Analysis of One Work

Since this is the final blog post I will be posting, I want to take the time to thank you for taking your own time to read my blog. Although J.R.R. Tolkein wrote many novels, one of them intrigues me the most, The Hobbit. The Hobbit was published in 1937 and is roughly 310 pages long (Wikipedia). Along with the analysis of The Hobbit comes the novels many themes and how they progress.
Throughout The Hobbit the themes of animism, the ability to overcome greed and selfishness, and the maturation of the protaganist (Wikipedia). As Bilbo Baggins, the main character, begins his quest, he begins as a weak and gullible hobbit. However, as Bilbo continues his journey with the dwarves and the discovery of the ring, Bilbo begins to mature into a more knowing and charasmatic character. Bilbo becomes more eager to fight for the good of all mankind. The theme of overcoming greed and selfishness is another major point to expand upon. A big topic many of the characters are compatible with is greed. The characters all seem to want food and will do anything to calm their starving bellies. Also, as Bilbo grows fond of the magic ring, he will not let anyone hold it or borrow it due to his selfishness. The final important theme throughout the novel is animism. In all of Tolkien's novels, it seems that some form of inanimate object can walk and/or talk. The talking creatures in The Hobbit are the dragon Smaug, spiders, eagles, ravens, and many more. Another important analysis of The Hobbit are the different characters.
Althought there are many important characters in The Hobbit, the two main characters are Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey. "Bilbo's central role is underscored by his appeal---he is not only the most important, but also the most likable and honorable character" (Sparknotes). Bilbo eventually learns to live life to the fullest and not huddle away from the outer world in his hole in the hill home. Gandalf is the man/wizard who chose Bilbo, an old freind, to journey with the other dwarves on their quest. The Grey wizard never reallys explains himself in much depth, however; his points are short and to the point. Thus, there are many more characters throughout the novel that are important, yet Bilbo and Gandalf are the most important.
Overall, there is much more to be said about the novel The Hobbit, yet not enough time and blog space to discuss it all. Thank you for reading my blog. Lets pray I get an acceptable grade!

----------"It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish."
-J.R.R. Tolkien (ThinkExist)

Work Cited

"SparkNotes: The Hobbit: Analysis of Major Characters." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular
Study Guides. web. 11 May 2010. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hobbit/canalysis.html.

"The Hobbit." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 May 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit#Critical_Analysis.

Summary of Major Works

Throughout J.R.R. Tolkien's life, he wrote many well known novels. His most well known novels are that of his The Lord of The Ring series. Of the Lord of The Rings series there are four books: The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings the Fellowship of The Ring, The Lord of The Rings The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings the Return of the King. From these four, the last three are more well known due to the movie trilogy that portrayed the books, however I am going to summarize all four of the books.
The Hobbit: In The Hobbit, "Tolkien's central character, Bilbo Baggins, embarks on a heroic quest to find a lost treasure" (Quazen). Bilbo encounters many mythical creatures and beasts along the way. The white wizard Gandalf encourages Bilbo to help out twelve other dwarves to help them find his treasure. Along the way, after the dwarves are forced to take shelter in a cave over-ridden by goblins, Bilbo discovers the magical ring. Bilbo then travels with the dwarves to the town of Esgaroth where they kill the magical dragon, take his treasure, and befriend the elves as they all fight the goblin army.
The Fellowship of the Ring: In this book, many different things occur. Bilbo struggles to give over the ring to Frodo, his nephew. The ring is the only remaing ring of the once famous kings of Mordor. The ring must be destroyed due to its overwhelming power and because King Sarumon is attempting to obtain the ring in any ways possible. In the end, Frodo meets many new people such as Aragon and Legolas whom all help him. This book ends with Frodo and his friend, Sam, fighting off Soron's orcs in a forest and then heading down the river to continure their journey. His other campanions are seperated from the pact.
The Two Towers: Frodo and Sam continue their treacherous journey as the meet up with Gollum, the original founder of the ring from The Hobbit. They continue their journey to Mordor, the volcano the ring was originally cast in. The other members of the group are making allies with other towns as they are gathering troups to fight Sarons evil orc army. This nook ends with Sam chasing after a group of orcs who have taken Frodo after he was stung by an enormous spider when Same, Frodo, and Gollum were travelling through a secret entry way to Mordor.
The Return of the King: In the last chapter of the four part series, Frodo and Sam succeed in their journey of destroying the ring by reaching Mordor after many treacherous attempts of facing orcs and other creatures. Gollum bites the ring off Frodo's finger and falls into the pit of doom where the ring is destroyed and King Saron dies as well as his army begins to fall apart. As Frodo and Sam are doing this, Aragon and the other companions eventually reach Minas Tirith, the location of Mordor, where they demand King Saramon surrenders, however, after fighting for quite a while, King Saron and Saramon die from the ring being destroyed. In the end, they return to their home where Sam marries a beautiful hobbit, and Frodo and his uncle Bilbo ride off with elves to a place where people go when they tire of the earth.

