The Hobbit – Bilbo Baggins – Comparative Essay

When you think of a hero, you usually think of a courageous, selfless person that would put his life on the line for someone else. Whereas a villain is a person who, is greedy for riches and power, looks out for themselves alone, and doesn't care about what happens to others. But what if you combined these opposing morals and ways of making decisions? You would probably come up with someone like Bilbo Baggins of The Hobbit. In Tolkien's book (The Hobbit), he combines the villain mindset, with the hero mindset to create a most intriguing character.

In this essay we will be comparing Bilbo's way of acting, his motivation and his character style to the normal hero's mindset.

Bilbo's way of acting is different from the conventional hero's to say the least. When making a decision, he often puts his needs above the needs of others. Whereas, in the traditional hero, they normally put themselves on the line to keep another safe. Bilbo also takes on a sort of “watered-down” characteristic of the normal hero, being that Bilbo is not greedy. You could say that not being greedy is sort of a normal hero characteristic, but compared to all the other characters, especially the dwarves, for obvious reasons, Bilbo cares a lot less about gold and treasure than most others in the book.

In the beginning of the book, Bilbo is hesitant to go out on an adventure (his Baggins side), but his more curious side (his Took side) is what pushed him into the adventure. Which isn't exactly what you would see in a normal hero. In a normal hero, they would likely be motivated by simply, the want, or even need, to do good things. Unlike most other characters in the book, he is not motivated by the treasure at the end at all, and is even willing to give up his (original) share, just so tensions between the men, and the dwarves can settle. As we near the end of the book, his motivation shifts heavily to the promise of getting home after a year or so of adventure.

Bilbo's character style is different from the classic hero. He has his hero-like characteristics, like (slight) generosity, hospitality and how humble he is. But his occupation on the adventure is not a hero's quality, that being thieving. In a lot of important parts in the story, Bilbo is attempting to steal something. All the way form the beginning of the book where he has to steal food from the trolls, right up to the end where he steals the Arkenstone from Thorin. The closer we get to the return journey of Bilbo, the more and more adventurous and courageous he becomes. Altough even with this he needs help, the biggest sign of bravery occurs when he finds that the ring can make him invisible. He needs to disappear in order to be enough to overcome his fears and the dangers he encounters.

To conclude, Bilbo is more of a contemporary hero than the usual one would find in other works of fiction. He has different ways of acting, different things that motivate him, as well as a unique character style. He is a fictional creature, quiet and domestic, scared to so much as set foot outside of his hometown. Yet, this unlikely hero was the one that left his familiar surroundings, to explore new lands, to meet new and interesting individuals, and to evade certain death, on multiple occasions.