Thorin Oakenshield Character Analysis in The Hobbit (Essay Sample)

📌Category: Books, The Hobbit
📌Words: 720
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 15 January 2022

The Hobbit is a book loved by many. It is about Bilbo Baggins getting roped on a journey to defeat the treacherous Smaug. Thorin is the leader of this expedition and guides them through the Misty Mountains. Thorin is the son of Thror, the King of the mountain who wants to reclaim his throne from the treacherous dragon Smaug. People may think that he is the hero in this story but many would also disagree. Thorin is not the hero in the story because many other people step up more than him, Thorin does not care about anybody but himself and the dwarves, and Thorin never appreciates all the help the dwarves give him. 

Many times throughout the book other characters step up more than Thorin to help the dwarves out. In the midst of the dragon tormenting the city, Laketown,Bard takes one more desperate shot, “The arrow sped straight for the hollow left breast… Smaug was shot spouting into the air, turned over, and crashed.” This is just one of the many instances that other characters stepped up and helped besides Thorin. Even though Bard was not a part of the original 14 dwarves he still deserves some credit for what he did. Yet Thorin gives him no credit for helping him out. The dragon was the only thing standing in the way of Thorin reclaiming the throne that his father used to have and becoming the King of the mountain. Throughout the book, Bilbo Baggins and the other dwarves stepped up more than Thorin himself. If Thorin was really the hero he would have stepped up more than he did and not take others' help for granted. Therefore you can see that Thorin never regularly stepped up enough in the story and because of that, he does not deserve to be considered the hero.

When that dragon is finally killed Thorin gets “King of the World” mentality and only cares for himself and the dwarves. When Bilbo admits to Thorin that he gave the Arkenstone away he becomes very heated and yells, “You miserable Hobbit, you undersized burglar… I will throw you to the rocks.” Here you can clearly see that Thorin has his eye on the gold and nothing is going to stand in his way. Even though Bilbo was on their expedition to capture Smaug and get the gold he does not care he just wants the gold. This is not the attitude a hero should have. According to Kendra Cherry, who wrote the article “Characteristics and Qualities of a Hero” heroes should have “care for others” and be “selfless.” Thorin is the exact opposite of that. Instead, he is selfish and has no care for the other dwarves. This is why the battle of the five armies happened, it was all because of Thorin. Given these points Thorin does not have the correct attitude to be the hero and does not care for anyone but himself. 

Thorin never appreciates the help that the dwarves give him or the help from Bilbo. When Thorin is captured the narrator explains his time in the elves' jail, “There Thorin lay; It was not very long before he discovered;...another adventure in which the Hobbit again showed his usefulness.” Normally the hero is the one that is rescued from their trouble but instead this time Thorin is being rescued. Thorin is feeling helpless at that time not even trying to get out of the jail but instead waiting for the dwarves and the hobbit to do all the work for him. heroes are supposed to not give up hope but here when one bad thing goes wrong Thorin loses hope fairly quickly. Bilbo Baggins leads the dwarves to save him and Thorin seems to have more respect for Bilbo but that eventually goes away when he hears what he did with the Arkenstone. In light of this information, Thorin gives up too easily to be considered a hero and never appreciates all the help that he is getting from the dwarves.

In the end, Thorin does not deserve the right to be called a hero. He is too absent-minded and forgetful and only cares about himself. Thorin himself also started a war called The Battle of the Five Armies because of his avaricious character type.  He has no attributes of a hero such as having care for others and being selfless. Many other people step up more than him. Overall Thorin needs to step up more and not be so greedy to be considered a hero, but because he is not you can make the conclusion that Thorin is not qualified to be considered a hero.

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