The Hobbit and the Hero’s Journey

  The Hobbit is classic fantasy story by the great J.R.R Tolkien following a young Bilbo Baggins and his journey across Middle Earth to stop a dragon and restore peace. Sound familiar? It’s an incredibly typical plot to what’s known as the hero’s journey. An outline from Greek mythology that has been used billions of times in “Star Wars”, “Harry Potter” and pretty much most big name franchises you can think of. The Hobbit was one of the first to follow this guideline in a more modern approach.

  Starts with his typical life in a Hobbit home, explaining exposition and building the world around him. He meets Gandalf a wizard who calls him to adventure, he refuses only to call back and leave his normal world. They fight monsters, talk politics then dragon fight and boom, all is restored. Only to come full circle back to his Hobbit life where no sequels will ever happen…

  I personally believe The Hobbit nails the hero’s journey better than most and most of it is due to it’s incredible setting. Middle Earth is a land filled to the brim with details and constant discoveries, it’s a fantasy paradise. From many races, large towns/kingdoms, monsters and hell, a couple languages thrown in, it’s a land where multiple books have been written just to flourish it to the extreme. We also have a ton of fun characters here, Bilbo and Gandalf’s friendship seems so genuine and Smaug makes for a great villain. It’s also paced perfectly in around 300 pages, unlike the nine-hour Peter Jackson extravaganza.

  To say this book didn’t revolutionize the way we tell stories today would be the biggest understatement of the century. It modernized the hero’s journey to an extent where anybody could pick it up and enjoy it. It’s a timeless classic that will never lose it’s touch or historical merit. The amount of fantasy knock offs and cinematic copiers it’s had since it’s release solidifies it to the extreme. Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery there is, at least until the Tolkien family hears about it, then the lawyers come in.