Book Review: The Hobbit

I finished reading J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to Mulan last night.

Once again, Mulan has thoroughly enjoyed the story.  And once again, ideas from the book spilt over into everyday life.  Mulan liked to tell Miya about what was happening in the book, and every once in a while she liked to recall the names of all 13 dwarves in the story (sometimes we missed a pair!).  Miya now knows some of them too, and if we start to say “Thorin”, she will finish his name “Oakenshield”!

Since The Hobbit is about wizards, magic, mythical creatures and the fight between good and evil, and, moreover, it is told from the perspective of the title character (who is an honourable, childlike, everyday person) it is tempting to compare The Hobbit with Harry Potter.  Or, more accurately, The Hobbit could be compared with the first few Harry Potter books, while The Lord of the Rings could be compared with the later Potter books.

When it comes to excitement levels invoked in Mulan, the winner is clearly Harry Potter.  But The Hobbit is not a far distant loser; it is just that Harry Potter was extra-special in how it took over general daily conversation for a while.

With respect to the writing style, The Hobbit is very, very good, and I have no doubt that it was exactly Mulan’s level right now.  I think this was a good time to read it to Mulan.  But as I have said countless times before, the writing style of Harry Potter is brilliant, in being perfectly attuned to children.  I think Rowling is much more sensitive to her readers’ psychology and is much more child-friendly.

How about the story?  The plot of The Hobbit itself is mostly rip-roaring adventure—fighting trolls, goblins, wolves, spiders and a dragon.  There is never a dull moment.  It is simple and direct and exciting.  There is not so much everyday life stuff like with Harry.  Tolkien is a little less sensitive than Rowling, and there is much more violence and death than in the first few Harry Potter books.  If parents are worried about protecting young children from violence, than Harry Potter would be much better than The Hobbit.  But I don’t think Mulan was too bothered by it all.

And the themes?  As I say, both books are told from the perspective of the title character, who is, importantly, the moral centre of the story.  The central character of both books is, essentially, not a physical or intellectual hero who surpasses the abilities of the other characters.  In fact, both are often a lot weaker.

In this sense, these two books are very different from many other sci-fi or fantasy books, where the central character typically has exceptional abilities (such as in Dune or Ender’s Game).  Both Harry Potter and Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit, don’t take charge to dominate.  They are often much more passive to let things happen to them.  And yet, when everything else is chaotically going on around them, they maintain their solid, moral cores.  When needed, it is their moral cores which allow them to quietly come to the front and lead, at least for the time it is needed.  It is these moral characters which, I think, are supposed to set the uplifting and encouraging tones of the books.

What then, is the moral centre of The Hobbit?  The important point is that Bilbo is supposed to be the one who doesn’t lose his head in the face of power or riches.  Pretty much everyone else around him, when offered the chance of power and wealth, gets greedy.  But Bilbo, even when he could have it, and even while clearly enjoying it, doesn’t get too carried away by it all, and is just as happy to not have it.  Bilbo, then, centrally, is not at all ambitious and is not much interested in building, or leading or acquiring stuff.

Bilbo, also, is polite and hospitable, though he also likes his privacy.  His sense of justice, which he sticks to even when it might bring him great harm, is focused on honest, open exchanges and no deviousness (his acquisition of the ring is the one big exception to this).  He is not at all prejudiced against other peoples or social groups, and is happy to make friends with anyone who doesn’t offend this basic honesty and decency.

But along with this, Bilbo still likes his simple creature comforts, of a bed and good (and frequent) meals.  He likes singing and dancing, and has a taste for poetry and books.

These three aspects—lack of ambition, politeness, and enjoyment of simple creature comforts—are the values which Tolkien is clearly advocating in the story.

But just as importantly, while Bilbo is loyal to his friends and acquaintances, he seems not much interested in social justice (unlike Harry Potter).  He stands by his principles when he encounters stuff in his everyday life, but nowhere does it seem that he goes very far out of his way to get involved with others in need.  He is content to keep himself to himself in his comfortable life.  It also appears that Bilbo doesn’t do much to earn a living, and he lives in the home that his father built.  He appears to have mostly inherited his simple, comfortable life, rather than earned it.  Bilbo, then, represents the somewhat self-satisfied, socially unaware and unmotivated middle classes, who might have one big overseas adventure and then return home again.

Throughout Bilbo’s one-year journey in the story, he maintains this central moral core.  The main change in Bilbo’s character, from beginning to end, is that he begins to know himself more.  That is, rather than remaining naively simple, simplicity shows out as a conscious choice of character.  He also grows in self-confidence from his initial flustering and complaining to his later calmer acceptance of things.

In many ways, then, The Hobbit is a very good morality story for children.  Towards the end, when the dwarves, men and elves were lining up to fight each other over the gold in the mountain, Mulan (as I sure was intended by Tolkien) very rightly pointed out, in a very determined voice, that they should not be going to war over the gold.  Similarly, her sense of justice was clearly with Bilbo when he risked great personal harm in his attempt to broker peace between the sides.  And I am sure that she agreed with him about enjoying home and a comfortable life.

But because Bilbo is, basically, a lazy, self-absorbed, elitist lump when it comes to wider social issues, I think Harry Potter is far superior as a moral teacher for children.

The Hobbit is an awesome book, and essential reading for all children.  But it is still nowhere near as good as Harry Potter.

---

Note: when Mama read this she said that Bilbo sounds exactly like me.  I immediately protested, and said it was more like her.  I’m not sure who is right.  At the very least, I like to think that I am more socially aware!  But, like Bilbo, I suppose I do have a very British outlook on life, and similarly, my almost-ten-years adventuring in China has clarified to me my central moral core.  Now, like him, I am returning home.