Week 6 - The Hobbit

The Hobbit

This week I read Tolkien's The Hobbit (or re-read; it was read to me when I was small). I have read The Lord of the Rings as well, and found that I liked The Hobbit a lot more. They are both great books, but I really enjoy how instead of having a lot of bigger-picture conflicts (politics, moving armies, etc) like we see in LotR, The Hobbit's biggest conflicts take place internally, in Bilbo's inner conflicts and struggle to measure up to his role in the group in a world completely different from what he's always known. It feels like a coming of age story, but instead of growing up from boy to man Bilbo is growing up from a soft, prim, and solitary hobbit to a brave and capable adventurer who is part of a team. I think Tolkien's world shines the most in this character development context, when we can see in detail how this fantastical world actually effects the psyche of the characters.