----------"The burned hand teaches the best"
-J.R.R. Tolkien (Thinkexist)

Work Cited

"J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations
web. 02 May 2010. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/j.r.r._tolkien/2.html

"J.R.R. Tolkien: English Writer and Academic Quazen." Quazen Arts, Autos, and More. Web.
02 May 2010. http://quazen.com/reference/biography/j-r-r-tolkien-english-writer-and-academic

Major Themes, Influences, and Artistic Style

J.R.R. Tolkien had been influenced by many ideals throughout his life. Tolkien has major themes and artistic styles that all come together in his writing. One major theme of Tolkien's is that of Middle Earth. This theme is predominately strong throughout most famous series, The Lord of The Rings. Tolkien was a very creative man and while first beginning to write, The Hobbit, "Tolkien continued developing his mythology and languages" (Doughan). "As early as 1915 he had started to develop his invented Elvish Languages of Queyna and Sindarin" (Quazen). Tolkien had four children who all required a bed time story before falling asleep. After many years of telling stories to his children, Tolkien decided that his stories and his invented languages needed a place to come together. His stories and languages came together as were known as, The Simarillion. Not only are Tolkien's major themes and influences important, but his artistic style is as well.
Tolkien's book are all of high fiction. The author tends to have a high role in high fiction in that he knows a grand amount about what he is writing about considering he created most of it. J.R.R. Tolkien tends to write in an old-fashioned english writing style. Due to his jobs at Oxford and helping writing the New English Dictionary, Tolkien's writing style follows more of the classic old-school literature. Overall, Tolkien's major themes throughout most of his books are pertaining to Middle Earth, his influences were thanks to storytelling to his four children and his wild imagination and curiosity for creating new languages, and his artistic style is that of high fiction and old english.

"It is the job that is never started that takes the longest to finish."
------- J.R.R. Tolkien

Work Cited
Doughan, David. "Who was Tolkien?". The Tolkien Society. Tue. 27. Apr. 2010.
http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html

"J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, Thinkexist.com Quotations.
Tue. 27. Apr, 2010. http://www.thinkexist.com/quotes/j.r.r.tolkien/

"J.R.R. Tollkien:English Writer and Academic, Quazen." Quazen Arts, Autos, and More.
Tue. 27. Apr. 2010.
http://quazen.com/reference/biography/j-r-r-tolkien-english-writer-and-academics

Career

J.R.R. Tolkien was a man of many recognitions. Although some of his recognitions may be inner recognicition, he is still recognized none the less. Throughout his career, Tolkien had many careers. "He served in the military, fighting in the trenches of WWI" (BBC). "He was sent to France in June 1916 to join the 11th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers as a signals officer" (Wallace). After the war, he worked for two years as an assistant for the Oxford English Dictionary. "He then took as Reader of the English Language at Leeds, where he later rose to Proffesor of English Language" (BBC). "In 1925, he was eleceted to Rawlinson and Bosworth chair of Anglo Saxon at Oxford. Tolkien's major academic achievement in this period was his British Academy lecture entitled, 'Beowulf: the monsters and the critics'" (Wallace). The lecture that Tolkien recited was that of the study of the poem and a different take on the look of Beowulf. While in his 24 year span at Oxford, Tolkien began telling his children bedtime stories about a creature named Bibo. Tolkien eventually ran with the idea and begane his first book, The Hobbit.
Tolkien wrote many stories in his long and prosperous life, most of which pertain to the Middle Earth. Some of Tolkiens works that deal with Middle Earth are: "The Book of Lost Tales One, The Book of Lost Tales Two, The Return of the Shadow, and The War of The Jewels" (BBC). Some of Tolkiens works not dealing with Middle Earth are: "The Tolkien Reader, Tree and Leaf, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Father Christmas Letters" (BBC). Originally, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy was actually one major book that was later broken down into three books, The Fellowship of The Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of The King. "In the 1970's, animated versions of the book were made. Recently, Peter Jackson's The Lord of The Rings Trilogy of films were a critically acclaimed success" (Wallace). Three other major works of Tolkien's that have been broken down into many smaller stories are: The Salimarillion, Unfinished Tales, and History of Middle-Earth.
Overall, although Tolkien himself may not have won many awards, his books and his earlier work through the many colleges he has worked at have won many.

