The Hidden Intricacy of a Children's Novel

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Samuel Ganeles 3/3/13 English Johnson The Hidden Intricacy of a Children’s Novel In many works of writing simplicity is often overlooked and undermined. J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit suffers from this because when compared to his next piece of work The Lord of the Rings, it is often regarded as childish and one-dimensional. Despite this presumption, Tolkien creates an underlying, yet clear deeper meaning in the novel that is often disregarded. Firstly, Tolkien creates a realistic fantasy world that allows the readers to escape from their everyday lives. Tolkien also uses the protagonist, Bilbo, to exemplify the physiological development of people from childhood to adulthood. Through these strategies Tolkien makes it evident that The Hobbit was not written purely for the pleasure of children, but rather a more complex metaphor within the “simple” text. The overlying text of the Hobbit gives many readers the idea that it is a simplistic novel because of the way Tolkien incorporates obvious lessons on manners and edict that are geared toward children. Tolkien spreads these lessons through the actions of the heroic, good characters of the novel because he believes that a child would more likely emulate the actions of characters they look up to. The dwarves are a prime example of this. After making a mess in Bilbo’s house they “jumped to their feet, and made tall piles of all the things. Off they went, not waiting for trays, balancing columns of plates” (Tolkien 13). Without Bilbo even having to ask, the dwarves cleaned up the entire dinner. The dwarves are considered some of the heroes of the novel so it is significant that Tolkien chose them to introduce the lesson that a good houseguest helps to clean. This is the first example of an obvious lesson that a parent would want to reinforce to their child.

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