Examples Of Archetypes In The Hobbit

In the book the Odyssey, Odysseus is an archetypal hero for several reasons. An archetype hero is “a person, generally a man, of tremendous physical strength who loves his family and country equally.”(handout).

The Hero’s Journey is a situational archetype of every story made, whether it’s a poem, narrative or film they all tell this Journey.

Quest is a method where a literary work is broken down into five simple components. The five aspect of Quest consists of a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go, challenges and trials, and a real place to go. This method can be applied to a novel by John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath because many examples are peppered throughout the story.

The most prominent archetype in The Hobbit is the hero’s quest, because Mr. Bilbo Baggins goes on a mission to help retrieve gold from a fearsome dragon that rightfully belongs to the dwarf friend’s he has made. According to Mr. Thomas C. Foster in his book, How To Read Literature Like A Professor on page 3, he states that a quest “consists of five things: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there.” The Hobbit has all five of those basic structures.

What does “The Hunger Games” have in common with every other book or movie? Katniss Everdeen, the hero of the story, is forced to fight to the death in an arena. She meets people along the way that follow certain archetypes that help her complete her journey. Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch all follow the archetypes hero, shapeshifter, and mentor. Katniss Everdeen is the hero of the story.

Every author wants their readers to be engrossed in the story whether it be that a character or characters are relatable in some way to the reader, the plot, or the story itself. In order to create the characters or even the plot line the author needs to make it interesting for the reader to read. Authors use multiple stylistic choices throughout their story, and the readers may not even know that they are reading over the choices useless they are purposefully looking for it. In J.R.R Tolkien's book The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is forced to accompany a group of dwarves: Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Fili, Kili, and Gandalf the wizard. They start their quest to take back their homeland from the dragon Smaug. Throughout the story they experience many difficult tasks, such as walking through a forest that is infested with giant spiders, battling goblins that live in the mountains, and Gollum, a malnourished man in desperate need of a therapist. J.R.R. Tolkien utilizes indirect and direct characterization to help the readers understand the characters and help to justify their actions.

The Hobbit, the literary masterpiece by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, more commonly known as J.R.R Tolkien, is a splendid book with many archetypes to visualize. One of these archetypes is the ruler archetype, a ruler is the leader of a community or group of people. Thorin II Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King under the Mountain is the ruler figure in this book. Thorin represents the ruler archetype well as he is the patriarch of his companions, he keeps order within his group, and he is a courageous leader and fighter.

The Hero, The Mentor, and The Shadow are necessary archetypes that can be found in The Hobbit, and three characters fit these roles perfectly. First of all, the archetype, The Hero, is represented by Bilbo Baggins, and for this archetype, they sacrifice themself for the service of the journey. They grow and learn during this time. For example, in chapter three, the text states, “He was thinking once again of his comfortable chair before the fire in his favorite sitting - room in his hobbit - hole, and of the kettle

One of the most apparent character archetypes used in this novel is the everyman, a simple, adventure less, commonplace character that is played by Bilbo Baggins. In the beginning of the story, Bilbo is the classic everyman that lives in the Shire, but is soon thrust into a world he does not understand. As the story progresses Bilbo fulfills the role of the hero all while making a full circle back to the beginning and thus completing the Hero’s Journey. Another important figure in The Hobbit is Gandalf, who takes on the role of both the herald and the mentor. Gandalf’s role as the herald is clear as he embarks Bilbo on his adventure in the beginning of the novel. His role as the mentor is a longer and more subtle one as he guides Bilbo through his obstacles while letting Bilbo overcome them himself. His dual role helps support the storyline in building the full circled journey. The shadow role and the threshold guardians create a conflicting force that rivals the protagonists. The shadow is portrayed as Smaug and can be referred to as the antagonist throughout the expanse of the book. Bilbo and the dwarfs entire journey is based on their rivalry against the dragon guarding the homeland of the dwarfs, The Lonely Mountain, as he stands in the way of what they want, "Bilbo was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable. Whenever Smaug's roving eye, seeking for him in the shadows, flashed across him, he trembled, and an accountable desire seized hold of him to rush out and reveal himself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact he was in grievous danger of coming under the dragon-spell" (231). The use of this character in the Hero’s Journey is what creates a story and adds the necessary conflict to create the plot and engage the reader with the momentum it builds. Threshold guardians play a similar role in gathering momentum,

The Architypes of the Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel the hobbit is an epic fantasy tale full of Elves, Dwarfs, Wizards, and the forces of nature, but what some fail to realize is that the story also contains many architypes. According to Miriam Webster architypes are recurrent symbols in literature, art, or mythology. Some such major architypes in the hobbit is the communion like dinner at the beginning of the tale, Bilbo’s transition into a hero, and the descriptions of the forces of good evil, and nature. These three architypes are some of the many portrayed, that show the writing depth and knowledge in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel the Hobbit.

Almost all stories written have some sort of a quest, and where there is a quest there is a journey. The character travels near and far, reaching ultimate highs and hope-crushing lows. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho is a novel where a boy goes on a life-changing journey. He ventures off to find his destined treasure and along the way he finds himself. His journey was key to finding the treasure and himself.

In Thomas C. Foster’s book How to Read Literature like a Professor, he teaches readers how to read between the lines. In chapter one, Foster explains that every trip is a quest, except when it’s not. Each quest consists of five things: (1) a quester, (2) a place to go, (3) a stated reason to go there, (4) challenges encountered during the trip, and (5) a real reason to go there (Foster, 3). Ernest Hemingway’s award-winning novel The Old Man and the Sea fits Foster’s criteria for a quest perfectly. The quester is Santiago, an old man with young eyes who loves Joe DiMaggio. Throughout the book, the old man is constantly comparing what he does to how he imagines DiMaggio would do it. However, the old man never doubts himself despite his age.

There are many types of villains; the cunning, the crazy, the prideful and even the heroic villain, but there is also the standard villain. Smaug the dragon is the antagonist in The Hobbit and he is a standard villain; a stereotypical one, but even he has some certain traits that differentiate him from the basic villains. He is terrible, merciless and evil, with only one weakness, isolated in his castle full of gold.

The Hobbit is a fictional novel written by J.R.R Tolkien. The novel is about a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who was approached by a group of dwarves who were in search of treasure in the mountains. Along the way, the group faced many obstacles and bumps in the road. On the contrary, Thomas C. Foster wrote a book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, that gives students a bit of insight on how to understand what they’re reading, and it also helps students to figure out the true meaning of different situations and things that are written in literature. In the book, Foster went on to explain different archetypes that are typically hidden in literature. Some archetypes that Foster elaborated on were the hero’s quest, death, resurrection, and communion. Archetypes such as the hero’s quest can be applied to the the journey that is depicted throughout the novel: The Hobbit. Aspects of this archetype that will be discussed later include the quester, a destination, a stated reason to embark on the journey, obstacles along the way, and the actual reason for going on the journey.

The book The Hobbit is beloved by every one. It is praised because it's not just for children its for all ages. It's also praised for its deep character development. They praise it because their are characters that have strengths and weaknesses. Most if not all of them have some sort of weakness.