---"You can only come to the morning through the shadows." ----
J.R.R. Tolkien (Thinkexist)

Work Cited

"BBC-H2g2-The Life And Works of J.R.R. Tolkien." BBC-Homepage. Web. 19 Apr. 2010
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A672022

"J.R.R. Tolkien:English Writer and Academic, Quazen." Quazen Arts, Autos, and More. Web.
19 Apr. 2010. http://quazen.com/reference/biography/j-r-r-tolkien-english-writer-and-
academic.

"J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes." Find The Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations.
Web. 19 Apr 2010. http://www.thinkexist.com/quotes/j.r.r.tolkien/

Biography

I chose J.R.R. Tolkien because I have always loved his Lord of the Rings books as well as some of his other works. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien "was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on January 3, 1892"(Tolkien Society). During Tolkien's childhood, the family moved around constantly. After they retuned to the Wetlands, England from South Africa, the family moved to King's Heath to Birmingham to Edgbaston. The "Tolkien family lived on the genteel side of poverty" (Tolkien Society). In 1904, John's mother, Mabel Tolkien was diagnosed with diabetes. "She died on 14 November of that year leaving the two orphaned boys effectively destitute" since their dad had died on 15 February, 1896 (Tolkien Society). Eventually, the boys pastor, Father Francis began to take care of them. At 16 "Ronald fell in love with Edin Bratt" at an orphanage (Rayment). "[Ronald] went up to Exeter College, Oxford in 1911, where he stayed immersing himself in the Classics, Old English, and Germanic Languages" (Tolkien Society). However, Tolkien "failed to enter college on his fisrt try" (Rayment). In 1914, Tolkien regained word with Edin Bratt, and in 1916, Tolkien proposed.
in 1914, World War I stared. "Tolkien lost many of his friends in the war, and he himself would serve as an officer on the frontlines of the Battle of Somme. He caught trench-fever in 1917 and was sent back to England to recuperate" (Rayment). Once Tolkien came home from the war, he spent most of his time with his wife and four kids. "After the war, he was offered a proffesorship at the University of Leeds" (Rayment). What sparked Tolkien's true writing feelings was when him and a coworker published a different translation of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". In 1936, The Hobbit released. Throughout the 1930's, Tolkien wrote the complete series of The Lord of the Rings. "After his retirement at Oxford, he and Edith moved to Bournemouth in 1966. Edith died in 1971. [Tolkien] struggled on for some two years till his death of pneumonia on 2 September 1973" (Rayment). Overall, J.R.R. Tolkien lived a very long and hard life. He was a son of poverty and disease that grew up to become a wise, rich, and peaceful man who wrote some of the greatest novels of all time.

---"'...in huts full of blasphemy and smut, or by candle light in bell-tents, even some down in dugouts under shell fire." (Rayment [Letters 66]).



Work Cited

Doughan, David. "Who was Tolkien?". The Tolkien Society. Wed. 12. Apr. 2010.

http://www.tolkiensociety.org/tolkien/biography.html

Rayment, W.J. "A Biography of J.R.R. Tolkien". InDepthInfo: Information Delivered in Depth

Wed. 12. Apr. 2010.http://www.indepthinfo.com/tolkien/biography.com

Photo

Photo Courtesy of: bilbohobbit.com