Thursday, July 2, 2020

Bilbo Baggins and the Meme--and my 300th post!

300 posts! Hurrah!



So, to celebrate my 300th post, I decided to blog about something that has nothing whatsoever to do with the Spartans. Instead, it is about something that a) I've been thinking over for a long time, and b) discusses my all-time favorite Tolkien character, and one of my favorite book characters ever.

If you follow any of the Facebook pages I follow, you've probably seen this meme:


Can I just start off by saying that Martin Freeman was the best part of that trilogy, all hands down? As much as I despised those movies, I was actually happy every time he was on screen. 

Also, Bilbo is my favorite character from all of Tolkien's works. He is my favorite in all books and in the six movies. (Followed by Thingol, and then either Boromir or Sam as third. I haven't quite decided.) Anyway, I love Bilbo. Part of me relates to him on more than just the occasion expressed in the meme. 

Actually, my favorite was this exchange between Bilbo and Frodo:

"Keep your sticky paws off! It's not ready yet!"
"Ready for what?"
"Reading!"

Yes, Bilbo, yes... I understand that perfectly. 

But back to the meme at hand. 

When I first saw it, I laughed heartily. Bilbo is definitely a Hobbit who does not like to be interrupted, and oh how well I relate to that! I love sitting in my workroom, writing on my stories or playing Stronghold, and interruptions do not suit me well.

Let's analyze the meme though, shall we?

First of all, what does "this look" mean?

This, if you haven't seen the movie (and I honestly don't blame you), is the exact moment that Dwalin, the first dwarf, rings Bilbo's door. It is the exact moment that Bilbo's adventure, and personal journey, begins.

Prior to this moment (and even for a time after it), Bilbo was one type of person who this looks fits perfectly. He was very set in very comfortable ways, "never had any adventures or did anything unexpected". One writer at Tolkien Online explains, "But when we first meet Bilbo he possesses all the qualities of upstanding “hobbitness”…a love of comfort; a mistrust of strangers and the outside world; a particular dislike for the very word “adventure”; a rustic, easy life". TolkienGateway (I know it's a wiki, but still) describes Bilbo this way: "Before his adventures, Bilbo was considered a very prim and respectable Hobbit for his polite disposition and aversion to anything out of the ordinary".

That, I think, explains (in part) the look that Bilbo gives when he hears that doorbell ring. This is Bilbo at the very beginning of his story, before he has gone on his adventure.

However, if you've read The Hobbit, you'd know that, although the story is partly about the 12 dwarves seeking to destroy the dragon Smaug and retrieve their treasure, it is called The Hobbit because the story is also about Bilbo's internal journey--how he goes from the comfort-loving, sedentary hobbit at the beginning to the adventurous, independent hobbit that he is at the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring. I don't have Hobbit with me, but according to Quora, Tolkien summarizes Bilbo's life like this:
Indeed Bilbo found he had lost more than spoons - he had lost his reputation. It is true that for ever after he remained an elf-friend, and had the honour of dwarves, wizards, and all such folk as ever passed that way; but he was no longer quite respectable. He was in fact held by all the hobbits of the neighbourhood to be 'queer'-except by his nephews and nieces on the Took side, but even they were not encouraged in their friendship by their elders. I am sorry to say he did not mind. He was quite content; and the sound of the kettle on his hearth was ever after more musical than it had been even in the quiet days before the Unexpected Party.
Emphasis mine. 

For a lot of people, this is the real reason they identify with Bilbo. The writer at Tolkien Online described Bilbo's popularity this way:
In many ways, Bilbo Baggins reflects our own modern lives, and our often fond wishes for some “adventure” of our own. Most of us live in some degree of comfort, if not to the extreme of the hobbits, and go about our mundane lives with quiet efficiency. 
But Bilbo changes dramatically through the book. Bilbo's adventure both made him happier and noticeably changed who he was and how he interacted with and viewed the world. 

That look in that meme would have vanished. 

I think this is clearly illustrated in two scenes in An Unexpected Journey: the first scene being the scene from that meme, and the second scene being the scene where Bilbo has Frodo put up that "No Admittance Except on Party Business" sign. In the first one, Bilbo is irritated by being interrupted from his daily dinner; in the other, Bilbo is trying to avoid being interrupted while writing the story for Frodo, and while planning his exit from the Shire.

So, I realized to myself, this is an important part of Bilbo's character, but it is only the beginning of Bilbo's character. While it is one thing to relate to Bilbo's expression here, it is exciting and thrilling to realize that this exact moment is the moment that Bilbo's extraordinary journey of personal change began. 

If I take this interpretation a little too far, I could say something to the effect of, "The whole point of Bilbo was to get rid of this look", which is what I had been thinking at first (which would make this meme antithetical and destructive to the main idea of The Hobbit). Then I realized he never much liked being interrupted, even after the grand adventure--hence this sign:




But the significant change was what Bilbo was interrupted from--he was interrupted from writing about his grand and--dare I even say--very profound adventure, in a book that he passed on to his dear Frodo. How different from the hobbit who said, “Sorry! I don't want any adventures, thank you. Not Today. Good morning! But please come to tea -any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Good bye!”

So while this meme is funny, it is also the beginning of a truly wonderful story about how one little hobbit became something altered from--and much better than--he had been. 

If this is the moment that Bilbo became your favorite character, maybe that's a sign that your own story of personal transformation is about to happen, too. 

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