3. The Hobbit

     I have finished reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I thought is was a good book.  I still think that the part with Gollum was one of the most important parts because it is when Bilbo finds the ring and it helps them on almost all the other encounters that they face.  After Thorin and Company made it into the dragon's lair in the mountain they eventually found the secret entrance and Bilbo was able to steal a gold cup.  Smaug woke up to find what the hobbit had done and naturally wasn't happy.  He raged out of the cave and flames engulfed everything nearby.  Eventually, he returned to his cave only to once again be visited by the hobbit. At first amused by Bilbo's riddles, he soon began to become infurriated with the Lake-men thinking they were involved in the theft.  He ended up going down after the Lake-men only to be shot and killed.  This action resulted in The Battle of Five Armies because they all wanted their shares of the gold. The dwarves, men, and elves stopped fighting each other and joined forces to defeat the goblins and the wolves.  In the end Bilbo finally made it home to his cozy, hobbit hole.  However, not all the dwarves survived.

     There are still a lot of great characters so I not sure which is my favorite one!  I still like Gandalf and the dwarves and Bilbo.  Gollum is interesting because I think he was really well written.  He acts so distinctly and differently from everyone else.  You kind of pitty him, but at the same time he's someone you'd want to avoid as best you could.  As for themes, I think that the author wanted to convey how power and greed can effect people.  He did this largely through Gollum who has clearly been transformed by the ring. 

     Thorin made a big chage in the end.  He strongly supported getting back his gold and not sharing it with the other people outside the fourteen.  After the battle, on his death bed, he tells Bilbo, "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above horded gold, it would be a merrier world."  He has obviously changed his thinking about how he acted. 

     As mentioned in previous posts, I think that the auther wrote this book because that was what he enjoyed doing and to tell a story to help get across some different messages.  Overall, I thought this was a great book.  It was interesting and had many suspenceful moments throughout it.  I'd still like to know how he came up with some of the characters!