Journal #3 The Hobbit

The first person narrative The Hobbit is not truly a first person narrative, instead, the narrator is a kind of omnipresent dwarf narrator (example, pg 23). After the group discussed the question, we came to the conclusion that if J.R.R. Tolkien had written the book in another way, such as through Bilbo's eyes, and thoughts, the entire first half of the book would be all worrying and "I want to go back to my hobbit hole, I want to go back to my hobbit hole..." As it is, the narrator keeps pointing out that Bilbo thinks about his hobbit hole all the time and worries all the time as well.

Another flaw of this book, not completely making it a first person narrative is the lack of objectivity. The narrator has no criticisms toward society as of yet. The only true criticisms of anything so far, seems to be of Thorin. The narrator also seems to like Bilbo and hobbits in general. One person in the group suggested that the theme of the book so far seems to be prejudice. Being that the only two criticisms in the book so far were of certain ìgroupsí of people, readers would be justified in stating that prejudice was the theme of the book (thus far).

The book, being episodic, marks each of Bilbos "steps" toward becoming more confident in who he is and what he is doing on the journey that he is on. In the beginning of the book, the narrator states that the "Took" side of him was coming out and therefore is why he went with the dwarves and Gandalf. Possibly the reason why Gandalf chose Bilbo is because he had an adventurous side , yet his Baggins side would hold him back and keep him sensible and out of trouble. From the beginning of the book, Bilbo had strictly been "Baggins". This book, and the episodes that are contained in it show his steady progress of ìtaking outî his Took side.

The first episode in which the readers can clearly see that Bilbo is gaining some confidence is the episode in which Bilbo challenges the little lake lizard, Gollum to a round of riddle answering that may end his life. Bilbo, through pure luck, triumphs and comes out of the goblin caves alive. The next episode that the reader can see Bilbos gaining confidence is the episode in which Bilbo devises a plan to get across the river that they had all been warned against.

Bilbo, contrary to other first person narrative characters is very well bred and very well spoken. The narrator doesn't repeat phrases and/or use slang terms often or at all. Bilbo is very polite and respected in his community. Yet, the actual narrator never talks about him/herself, or their social standings. This leads the reader to believe that, following the tradition of all other first person narratives, that the actual narrator is a dwarf who, perhaps doesnít get along very well with the other dwarves, or wasnít respected in his/her community.