Bilbo's Quest In The Hobbit

The Hobbit is a tale of Bilbo Baggins and his quest for harrowing adventure, with themes of a literal and metaphorical search. His character drastically develops in the hunt of this journey’s goal. Often in the land of Middle Earth, the idea of quests is dismissed by Hobbits. Bilbo, in reality, is helping Gandalf by agreeing to support Thorin & Co. on their quest to fight for what was once theirs, the kingdom under the mountain. But one may say that this is Bilbo’s pursuit to venture out farther than The Hill and to explore the innermost depths of his mind. This is illustrated by seeing what Bilbo is capable of, and of what boundaries he is willing to push himself over. It could be said that Hobbits tend to gear towards the comfortable, but it also could be put that they are rather prudish. Chapter one is a seamless example of these traits; this is where Bilbo is taken aback with Gandalf’s offer. The reason why the book does not choose any other Hobbit or possibly why Gandalf chose Bilbo specifically is because he isn’t like most Hobbits. His mother was a Took, known for their audacity and lack of reputation (a good one for that matter). This makes for an exceptional case, an almost wild card, as to when or where this Took side will show.
The Dwarves soon find out that he can be very helpful, despite their reluctance to his aid. Although Bilbo is a full-fledged adult, certain scenarios force him to ‘grow up’ in a sense. He has to face his fears, like in chapter 8, where he had to fight of the spiders to save the group. The more often that there are riveting scenes, the more Bilbo familiarizes himself with his fight-or-flight instincts. He owned up to his mistake in Chapter two for bothering the trolls and endangering the whole group. By chapters 9 and 11 and so on, he suppresses those uneasy feelings he gets, and goes on to be an integral addition to this