Language In The Hobbit

Men who sit around doing nothing are boring. There’s no such thing as a painless lesson. It just doesn’t exist. Sacrifices are necessary. You can’t gain anything without doing something. After all, in this world, men who sits home isn’t a man, men have to achieve his goal by challenges, men have to travel, and not just sit around, and men have to accomplish his objective by the end of the day. If you want something completely, then you need to make your desire come true by making yourself uncomfortable. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, there is a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, "he is a hobbit of good family and unimpeachable reputation" (Tolkien 111). And “lives in the neighborhood of The Hill for time out of mind and never had any adventure or

To defend themselves, they use a number of weapons: knives, daggers, spells, fire, rocks, and sticks. “Yet one of the most important weapons that they use—and one of the most important skills Bilbo develops on his journey—is language” (Arn). In the early chapters of the book, Bilbo displays almost no stylish knowledge of language, staying largely silent while the dwarves and Gandalf discuss their plans to journey to the Lonely Mountain and reclaim their treasure. When Bilbo gets lost under the Misty Mountains, he’s forced to use words to compete with Gollum, telling complicated riddles. He only defeats Gollum by asking a “cheap” question, “What have I got in my pocket?” (Tolkien 86). When giant spiders capture Bilbo and the dwarves in Mirkwood forest, Bilbo finally begins to use language with more skill, improvising elaborate songs to confuse the spiders and bring them away from the dwarves so that Bilbo can free them. After his exploits, Bilbo uses language to name his sword Sting, a name that strikes fear into the hearts of the spiders. Bilbo uses language in a similar fashion when he meets Smaug; instead of introducing himself as Bilbo Baggins, he calls himself a barrel-rider, a clue-finder, and a burglar. Where before Bilbo renames his sword, here he renames himself. In the Hobbit, language is a weapon, confusing, and otherwise disarming one’s enemies. But perhaps even more importantly, language is a tool for changing and understanding oneself. He experiences a part of his personality that he doesn’t just describe himself, he changes