Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a leader? Many people think that leaders have to be strong and have an air of importance, but they can come in all different sizes. A good example of this is the character Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo was always a quiet and respectable hobbit. Because of those qualities, no one ever imagined Bilbo to emerge as a leader. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins becomes a true leader as he is humble and brave.
Bilbo Baggins has the leadership quality of humbleness. In The Hobbit, Bilbo finds a ring that corrupts people, but somehow seems untouched by it. That’s because Bilbo isn’t greedy, has willpower, and most of all, is humble. “There is more in you of good then you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world”(The Hobbit 263). Thorin tells Bilbo how he wishes that he wasn’t so greedy and was more humble, like Bilbo, about the treasure.
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Even though he is shy and timid in the beginning, he slowly becomes braver and braver with each challenge.“Somehow the killing of this giant spider, all alone by himself in the dark . . . made a great difference to Mr. Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath”(The Hobbit 144). Killing the spider without and help or hesitation show that bilbo grows with each trial that he
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
Bilbo Baggins is defined as a hero because he saves the dwarves from the gigantic spiders in a pitch-black forest, rescues them from the Elvenking’s grasp, and bravely takes an extremely precious jewel, that the dwarves have been searching for, and gave it to the elves and lake men to use as a bargain tool to prevent them from fighting the dwarves. Finding out that his friends were getting captured by gigantic spiders left Bilbo something else to worry about besides lack of food and water. His heroic self-came out again as he used himself as a decoy, or bait, to lure the spiders far away from the dwarves so he can have time to free the dwarves later. He used himself once more to help the dwarves run to a safe place while the spiders were slowly closing in on them. This shows that Bilbo is self-sacrificing and would do anything to keep his friends which is an impotent trait for a hero to have.
There are many good traits in the book The Hobbit. One of the traits Tolkien may think is positive might be Bilbo’s courage. Another thing he might think is a negative trait would probably be the fact that he gets scared easily. At this point in the book The Hobbit intelligence and physical strength are both very important factors to have to go on this journey they are about to embark upon.
He could only see the thing’s eyes, but he could feel its hairy legs as it struggled to wind its abominable threads round and round him" (58). Bilbo had to think fast and use his magical ring to save himself and the others. Once Bilbo freed himself, with some difficulty, he felt much more brave. After a while when Bilbo "felt that he could not lift his hand for a single stroke more, the spiders suddenly gave it up, and followed them no more, but went back disappointed to their dark colony" (61). Bilbo was seen as the hero and was loyal to his new group of friends, for helping save
displays an arrogant and honorable character who went by the name Thorin Oakenshield. This character lacked the wisdom to understand the true meaning of his adventure and let his arrogance guide his decision to dislike the useful hobbit known as Bilbo Baggins due to his peaceful manner. At this point, Thorin has had no adventure that gave him the wisdom to have a good reason to go on his journey and to not trust someone only by their appearance. Even though he was told multiple times by Gandalf, the great wizard who accompanied the adventures for portions of their journey, to trust Bilbo despite his seemingly peaceful personality, Thorin would not catch on to the wisdom in Gandalf’s words. Even when the party began their journey and saw that Bilbo was intelligent and could fend for himself like when the dwarves were attacked and captured by trolls and attacked by the goblins and Gollum, Thorin never fully congratulated Bilbo on his bravery. He also let his mission to find gold run on his greed. When the party traveled to the last homely home, the book said that Elrond, the leader of the elves at that location,”... did not altogether approve of dwarves and their love of gold.”(pg. 52 The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien). Based on this quotation, Thorin still ignored and denied the fact that his greed for the gold that the journey promised in the end would only bring misfortune. The rising action of the journey showed that Thorin Oakenshield
From the very beginning he’s a humble little hobbit who was not known for anything besides having a past of being mischievous. What Bilbo Baggins represented was how glory was not the prize for those who were born privileged; it was something to be earned. That was one aspect of glory that Tolkien learned as he fought in the front-lines of the First World War. While at home, the posters and the drafting offices had massive banners promising glory and honour to those who joined the war, the truth was the glory was not something that could be given; nor
Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist of The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins has curly brown hair and thick leathery feet. He was fat in the stomach and was half the height of an adult. He likes having multiple meals a day, and snacks. Bilbo also had long clever fingers. Bilbo is a very respectable individual. He enjoyed staying at home, Bilbo doing something unexpected was unheard of. Before the adventure, he thought highly of his neighbor's opinion about him. When Gandalf chose Bilbo the other dwarves thought that he was unfit for the job. The dwarves did not
First of all, he gains courage in the story. Before he went on this adventure, he was timid and to himself. This is because hobbits didn’t go on anything dangerous, especially adventures. This all changes as soon as Bilbo goes on this journey with Gandalf and the dwarves. We see our first example of this when he tries to steal from the three huge, nasty
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.
