123 School Work

HOBBIT AND HERoISM

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  "In a hold in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty,
  dirty, wet hole,
  filled with the ends of worms and oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare,
  sandy
  hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a
  hobbit-hole, and
  that means comfort" (Tolkien 15).
  
  
  
  This long, rather rambling, sentence begins one of the most
  interesting and
  unusual tales in heroic literature. If you look for "The
  Hobbit" at your
  local book store, you will probably find it under
  "fantasy," however, "The
  Hobbit" reads more like a myth or a fable than a fantasy
  (Straus: O'Leary
  29). In many ways, the story of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins and his
  adventure fit the criteria of a mythical heroic journey, yet it also
  deviates from the typical pattern of such a journey in several
  significant
  ways, which serves to give the story a deeper, richer metaphorical
  meaning.
  
  As Giddings and Holland assert, for example, that there is a
  distinction
  that is frequently overlooked or misunderstood, which is that the
  "affinity
  of a particular literary work with mythology often goes quite a bit
  further
  than a discernible parallel with specific myths of the ancient
  world" (18).
  This observation is particularly true when applied to "The
  Hobbit." Yet, to
  understand how Bilbo's adventure differs from the prototypical hero
  story,
  it is necessary to first examine what characteristics are typical of
  this
  genre.
  
  According to Joseph Campbell, the renowned expert on mythology, there
  is a
  standard form to heroic tales in all cultures. The typical scenario
  for a
  mythological adventure that centers on a hero follows the formula for
  a rite
  of passagei...