Week Six: The Heroic Journey

For this week I read the hobbit. I am not new to Tolkien's work but i have never sat down and read the hobbit. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the more upbeat tone it offered for the reader. The story of the hobbit reflects the hero's story to the T, following a set formula. Following the discussion had in class, the hobbit follows this formula so well because of the experience tolkien himself had. He had experienced the events of the First World war, one of the largest conflicts in history. In order to write true to the formula, one must experience life itself. The Hobbit follows the classic journey down to its major parts. The journey begins in the shire, where Bilbo Baggins smokes his pipe in peace. The shire is the point of home, the beginning step of the hero's journey. It is the comfort zone that bilbo refuses to leave once Gandalf offers him a chance to return to his adventurous ways he possessed as a child. This is an autobiographical fool to Tolkien's experience as a child in the country as well. Once he rejects this call, and this is where it differs, he is given the chance twice to join the party. He decided again to reject the call, only to fall asleep and realize he will take it. He decides to join the party once they leave and he accepts this call of action. It features the traditional trek of the hero, he experiences several events that influence him as a hobbit, and as a dynamic character. He is very much a traditional hero in unexpected ways, as he is a novice in fighting and in surviving outside of the shire. He however has a lineage that ties him back to great warriors, similar to the demigods of the ancient greeks. He might be far down the lineage, but his great Uncle on his mothers side was a hobbit said to be great in battle, big enough to ride a normal horse, a far-cry from the traditional hobbit. An interesting difference in this story versus the typical hero is actually the stature of Bilbo. He is a small Halfling character. This creates the point of conversation for several characters as they question his abilities, instead of his ignorance of the world its what he is thats questioned. The challenges he faces are chosen in a way to show his size, such as the capture of the dwarves to the hands of the giant, his assistance in the battle of Smaug, and the occurrence of the five armies. He reaches the point of returning home once the the battles are finished, and he is in a sense glad to return home, but reluctant. He discovered  himself as a character and that a hobbit can do more than one thinks, but there is one item that hinders his moral development until the lord of the rings trilogy: the events with smeagol and the One Ring. It grants him invisibility but also the taint of the ring- a slice of the insanity that is the manipulative force the ring carries. He is given the chance to discard the ring, one chance in particular with gandalf, and he refuses to. This leads to the events of the Lord of the Rings, and bilbo's journey doesn't truly end until the ring is removed from his grasp. It is the momento he takes back with him from his journey, the development and change that he experiences as a character. He does not return as the same hobbit he had left as.

Week Five: Witches and Women

For this week I read the book Black Maria. The women portrayed in this story are Archetypes versus stereotypes. This is for a few reasons. A stereotypical witch (at least for american culture) is a woman with extraordinary powers of the supernatural. This sounds like foil to the witches in the story, but this isn't the case. A typical stereotyped witch is one that wears the infamous black cloak, aged face, and overall dark appearance. Tied in with this is the vile personality of a witch, they are mean and vile in nature. Aunt Maria herself doesn't follow this same formula, entirely. She is the wolf in sheep's clothing, she gives off the appearance of a different archetype: the grandmother. She appears sweet and innocent at first, but once the story unfolds she begins to show her true nature. She isn't an outright devious character at first, she doesn't have the appearance or mindset of the wicked witch of the west, but her choices and control through the book show where her true powers are. She gains control of people through manipulation, in doing so she takes control of the town she lives in. The parties themselves are a good example of this, as these women meet at the same time on the same day for the same event. They talk and gossip and all seems normal on the outside. It would appear everyone on the inside is ignorant to her powers, as if she has moved in slowly without any attention noticed to it. It isn't until Meg and her brother move in that someone notices that there is something amok in this small town. She is a new form of archetypal witch, one in which she possesses the familiar qualities of supernatural elements but with the appearance of an innocent old woman.