The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit, 50 years old, and quite content (as all hobbits are) to remain at home with his kitchen and his garden, living out the whole of his days in peace and quiet. As Bilbo is the principal protagonist of the novel, the world is seen largely through his eyes even as the arc of the story is narrated from an omniscient third-person perspective. The reader can sympathize most intimately with Bilbo as he moves from the safety of the Shire out into the wide world, full of danger and the unknown. Taken by surprise one day by Gandalf and a host of dwarves, he is hesitant to go on an adventure even though he is intrigued by the idea, and he eventually must be practically bullied into departure on their quest.

Along the way, Bilbo surprises even himself by how cunning and resourceful he can be when the need arises. From picking the pocket of a troll, to battling giant spiders, to orchestrating an escape from the dungeons of the elf palace in the depths of Mirkwood, Bilbo continually discovers that he is more capable than he has ever before cared to know. Arriving at the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo faces his greatest tests in the figures of Smaug and Thorin, both of whom attempt to thwart his success in various ways, and both of whom Bilbo outwits by his courage and his equanimity under pressure.

In the end, Bilbo lives to tell his tale and returns home a changed and wealthy hobbit. Even Gandalf comments that the hobbit who left the shire the previous year is not the same hobbit who now returns home. While Bilbo’s core principles never change—love of home, honor, goodness, self-sacrifice—his virtues are brought out and honed to a fine point through trials requiring him to exercise every ounce of his courage and daring. Even greater than the vast sums of wealth with which he returns to the shire, there is the wealth of self-knowledge and the wealth of friendships he gained in his quest with Gandalf and the dwarves.