The Hobbit - Book Review
Uploaded by fusionbreaker on Apr 23, 2002
The story has a wonderful adventurous plot. The plot is that of an adventurous journey by dwarves and their friend, the hobbit, in search of long lost treasure. The plot is suspenseful as the dwarves and the hobbit encounter several obstacles; spiders that catch them, elves that imprison them and goblins that wish to eat them. They win over some of their adversaries; the skinchanging Bear and the people of Elvenking. The story is not limited to the physical journey but also is richer through the emotional journey that the Hobbit encounters. He is a quiet, contented and unassuming Hobbit thrust into an adventure much against his will. He faces fear and death several times to find himself much changed and more courageous and trustworthy that even he ever suspected.
The creation of the characters is done by their dialogues and monologues, actions and things noted by the narrator (the author in this case) himself. An example for dialogue: “All the same, I should like it all plain and clear, also I should like to know about risks, out-of-pocket expenses...” (by Bilbo, page 22, it shows that he is not ready to jump into things so quickly). An example for a monologue: “Now is the time for our esteemed Mr. Baggins, who has proved himself...” (by Thorin, page 210, it shows Thorin’s style). A good example for action is when Thorin blocked the Gate in the mountain that shows the reader that the treasure is important to Thorin and he rather die than giving it away. An example for notes by the author: “You are familiar with Thorin’s style on important occasions...” (page 210) the author talks directly to the reader and helps him understand the text.
Each character has a physical description. The length and content of the description increase as the character importance to the plot increases (e.g., the hobbit has very long descriptions in the story (especially in the introduction) and the Elvenking has fewer descriptions). The more important characters get an emotional description too, but it is not well seen, but it can be extracted from the text by analyzing it. The main character of the book is Mr. Bilbo Baggins. He is the Hobbit who led the Dwarves to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their treasure from the dragon named Smaug. Bilbo is middle aged and resides in a clean, warm burrow dug into the side...