The Significance Of Bilbo Baggins's Transformation In The Hobbit

Author of When Irish Eyes Are Sparkling, Tom Collins once wrote, “A real hero doesn't expect to be thanked or even recognized” (Heroes). A hero is someone who helps others with no thought of self-profit. Much like the hero that Tom Collins describes, the main character in The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is a hero who looks to join in the Dwarves’ quest in retrieving the Arkenstone in their new adventure. Each of his heroic acts helps develop himself as a character and his relationships with the other characters in the novel. In J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins undergoes a transformation of character from the journey he takes with Gandalf and the Dwarves. During The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins follows the stages of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”

Unlike typical heroes in the stories that follow the Hero’s Journey, Bilbo Baggins is not a young character, yet Bilbo still has the innocence and naivety about the world because he stayed close to home and did not see the outside world (“The Importance of the Work” 9). Despite being about fifty years old, Bilbo still resembles a child in his personality, small appearance, and inexperience. The stagnant life of Bilbo Baggins is primal for the beginning of his Hero’s Journey in The Hobbit. Based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, the beginning of the story is dedicated to the everyday life that the hero begins in to which they will depart from to start the quest that lies ahead for him or her (Johnson). The beginning of The Hobbit depicts the life that Bilbo Baggins has before his adventure starts, which will eventually show the contrast to his character development from the beginning of the story to the end. Bag End in The Hobbit, the place where Bilbo Baggins feels the safest and most comfortable in his world, represents this Ordinary World Stage in the Hero’s Journey. From the very first paragraph of The Hobbit, Tolkien established the Ordinary World Bilbo would emerge from to go on his adventure. The opening paragraph of the novel sets the origin of the story when Tolkien wrote, “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filed

Bilbo is originally tentative about joining any adventures and decides to stay in his hobbit-hole (“The Hobbit” 97). This uncertainty stems from his comfort in staying in his safe home. When Bilbo first spoke with Gandalf about joining the quest with the Dwarves, Bilbo rejects the entire idea of an adventure, saying, “We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things. Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them” (Tolkien 4). Bilbo is initially very timid about joining any sort of adventure and does not believe that he would want to be a part of one. His refusal of this adventure is short lasting because once he has his night with the Dwarves and Gandalf, he ultimately runs to join them for their adventure the next morning. This refusal of adventure is typical for heroes following the Hero’s Journey. In Laurence W. Mazzeno’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces, he analyzed Joseph Campbell’s stage of Refusing the Call, noting, “Campbell outlines the generic elements of the Quest that all heroes undertake. First there is a Call, which the hero often refuses” (Mazzeno). The refusal of adventure that most heroes typically experience is the same with Bilbo’s initially hesitation to the adventure. Refusing the adventure is a critical stage in the Hero’s Journey as the hero’s initial resistance propels the