In this assignment, we had to read “The Hobbit” by J. R. R. Tolkien and “How to Read Literature like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster. Once both books were read, we had to take at least one archetype and compare it to the events in the book. “The Hobbit” tells of lonely Bilbo Baggins that enjoys his peaceful life. He is convinced to go on an adventure with the wizard Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves to steal back the dwarves’ treasure from Smaug the dragon. Throughout the story, the group goes through a rollercoaster journey and even experience death in the time throughout the adventure.
The first archetype I noticed in the story was Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) Bilbo is the quester and he is not aware of the dent on his door that alerted the dwarves to his home. Gandalf left the dent on the door and removed it when he arrived the next day with the dwarves. The place they were going to was to the Lonely Mountain where Smaug the dragon resided. Gandalf wanted Bilbo to assist the dwarves in getting their gold back from Smaug because he felt Bilbo had something in him that Bilbo didn’t know he had. The group faced many challenges when they started out, one of the ponies got afraid and ran straight into the river.
Of course, the pony’s baggage that it carried was food, so they had less food then they already had. The dwarves, believing that Bilbo is a thief, sent him to go investigate the light and there were three trolls. All of the dwarves came to help Bilbo and were captured by the trolls. Gandalf saved them by delaying the trolls until they turned to stone. The next trial was the goblins capturing them in the cave. As they were running from the goblins, Bilbo fell and hit his head and was unconscious. Once Bilbo woke up, he was alone and in the dark. He felt a ring on the ground, so he pocketed it and took it with him.
He pproached an icy cold river and there he met Gollum. The only way Gollum would take Bilbo across the river was if Bilbo played a riddle game with him. Bilbo played along and hinted to Gollum about the ring without knowing it belonged to Gollum. Gollum told Bilbo of the ring he had and how it made him turn invisible. They moved on and saw the goblins standing guard in the room and Bilbo didn’t want to give Gollum a chance to eat him, so he put on the ring and became invisible. Bilbo made it out alive and soon met up with the others. For the rest of the story, they faced the goblins again, Wargs, spiders, and elves.
They got back their gold and Smaug got angry, so he destroyed the town. Bard, a lake man, killed Smaug by the missing scale in his chest. The elves got mad at Thorin because he didn’t share treasure because he was greedy and didn’t want to fix the town. Bilbo made an agreement with the elves and they were no longer mad at Thorin. Goblins and the Wargs came and it started the Battle of the Fire Armies. The eagles came and joined the elves, dwarves, men, and Bilbo in the battle against the Wargs and goblins. After the battle, Thorin, Kili, and Fili all were dead.
The real reason to go there was because Bilbo was born also as a Took on his mother’s side and they loved adventure. Gandalf knew Bilbo’s grandfather and knew that Bilbo was actually braver than he thought. He left the dent on the door and all the dwarves could not believe that Bilbo was meant to come along with them due to his random outbursts at dinner. As the story progressed, Bilbo grew and the dwarves started to depend on him to make decisions. Once Bilbo killed the spiders and named his sword, his newfound heroism was found. The next archetype was the Communion, which is when a group of people get together and eat.
When the dwarves arrived, Bilbo had to fix food and invited them into his house. Once they ate at Bilbo’s house, the dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf had all formed a bond over the songs the dwarves sang and the food they ate. Bilbo inviting them into the house was a sign of a newfound trust and bond that they would later come to have. It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow is the next archetype which was in both chapter two and chapter four. The rain in chapter two was when the dwarves became tired and tried to find some somewhere to sleep without getting wetter than they already were.
The barely had any food left because of the pony running into the river and the food fell into the water. As they saw the light in the distance, they did not expect for there to be three trolls inside the home. In chapter four, it started storming, so he group went into a cave where they were then captured by goblins. The rain is shown being destructive two times in the book and the rain always tells that something bad is about to happen to the group. Then underworld was represented in the book by the goblin’s underground home.
They stayed in the dark and once someone came in, they most of the time didn’t come back out because they were eaten. The Great Goblin resembles Hades in a way because the Great Goblin was the leader and ruled the goblins and had his own army. The underworld is supposed to have a sad feel and the goblin’s underground cave was very sad and depressing, because of how they tie up and plan to eat their victims they catch. The underworld is the afterlife and the goblin’s underground home gives the same feel as the underworld does. The last archetype is irony. Irony is the opposite of what is intended, usually for humorous effect.
One thing that was very ironic in this book was when the dragon attacked the town, Bard intended to save the town, but he actually made the town worse. When he killed Smaug, Smaug still ended up falling down and destroying the town. It was very ironic, because what he meant to do was save the town, but he actually did the opposite. Tolkien seemed to have wanted to make light of the situation and give it a more humorous approach by making Bard the archer make the situation even worse. These archetypes all show what kind of writer Tolkien was and how he had many different situations in his story.
He made the tory very interesting by adding that Bilbo was not very adventurous, but turned out to be the most adventurous of them all. The story also taught growth and how Bilbo didn’t think he could do half the things he did, but he still did them. Underneath all of the fantasy and creatures, the story also had a very important lesson. Sometimes when thinking that you are not able to do something then you should always believe that you can. Tolkien showed that very well in his story and how much Bilbo changed in almost a year. It showed strength and that even the smallest person can be the strongest hero when they are needed.
