close friends were

The Hobbit is a fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien and it was published on 21 September 1937. The novel is about quest and adventures of Bilbo Baggins through to the Lonely Mountain. The book still remains popular in children’s literature. The story is told in a heroic way and basically is about Bilbo gaining new level of maturity, wisdom and losing his innocence. Themes are pretty much personal growth, heroism and war. Tolkien had four children and he used to write stories for his kids to enjoy. Then he collected these stories and created whole new world in the literature.