The Hobbit

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Bilbo often yearns for his hobbit hole and its comforts during his adventure. When have you felt torn between seeking new experiences and retreating to familiar surroundings? How did you resolve that tension?

2. The dwarves undertake their quest to reclaim their ancestral home beneath the Lonely Mountain. What places hold deep significance in your life, and what makes these locations feel like “home” to you?

3. Gandalf recognizes potential in Bilbo that Bilbo cannot initially see in himself. Who has played a similar role in your life by identifying qualities or abilities you weren’t aware of? How did their belief shape your path?

4. The characters in the novel display various attitudes toward wealth and treasure, from Thorin’s possessiveness to Bilbo’s relative disinterest. How do their different relationships with material possessions reflect values you’ve observed in your own life?

5. The fellowship between Bilbo and the dwarves sustains them through numerous challenges despite their differences. How have your own friendships helped you overcome obstacles or changed you in unexpected ways?

6. Bilbo faces a moral dilemma when he decides to give the Arkenstone to Bard and the Elvenking. Reflect on a time when your personal ethics conflicted with loyalty to others. What guided your decision-making process?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit after serving in World War I. What elements of the story might reflect his wartime experiences, and how do these elements influence the novel’s exploration of courage, fellowship, and loss?

2. The societies in The Hobbit (hobbits, dwarves, elves, and men) begin with suspicion of one another but eventually form alliances. What commentary might Tolkien be making about cultural differences and intercultural cooperation through these portrayals? How does this theme of unlikely alliances resonate with contemporary global challenges that require cooperation across different groups?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Bilbo’s sword, Sting, functions as both a practical tool and a symbol of his growing courage and capability. What other objects in the story operate on both literal and symbolic levels, and how do they enrich the narrative?

2. The ring that Bilbo finds grants him invisibility but also leads him to lie to his companions. How does this object facilitate Bilbo’s character development in The Hobbit, and how does it foreshadow themes that Tolkien later develops in The Lord of the Rings?

3. Tolkien’s narrator frequently addresses the reader directly throughout the novel. How does this narrative technique affect your experience of the story, and what purpose might it serve in a book that bridges children’s and adult literature?

4. Scenes of food and feasting appear repeatedly in The Hobbit, from Bilbo’s unexpected party to the elves’ woodland feast. How do these meals contribute to world-building and character development? What might they symbolize beyond literal nourishment?

5. Both Thorin and Bilbo undergo transformative journeys in the story, but with different outcomes. How do their parallel character arcs complement each other, and what might Tolkien be suggesting through their contrasting fates?

6. The Arkenstone stands as a major symbol in the latter part of the novel. What does this gem represent to different characters, and how does its symbolic importance drive the conflict and resolution of the story?