Blog #5 Analysis of The Hobbit

While reading The Hobbit, I never loved the story. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't very interested in it, until I was talking to some of my friends about the book. One of them mentioned that they didn't like it because there was no romance of any sort in it. I started thinking about the story, and thats when I realized that that was absolutely true. As I kept thinking about the book, I then realized there aren't any females ever mentioned in the story.  During the last in class lecture, Dr. Du Plessis mentioned this.  I think it is a huge part of the reason why I didn't enjoy the story.  The book is definitely more appealing the young boys.  In fact, Bilbo reminds of of an average boy who lived in the 1930s. The decisions he had to make, resembled decisions little boys make everyday.

Although I wasn't very interested in the story, I enjoyed the overall lesson in book (at least that lesson I got from it).  Most people are very greedy for materialistic things, like the dwarves, and we shouldn't care about these things nearly as much as we do. If we were all more like the hobbits and cared about the important things in life, it would be a much better world.  Thorin learns the lesson on the exploration before he dies. I think this is a message everyone needs to hear, especially at a young age. 

When Dr. Du Plessis mentioned that Tolkien used the different characters to represented different races, I went back and looked at detailed that portrayed this. It especially shines through for the dwarves being represented as Jews.

Overall, I didn't enjoy The Hobbit near as much as I hoped I would. Whether it was the lack of romance and female characters or if it was the high fantasy, I hope I like the rest of the stories more than this one. I am definitely keeping an open mind though!