What Does Greed Symbolize In The Hobbit

In The Hobbit, Tolkien uses many different techniques as he writes. The main techniques he uses are symbolism, poetry & songs, and aims to get readers to predict and relate to Bilbo.

Throughout Tolkien’s writing, he uses not only objects as symbols, but characters as well. In The Hobbit, Gandalf symbolizes as inspiration to Bilbo. During the expedition, Gandalf had been constantly pushing Bilbo to do things greater than others expectations, instead of always staying inside his little hobbit hole. From the start of the journey, Gandalf had pushed Bilbo to join Thorin and the dwarves on their expedition to the Lonely Mountain, to defeat Smaug the dragon and claim all the treasures that lie inside. An additional symbol in The Hobbit is

Smaug, the dragon in the Lonely Mountain. Smaug symbolizes as an objective or goal. The dwarves had planned to go to the Lonely Mountain to claim the treasures that lie inside, however Smaug was inside the mountain, therefore they have to defeat Smaug first. Another symbol that isn't as obvious is the town where Bilbo lives, the Shire. The Shire symbols as Bilbo’s homeland, it's environment had crafted and shaped Bilbo to be a humble a hobbit. Living in a peaceful and close environment, Bilbo never really had the urge to explore anywhere outside of the Shire. His homeland was safe and peaceful, which made Bilbo satisfied with what he already has.
In the book The Hobbit, Tolkien uses a lot of songs as well as poetry. Tolkien uses songs and poetry to express the thoughts and feelings of the characters. In the beginning of the story, the dwarves sang a song about the adventures of dwarves and the Misty Mountains. “The dark filled all the room and the fire died down, and the shadows were lost, and they still played on…
Far over the Misty Mountains
To the dungeons deep, and caverns old…
The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells…” (page 14)
This fragment of the dwarves song represented what the dwarves expect to do on their journey to the Misty Mountains.

They sang this song about the beautiful artifacts crafted by hands as well as magic moving throughout the song, painting vivid images of many emotions, and thoughts, “As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things...a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.” (page 15), Bilbo could feel the dwarves burning love for gold. During the song, even Bilbo himself wanted to see the mountains, the pine trees, explore waterfalls and the depths of caves, he wanted to go on an adventure with the dwarves to explore places outside the Shire. However, in the text it may say that, ”...the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things...a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves.” (page 15), which many interpret as the dwarves expressing their emotions, some might argue that the songs and poems represent objectives or goals for the characters. The dwarves had sang a song about the Misty Mountains as mentioned before, instead of representing the dwarves passionate feelings for the expedition, it could simply represent their

objective,
“Far over the Misty Mountains cold
To the dungeons deep and caverns old…
To claim our long-forgotten gold.” (page 14-15).
The dwarves objective was to claim the gold within the Misty Mountains, that had been long forgotten or abandoned.
Like many authors Tolkien aims towards goals, such as getting readers to predict and relate to Bilbo.

Tolkien wants the readers to relate to Bilbo, because as the main character Tolkien wants the readers to think what would they do if they were in Bilbo’s shoes. An example from The Hobbit is chapter 8, when the dwarves were all tied up by the spiders. During this point Tolkien had risen the stakes, saying that if Bilbo didn't do something his companions would be dead, making the readers to predict what Bilbo would do if the readers were in Bilbo's situation. Another example from the book is in chapter 16, when Thorin and the other dwarves were desperately looking for the Arkenstone. However, Bilbo had already found the Arkenstone and was hiding it, he noticed that Thorin’s behavior had changed a lot, he had become overly obsessed with the Arkenstone almost to the point of being insane. During this part, Bilbo had to do something or else Thorin will remain overly obsessed with the Arkenstone stone forever until he finds it. Tolkien had built up many events in order for this problem to occur, he wants the readers to predict what will Bilbo do to save Thorin, if they were in Bilbo’s

situation.
Tolkien had used many different techniques when writing The Hobbit, he had created these conflicts based off of events that occurred in his life. The Hobbit contains many different techniques and aims, the main techniques and aims he uses are symbolism, poems & songs, and aiming to get readers to predict and relate to the main character, Bilbo. As Tolkien uses many different example to show the techniques he uses and the aims he wants to achieve.