Baggins. He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach” (Tolkien 141-142). This event has led to Bilbo beginning to believe in himself, which is an important contribution to his overall development into the hero of this tale. Finally, when Bilbo is met with the task of meeting the dragon Smaug, he does not turn back. Even when he must walk alone through the dark, secluded hallway to Smaug’s lair knowing that he could meet his doom at any instant, he walked on. His internal being knows this is his final test of courage, and his will to carry on demonstrates his final development into a hero.
He slowly evolved as time went on, starting with a knock his door by an extraordinary wizard. Then, soon after that, when the dwarves arrived, Bilbo’s perspective seemed to change and open up to possibilities. He became more confident and more willing to prove himself. This is shown in Bilbo’s first challenge where he risks his life and the dwarves to steal from the trolls, so he didn’t come back empty handed. This showed him, that sometimes risks are worth taking. Another event that made Bilbo “evolve” a lot, is when he faced off his first challenge completely by himself. This was in Gollum's cave. There were many ways that Gollum changed Bilbo’s adventure, but besides that, the encounter changed Bilbo. It changed him because it seems like, in this event, Bilbo finally is able to trust in himself like when he decided to outmaneuver golem all by himself, and when he uses his wits, and brains to defeat Gollum. Through this, Bilbo discovered, that he himself could be strong, by using just his bravery, and his smarts. One more of these important events, that I believe is the most essential to this topic is the encounters with the spiders. This is because, in this one event, all the lessons Bilbo has learned, and all his adventures contribute to his success. He needs his bravery and wits, to be able to taunt the spider, his ability to persevere past challenges, and also, his willingness to
To begin with, Bilbo Baggins can be classified as the hero of “The Hobbit”. Mr. Baggins has shown a tremendous amount of growth throughout this journey. And he also illustrates willingness to sacrifice himself for the safety of his companions. To demonstrate, in Chapter 8 of “The Hobbit”, Bilbo finally begins to show his bravery and courage by rescuing the dwarves from the spiders: “He gave a shout and slashed at the spiders in front of him. They quickly gave way, and he scrambled and fell down the tree right into the middle of those on the ground. His little sword was something new in the way of stings for them. How it darted to and fro!” (Tolkien, J. R. R., “The Hobbit”, #177). As this quote explains, Bilbo was bravely rescuing the dwarves and fighting off the spiders. It also shows how willing he is to sacrifice himself for this dangerous journey. In addition, citations from “The Hobbit” shows that Bilbo also volunteers to be the first one to enter the tunnel and confront Smaug: “Then the hobbit slipped on his ring, and warned by the echoes to take more than hobbit’s care to make no sound, he crept
Fact 1: Bilbo Baggins went through several tasks that made his character grow. Through countless excursions into the wild it was obvious that Bilbo developed greatly into a wonderfully cheerful hero. After Bilbo beat Gollum in a game of riddles he became more confident in himself. Bilbo’s task was to solve a riddle that Gollum gave him. If he got the answer he lived. If he was wrong, Gollum would eat him. Bilbo was good at riddles and he defeated Gollum. Then Bilbo used his ring to escape. This event made him even more confident. Bilbo realized that he had accomplished a very tough task when he beat Gollum. This event also made Bilbo more skilled in being stealthy when he had his ring on.
Prior to the quest, Bilbo Baggins was a conservative, respectable and stubborn hobbit who lead a rich and comfortable life (Stephanie web). These characteristics, as well as safety and a dull existence, are typical of the Baggins