Independent Novel Study – The Hobbit – Final Essay

'”I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging.”' With those words, one Bilbo Baggins' life is changed. When all the world's seemingly conspiring against him, you'd think The Hobbit's plucky protagonist would have given up in the face of his challenges. There are three main forces opposing Bilbo Baggins in this story. These opponents are not evenly divided through the plot, but they are all equally important; they were also all chosen for specific reasons. They can be metaphors for the types of challenges humanity faces in life.

The first opposing force in the novel, one which takes three quarters of the plot, is the world itself. '”It almost seems to be that half the world's travails have gone and put themselves on our road.”' Be it man-eating trolls, malicious goblins, malevolent talking spiders, or kidnapping elves, everything seems out to get our heroes. However, with quick wit and a lot of luck, they manage to make it through. The dangerous world in The Hobbit can be perceived as a metaphor for the challenges we face every day in the real world. Just as the protagonists must triumph over all their setbacks, so must we overcome challenges to keep on going. However, there is always a greater roadblock...

At some point, everyone faces down a Dragon. Be you a fantasy character who must defeat a real dragon, or a human in the real world facing down a problem so great it seems insurmountable, the time comes. Smaug, the dragon Bilbo must confront in The Hobbit is a metaphor for the problems in our lives that just seem like they're too much for anyone, let alone little old you. Staring down a dragon's maw, literally or metaphorically, is enough to make anyone just want to hide. However, we must surmount the challenge to keep going with life; that, or hide from it, and hope it doesn't come up again, but that's no way to live one's life. Finally, there is one more opponent to us in our lives : the War.

The War that Bilbo fights seems almost incidental. No one even has any idea it's going to happen until the morning of the day it arrives on their doorstep. This can be seen as a metaphor for how things so huge they should be visible a long ways off can catch us totally off guard. The characters scramble to figure out what to do before it's too late. The 'War' in one's life is usually the worst thing that can happen to one. '”It was a terrible battle. The most dreadful of all Bilbo's experiences,”' reads a passage in The Hobbit. Whereas the 'Dragon' challenges are the massive problems we face alone, the 'War' is the opponent that is much more than just personal; rather than face it alone, it involves one's friends and allies too. There is always a silver lining, though, and Bilbo like everyone else gets his just rewards.

After contending with opposition to one's being on all fronts for so long, one feels like there's no fairness in the world. However, life finds a way to reward us for our success, be it with fame, fortune, or simply a long-awaited return to hearth and home. Bilbo's return is unexpected though, and such is our world: many do not think we'll make it through, and some even hope that's the case. To live life to it's fullest, one must disregard those folk: focus on the happy ending, not the stretch of getting there.