The Unsuspecting Hero of The Hobbit Despite our tendency to romanticize it, childhood is hard. First of all, it is not the time of games and non-stop fun that we would all like to remember. Childhood is marked, of course, by fun and games, but it is also marked by a feeling of helplessness in the face of bigger and older adults. These adults have full control over almost every aspect of children's lives. From when they go to bed to what they eat, children are given very few meaningful choices. Because they are smaller, younger, weaker, and less trusted than adults to make wise decisions, children can easily feel helpless or even unimportant compared to these adults. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien's classic children's literature, features a protagonist who must deal with the sense of helplessness and inferiority that children can easily feel. Bilbo Baggins, the novel's diminutive hero, is dramatically smaller and several years younger than the thirteen dwarves whose adventure he shares. In fact, the dwarves initially see him as some sort of child who cannot possibly help them in their search for treasure. Bilbo proves himself to be a true hero throughout the novel, yet saving the lives of the dwarves more than once and providing the secret to slaying the dragon Smaug. Tolkien obviously intended for children to identify with Bilbo Baggins, and his heroic acts were clearly intended to bring pleasure on a much more personal level than the exploits of a superhuman hero like Sir Lancelot. Indeed, it can be argued that, by choosing to make Bilbo the smallest and youngest member of the group, Tolkien allows his child readers the pleasure of directly identifying with his her...... middle of paper.... ...children are much more inspired by the triumphs of other children than by the triumphs of adults or even teenagers, and so he wrote about a character who takes revenge and matures, but who remains, despite all this, a child. Children who read this novel will no doubt be treated as if they were incapable of looking after themselves, and will no doubt still be terrified of the things around them, but they will feel a sense of vengeance every time they think of Bilbo Baggins. After all, Bilbo proves that one can be brave, wise and heroic despite being a "mere" child. Works Cited Carter, Lin. Tolkien: a look behind "The Lord of the Rings". New York: Ballantine Books, 1969. Crabbe, Katharyn. JRR Tolkien. New York: Pub F. Ungar. Co., 1981.Tolkien, JRR The Hobbit. New York: Ballantine Books, 1965.