The Hobbit – Essay
Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins. As readers, which of them are we meant to respect the most and why?
The Hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien, shows the strengths and weaknesses of Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield in the novel. The novel starts off as Thorin seen as the more respected one between the two, while Bilbo gains his respect throughout the story, starting with none. He grows more confident as the dwarves venture further into their quest, the further they get; the more Bilbo becomes a hero. Thorin on the other hand proves to be resourceful and cunning from the start. However, the respect for Thorin sways as the reader progresses further into the novel as he reveals what is truly inside.
Bilbo Baggins is a ordinary being becoming more of a hero as the story passes. He believes that he should not go on the journey as he thinks he is more higher classed than the dwarves. He had been pushed into coming with the dwarves out of panic and not having enough time to make his decision of weather to go or not, this is shown on page 45, “…and shall await your respected person at the Green Dragon Inn, Bywater, at 11 a.m. shap…” by the time he read this, it was 10:50. After he read the letter Gandalf was waiting there, “That leaves you just 10 minutes”, “But—“ replied Bilbo, this shows the sign of rush in which Bilbo had no time to consider any other options and had to venture off to the Green Dragon Inn. Bilbo has good general knowledge and what is right from wrong.
The Essay on Self Respect 2
Self-Respect is a quality which is extremely important for the dignity, confidence and personality of an individual. People with self-respect have the courage of accepting their mistakes. They show certain toughness, courage and character. Without self-respect, one becomes an unwilling audience of one’s failing both real and imaginary. To live without self-respect is to live counting ones ...
At the beginning of the story Bilbo is useless and causes a burden for the dwarves. His lack of coordination gets in the way rather than helping the questers. An example of this is when the dwarves are hiding from the Wargs. They are required to climb the trees to be out of reach of their pursuers and Bilbo is unable to climb the branches of the trees. One of the dwarves, Dori, climbed out of the tree to save Bilbo and the two were nearly caught by the Wargs, this is shown in chapter 6. Another example is when Bilbo gets caught by the trolls and tells the trolls there are more dwarves near by leading to the capture of the others. Thorin on the other hand is witty and clever. He is the leader of the dwarves and appears so from the start. He is strong willed and is a true leader. He can fight and think of good strategies when the dwarves need him most. Thorin is greedy and is only thinking about the treasure at the end of their quest. Although smart, Thorin can be reckless in the way that he may not think about all the options before he takes out orders.
In the beginning of the novel, Thorin is seen as the one with more respect, in the latter of the story this decreases. Bilbo is on the other hand totally the opposite; he gains respect as the story goes further in. Fitness wise, Thorin is a lot stronger than Bilbo; Thorin is capable of climbing trees whereas Bilbo is not. Bilbo is witty in the way when he was captured by Gollum he remained calm and used his knowledge to defeat his enemy in a game of riddles. Bilbo was put to the test when he came across Gollum, not being able to outrun him the only way Gollum could be defeated was in a game of riddles. Also, another test Bilbo was put to was after he had stolen the ring, he needed to pass the guards guarding the entrance to the cave in chapter 7. He had passed them, only because of his smarts.
In conclusion, there are many strengths and weaknesses that Bilbo and Thorin both have, some of these include their ability to think a strategy to overcome the current problem, both have general knowledge and are clever, some of the things they are not too good at are holding themselves together. In the end I believe Bilbo deserves more respect as he is the hero by the end of the story. Thorin gradually loses it when he puts the dwarves in danger. As the reader, if I were to do this eassy based on the first chapter I would easily think Thorin deserves a lot more respect.
The Essay on News Updates on “Tree man”
On January 19, Shurmer (2010), a writer for the Comment News website wrote an article updating the site readers on the ongoing struggles of Richard Pennicuik, better known as “Tree man. ” Since early December of the previous year, Tree man had been living in a gum tree near his house in Hume Road, in the City of Gosnells, as a form of protest and to save the tree from the city council plans to ...
Bibliography:
Tolkien, J.R.R, The Hobbit, (Collins, London, 1998)
