The second element of the story is irony. This shows up in a few different ways throughout the book. The most obvious way would be in the monumental way Bilbo impacted the quest. This is ironic because the dwarves brought him along with no respect, no expectations, all because they needed a fourteenth member. They even started rethinking his presence at times, thinking he was a liability. But they would have been dead a few times over, had it not been for that unexperienced traveler.

In other, less obvious ways, during the end of the riddle competition between Bilbo and Golum as Bilbo asked “What have I got in my pocket?” The reader knew that this was Golum’s lost ring. In this instance, and a few others, the reader shared a bit of information