The reading for this week, under the category of the Heroic Journey, was The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkein. The most memorable aspect of this novel is the mythical creatures. Every part of this novel is filled to the brim of interesting and unusual characters, including hobbits, dwarves, goblins, gollums, and many other talking animals as well as shape-shifting creatures. Each creature has it's own set of interesting characteristics in the way they, talk, act, and think. The main character, the hobbit, for example, is very nervous-minded and is constantly comparing his situation to how it would be more comfortable at home. The wizard, Gandolf, is depicted as wise and stern in his manner, and purely set on his one objective of guiding the troop of dwarves and Bilbo. The goblins are depicted as nasty creatures that rule part of the land, and hunt ferociously. These descriptions are what lead the story, keeping you interested in what creature might appear next along their journey. Particularly the personification of the animals was interesting and something that I enjoyed reading. The eagles were another great example of that personification, because they were described as being able to communicate with the dwarves, hobbit, and wizard. They were seen as strong yet terrifying to all of the other creatures of the land, including the tribe of travelers, as well as the goblins and wolves. This personification of the animals, and their unusual character are a defining part to the fantasy genre as a whole. It seems as though many of these types of stories have dwarves, elves, wizards, goblins, fairies, or talking animals, shape-shifters, or even dogs that can fully stand and serve food on their own. These characters are what gives the genre a mystical and intriguing storyline to follow. Overall, I liked the novel and the fact that it was unlike most of what I've read before (since I haven't read much fantasy), but I found it a bit slow even though it was a short novel.
For this week I read Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane . I really enjoyed this short novel and the underlying themes that went along with it. Some of the things I noticed were the revealing of reality and how it is never as it seems, comparison of adulthood versus childhood, and the idea of other universes. The one theme that I want to mention and expand on is the idea that every person or being has a different side to them, that is not outwardly visible. In the father's case, it seemed that he was being controlled by the "flea" Ursula Monkton and almost drowned his son in the bathtub. This makes you wonder - did the evil person/creature make him do this or was there something evil and resenting in him the entire time? With the main antagonist, Ursula Monkton, she is an evil creature from another world that entered the world that we know it, disguised as a human. This provides some interesting perspective, that sometimes the evilest traits and experiences...
The world-building in The Hobbit is legendary for sure! That's one thing about the franchise that I love as well! I didn't pick up that the different characteristics of each of the species actually had story relevance though, so that's an interesting find.
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