In "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins, the main character of the book, undergoes a major change from the beginning of the book to the end. In the beginning of the book Bilbo is a timid Hobbit who would rather stay at home in his warm hobbit-hole than go on an adventure with 13 dwarfs and a wizard, which is what he ends up doing.
In the beginning of the book, when told that he might die on the adventure he's about to embark on, he falls on the ground and screams repeatedly, "Struck by lightning! Struck by lightning!", and then passes out from fear. However, by the end of the story Bilbo is risking his life to get gold back from a dragon, fighting goblins, and making truces between elves, men and dwarfs. Obviously, Bilbo has undergone a huge change since the beginning of the story, but what caused this change?
I think one of the reason's that Bilbo has changed so much is that he was forced to. He was kind of forced into going on the journey, but he did have a choice. I think that the brave part of him that chose to go on a perilous journey is the same part of him that stood up to all the dangerous obstacles on his journey. Over the course of the journey the part of him that decided to go on an adventure grows stronger, and he grows into an adventurous, noble hobbit, as opposed to the admittedly good-natured, but cowardly and lazy hobbit he was at the beginning of the story.
There are things in life that are difficult that can lead to us becoming better people. An example of this in my own life would be when my little brother was born. Now that I have to share with him, I feel like I've become a better role model, and a more generous person; however, when I first found out I was going to have a little brother, I was less than happy. Sometimes the things we resent immediately can turn out to be those that make us grow most as people.
Nice post! I agree with you that difficult choices can end up making you a stronger person. Even if you are shoved into your decisions, these changes help push you forwards everyday. If you didn't have to do anything or make any bold, daring choices, we would not be very interesting people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is definitely the diffucult thing that make is better people. This is because without nothing hard, we can never really see that we might not be the best people, or that we are doing anything wrong. I think Bilbo never really thought of himself as a lazy Hobbit who never ventures out of his Hobbit- Hole, because he has never has anything to show him differently until he is faced with adventure. So yeah, really good post. Can't wait to see the movie with you!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I do think that really experiencing something is much different from your first thought of what it might be like and does make you grow as a person. But like you mentioned in your post, the part of you that grows has actually been there the whole time but now you just see it and it's sort of unleashed and becomes a bigger part of you. So I guess it's not that your exactly changing but you are seeing yourself in a different spot light. It's a reason to take risks more often or do things that you wouldn't normally do (like a dj class?) and you may learn something about yourself
ReplyDeleteps I love that you are re-reading the hobbit