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The Hobbit

My oh my do I love reading Tolkien, his writing has a sense of whimsy and wonder I don't really find in other fantasy works.
We talk a lot about the hero's journey, but not enough about what happens before.
The Hobbit speaks about conformity in our homes, but the home is never demonized or berated. It is described with love and beauty, Bilbo cares about his home because conformity is part of his identity.
Before we embark on our own journey through life we are the same way. We want to stay at home and live with our family forever. That's not how life works.
However, The Hobbit never demonizes the home, it is a part of life, a nest, our childhood home. The home has many memories attached to it, and its not something bad. Bilbo's conformity, also ties into his refusal to let new people into his life. Some of us have loud family members who every time they come over they rock our routine. At first, we find them annoying but later we enjoy ourselves, let go and be free with them. When they leave, we miss them, and then we create new memories.
The call to adventure, for me, is something smaller than leaving your home to leave on an epic quest. It is how we approach living each day. Are we going to do something bigger than yesterday? Are we going to take the risk and outdo ourselves? it all depends on us. Sometimes we fail, and we learn, but there's no turning back after that, its moving forward. This is something I find a lot in Tolkien stories, characters fail, almost give up and they continue. But it is written in a way it gives me hope, hope that there's a light at the end of the road, that when I fail, its going to help me in the long run

Comments

  1. Anna ChoiOctober 14, 2019 at 7:31 AM

    I also really enjoy the theme of home and how the comfort of routine can be satisfying, while the call to adventure and leaving outside your comfort zone can bring various amounts of horror that might make you want to turn back. I do like that the Hobbit approaches home in a positive sense, but also manages to reconcile the difficulties you face outside it, that can develop you as a person and can provide valuable insight.

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