The Hobbit – Bilbo Baggins

Posted: September 9th, 2013

The Hobbit – Bilbo Baggins

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The Hobbit – Bilbo Baggins

Bilbo is the protagonist of the novel “The Hobbit,” and the most important figure in the novel despite not being portrayed as one at the start. As a Hobbit, he is only half the size of a man. His character, action, thoughts as well as his feelings develop the shape of the books and its themes. He also happens to be the one that most readers want to associate with due to being humble and content with his simple life. He lives in a hole just like other Hobbits, and he loves food and drink in abundance. His character can be illustrated by the bible verses, Philippians 2:3-4, 1^st Corinthians 1:26-29 and 1 Peter 5:6, 7. These verses focus on humility and selflessness, as well as having the interests of others at heart without judging others as inferior.

The first two verses in Philippians 2:3-4 state that one should do nothing out of selfishness or futile pride. Rather, one should act in humility and value others above himself without looking at their only interests, but also interests of others. Bilbo is a humble person, and is not selfish. When he is asked to be the leader of the dwarves, he asks for nothing in return, and remains humble even after becoming a hero. In their adventure, he is a little naïve in the beginning and only learns as the story progresses. He becomes a leader with interests of his group at heart, when he saves them from several dangers, such as from the spiders and wood elves. He did this for their interest since he was not interested in what they sought from the beginning. This shows his humility and selflessness. Even after his heroism during the adventure, he returned to his way of living, which represents his humbleness and remaining true to himself

The verses from 1^st Corinthians 1:26-29 talk about selection of foolish person by God to bring shame to the wise, the weak to bring shame to the strong, the lowly ones that are despised and even things that are nothing to bring nothing to things that are of higher value. Hobbit was not wise at all concerning the journey he was chosen to lead. Additionally, he was just nothing to the dwarves and very weak considering he had never been in an adventure. This illustrates these verses since he was able to learn as the journey progressed to become their hero by saving them from several dangers on the way. Despite not being the strongest, he was able to save the dwarves from all the dangers. Additionally, he learnt a lot during the journey that he did not know. For instance, he was able to slay a spider to save the dwarves, and went ahead to help in winning against the dragon by talking him into revealing his secret. Without this, the dwarves could not have made it to the treasure. Additionally, for his humble and peace loving character, he was able to humble himself before the humans to negotiate peace.

1^st Peter 5:6-7 states that one should humble himself before God so that they can be exalted at the proper time, leaving all the anxieties to Him since He cares. Bilbo was humble from the beginning, and never exalted himself until he was exalted by Gandalf when he was made the leader. He did not consider himself up for the task, but accepted it anyway without knowing what to expect. In many occasions, he showed actions of bravery, but at the same time, he did not use too much self-confidence to tackle issues on the way.

Despite gaining self-confidence from his heroic achievements, Hobbit remained humble to himself. He did not take on an extravagant life even after he was given a share of the treasure they went to seek. In fact, he only used his share in continuing with his humble life with ease. His character continued to show how he had the interests of all at his heart, even to his enemies. In the exchange of riddles with the Gollum, after winning and becoming invincible through the ring, he does not kill Gollum since he though it would be unfair. This also shows that Bilbo was also an ethical person, not out to kill for pleasure but to show kindness and acts of selflessness to others. Self-confidence did not make him less humble, since humbleness does not mean being poor. Rather, it is a character from inside of a person.