The Impact of Setting in The Hobbit Elizabeth Sanders 10th Grade

While it may be easy to underestimate the importance of scenic descriptions, setting plays an important role in most literature - including character-driven fantasy. Setting can be written to represent conflicting forces or ideals, and to help illustrate the conflict and overarching idea of a story to the reader. One work of literature that utilizes setting to emphasize conflict and enhance the development of the plot is the novel The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Throughout the novel, Tolkien emphasizes the importance of two central locations: Bilbo’s home in The Hill, and the mountain where Smaug the dragon lives. Not only do these places differ in location, as many miles separate The Hill from Smaug’s Mountain, but they also represent contrasting traits from the perspective of Bilbo. Through his contrast between The Hill and Smaug’s Mountain, Tolkien illustrates how Blbo's character develops throughout the progression of the story.

From the beginning of the novel, when Bilbo first describes his hobbit hole in The Hill, the importance of the hobbit hole to Bilbo is obvious. Not only does the quaint hobbit hole represent safety, comfort, and happiness to Bilbo – it also contains countless memories of his family, who originally...