A Hobbit's Journey

For this week, I read the “Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. There are many aspects in the Hobbit that reflect many elements of the classic hero’s journey. I found it interesting how some details in the book were not present in the movie adaptation.

The hero’s journey is introduced through the eyes of Bilbo Baggins, the story’s protagonist, in his homeland, The Shire. The journey begins by describing the hero’s lifestyle and his main flaws. Unlike most protagonists, Bilbo is portrayed as an antisocial and withdrawn hobbit where he prefers to be in his own comfort zone away from the other hobbits.

Bilbo was content with his current life until he received a visit from a very well-known wizard, Gandalf. This sudden visit altered his whole life; a group of Dwarves started to appear in Bilbo’s home. The intrusion of the dwarves placed Bilbo out off his comfort zone. Later on, he learned the reason for their visit; the dwarves wanted to recruit him as their “burglar” for their journey towards the Lonely Mountain. The purpose of this journey was for Bilbo to follow the dwarves to reclaim their land by sneaking into the mountain and taking back the dwarves’ sacred stone from the dragon. Bilbo rejected the mission multiple times, until he was finally convinced to join them. He decided to leave his comfort area in order to learn more from the outside world. Bilbo’s adventure follows the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he first had an ordinary life, but after the arrival of Gandalf and the dwarves, he was called to an adventure.

As the story progressed, there are signs of Bilbo’s character development where he went through some behavior changes. He started to reform his bad habits in order to adapt to any conflict the party might encounter. He also used his wittiness to help the group from many sticky situations. Bilbo’s growths and acquired new skills emphasize on the element of a classic hero’s journey.

Throughout the journey, Bilbo also managed to acquire two magical items that had helped him throughout his adventure. The first item, Sting is an elven short sword that glows whenever any orcs are approaching. This sword had the ability to alert the group of danger. The second item is a magical ring that allows Bilbo to turn invisible whenever he puts it on. The presence of these two items helped Bilbo and the dwarves defeat and overcome challenges throughout the classic journey of a hero.

At the end, Bilbo was able to reclaim the dwarves land and return home. The entire journey had shaped and transformed Bilbo into a hero. Bilbo returns to the Shire, but with a different attitude than the one he had before his journey which made his life in the Shire more enjoyable. To conclude, the change in Bilbo’s character reflects the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he transformed from an antisocial, withdrawn hobbit into a heroic protagonist. He is no longer the same person he was before he left.

Hexing Witches in Literature

For this past week, I read the book Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. I found the story disturbingly creepy but with a lot of personality coming from the characters’ actions which enriches the story. The character, Aunt Maria, may seem to appear as a rude bossy old lady, but in all actuality she happens to be a powerful manipulative witch; making her the main antagonist of the story. In my opinion, Aunt Maria’s rude, stubborn, bossy and cranky personality are just stereotypes of a grumpy old lady. Most of her behavior and outdated opinions mainly reflect the past experience of an old lady. Maria’s personality trait was influenced by her witch-like manipulative nature, where she kept using reverse psychology on the protagonist's mother to do all of the housework for her. Aunt Maria embodies the powerful stereotypical image of an old wicked witch. She uses her magic powers to influence and completely control the town she lives in.

I really find it interesting how the story revolves around a pair of siblings that must defeat the evil witch that threatens their family. This reminded me of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel with the content of two children having to confront a witch. In my opinion, I do not think that all witches are evil since it mainly depends on how they decide to use their power; either to help or get corrupted. A witch mainly refers to a female spellcaster, however a warlock is referred to as a male witch.

Our culture models women with power as independent, strong and intimidating. However, Aunt Maria is needy and dependent on the people around her. The only way she manages to get things done is by using her powers of magic without really questioning her actions and circumstances. This also plays around with the idea of hierarchy in our society today where people use or even abuse the power they have to manipulate or demand things from others in order to accomplish their goal.

Weirdness... of the Dead

For this blog post, I watched the movie Shaun of the Dead, a comedy based fantasy horror zombie apocalypse, that I found both funny and disturbing. Even though it is a parody of Dawn of the Dead, it did not hold back with visual violence and gore unlike other parodies that usually imply that something violent is happening. The movie is about a british man called Shaun, whose life was falling apart when his girlfriend broke up with him, and lost his present for his mother’s birthday. However, the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse allowed Shaun to take advantage of the situation by redeeming himself, using his wits to fight off the zombies with his childhood best friend to rescue his mother and girlfriend. I have noticed that Shaun’s action is similar to other zombie apocalypse films where either the main character or other secondary support always try to redeem themselves by using their wits and abilities towards the situation.

In this movie, the appearance of zombies happened at a slow pace; it started with people suddenly getting sick and progressively turned into zombies. The main character was unaware of the spreading sickness, and did not notice the zombies acting weird. He just casually passed by them. I found the main character’s unawareness very weird since usually in these types of movies, the main characters are aware and prepared to fight the zombies since they turn into zombies at such a quick pace.

There were some parts of the movie that I found it very weird and funny. For example, in the scene where the two main protagonists were attacking the zombies with record disks, their reactions were weird and unusual. Shaun was being picky on selecting which record disk he or his best friend should throw at the zombies approaching them rather than throwing anything and everything at the zombies. Another scene that I found weird was when the actors decided to cross through a hoard of zombies by acting like them and actually succeeding on the attempt for a while.

I also found that the movie was weird because I was not expecting to see such intense and serious scenes in a humorous comedy. For example, when Shaun’s step-father was bitten by a zombie, he explained to Shaun why he was hard on him all these years and told him that he loves him. This was a hard scene for Shaun after knowing the truth and having to leave him behind. Another example was when Shaun’s mother revealed that she was bitten by a zombie on their way to the bar. It was difficult for Shaun to decide whether he should kill his mother before she turns into a zombie and attacks them.

To conclude, the unusual reactions of the characters and the unexpected intense scenes in a humorous comedy emphasized the weirdness of the movie as a whole.