The Hobbit And Akarnae: Character Analysis

Heroes and Villains Assessment task

Year 9 English

The Hobbit and Akarnae tell the journey of Alex and Bilbo transforming into heroes. The heroes share some similarities in personal traits, but they contrast in differences due to the challenges they faced and their heroic journeys. The authors also represent the two heroes differently because of the different writing techniques used. Alex and Bilbo are both heroes but one of them can be considered more heroic than the other. They learn valuable lessons and discover hidden qualities through their challenging journey of becoming a hero.

As Alex steps into a new world, she discovers unexpected qualities of herself through the hard choices she takes to protect her family and this new world.

Ironically, Bilbo quickly refuses it, “Sorry! I don’t want any adventures, thank you” (Hobbit, page 9). However, Gandalf ignores his refusal and invites the dwarves to Bilbo’s hobbit hole to have a meeting. They were singing songs of treasure when Bilbo suddenly felt something awaken inside, he wished to “see the great mountains” (Hobbit, page 19). Deep inside Bilbo wants to become more than just an ordinary hobbit and partake in adventures. During the meeting, Gandalf foreshadows something special inside of Bilbo, “there is a lot more to him than you guess” (Hobbit, page 24). Bilbo then unwilling decides to partake this adventure. Amid the adventure he was travelling through a tunnel alone. Although he was tired and weak, he kept moving “until he was tireder than tired” (Hobbit, page 83). This shows Bilbo’s heroic quality of perseverance. Bilbo also shows mercy to Gollum who is enraged that Bilbo has stolen his ring, instead of killing Gollum he spares his life. “A pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart” (Hobbit, page 102). He chooses mercy over the swift death of a Gollum even though it had “meant to kill him” (Hobbit, page 102). Bilbo discovers these heroic qualities inside him through the challenges he faces to protect his friends and the sacrifices he must make for them. Although Bilbo becomes part of an adventure, he is

Both heroes also persevere through challenges and protect their friends and family. The two characters, however, are represented differently because of the different writing techniques the authors use. In ‘The Hobbit’, the author uses first person and second person pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘you’ and asks questions to the directly reader such as “what is a hobbit?” (Hobbit, page 4). Tolkien is acting as guide throughout the book that interacts and asks questions to the reader. Lynette Noni is the author of Akarnae and she uses third person in her book such as ‘she’, ‘he’ and ‘it’. She describes the main character’s feelings, thoughts and the various choices she makes. The two protagonists are heroes, but their heroic journeys differ, this can make one more heroic than the other. Alex carry’s more responsibility on her shoulders as an entire world is depending on her to save it from evil, whereas Bilbo is mainly responsible for the safety of his friends. From this, it can be concluded that Alex is more heroic than Bilbo as her adventure is “only just beginning” (Akarnae, page 436) and she still must face more challenges however Bilbo comes to the end of an adventure. Although Alex is more heroic, both are heroes in their own