A Hero Emerges in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: Bilbo Baggins

There is a hero in every story. This is the story of a small man who ends up on a journey and returns changed.. The protagonist of the story, Bilbo Baggins, undergoes a transformation that turns him into the unlikely hero of this story. Undergoing the process of becoming a hero, Bilbo emerges as a hero, more confident and competent than ever before. With each trial and tribulation, Bilbo develops more and more into the hero he becomes, but without losing sight of his true self. The process Bilbo goes through to become a hero is extensively explore in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

The process of becoming a hero which Bilbo goes through begins with a simple knock on his door one morning. Soon Bilbo is recruited, unknowingly and unwillingly, as a burglar into Thorin’s expedition, by the mysterious wizard, Gandalf. Here at this moment, is Bilbo called to adventure. This is probably the only opportunity a hobbit such as Bilbo to go on such an expedition, but Bilbo is; at first, very reluctant, maybe even annoyed to have been recruited into Thorin’s group.

To understand fully Bilbo’s transformation into a hero, we must look at his original ‘unheroic’ state; how he was before embarking on this adventure. Bilbo is introduced as a typical, respectable hobbit. He is quiet, predictable, and comes from a rich and respected family, the Bagginses. He is never late to any meals, is polite to the point of being a pushover, and becomes uncomfortable when thrust into new conditions. But another fact is revealed about Bilbo’s heritage. He is descended on his mother’s side from the Tooks, a hobbit family known for their love of excitement and adventure. This particular fact has some bearing over Bilbo’s behavior, and it is this side of him, along...

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...was completely out of place and had no idea how to deal with the tribulations they encountered over the journey, but with the passing of each one, he developed more and more into the hero he would become.

Despite all the things Bilbo has gone through, he has, for the most part, remained true to himself, and does not get carried away or becomes arrogant. He grows weary of adventure and yearns for his home. He still misses the creature comforts he once enjoyed; he simply has learned to cope without them. Bilbo returns home with a small amount of the treasure. This decision is swayed by Thorin’s last words. Thorin imparts the fact that if more were like the hobbits, had their simple values, “food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

Without evil or greed in the world, heroism would be obsolete, and heroes would be a rare sight indeed.