One of the most interesting aspects
of The Hobbit I found was the whole
idea of “Dragon Greed”. The dwarves (and many of the other characters in The Hobbit) were utterly obsessed by
greed, whether it was greed for gold, power, land, or (In Bilbo’s case), food. Because
of everybody’s greed, a town was destroyed and ransacked, The Battle of The
Five Armies took place, and Thorin was killed (on a plus though, he did manage
to make peace with Bilbo in the end before he died). In fact, out of all the
characters in The Hobbit, I’d say one
of the least greedy characters would have to be Bilbo. The only time he
actually truly showed greed was when he picked up the Arkenstone and kept it
despite the fact that Thorin was looking for it desperately and was inheritably
his. Arguably, you could say that the fact that Bilbo kept the ring (despite
the fact that it was obviously upsetting to Gollum) would qualify him as a
greedy individual or a “burglar”, but considering the fact that Gollum was
clearly intent on strangling the “Hobbitses” and the fact that he found the
ring completely on accident, I think that qualifies him for a pass on the whole
“greedy” label.
What would have happened if Bilbo
had decided to give in to his greed and keep the Arkenstone instead of giving
it to Bard? Would that have affected the outcome of the war?
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