Please Help Me

my school had this summer reading program, and they made all freshmans read THE HOBBIT. i read the book, but the questions are just to hard for me. i'm not a great student, so i really need your help.

here are the questions:


1. Nameone of the main charactersand explain why the author focused on him or her. Does this character remain static in the work, or does he or she grow and change in the story? Discuss the development of the character or the lack there of, in the narrative.

2. Discuss the influence of the setting upon the plot of the work.

3. Identify and discuss the main theme in the narrative.

4. Describe the dominant tone of the work.

5. What insights have you gained after reading the book?

BTW, this is due tomorrow. IKES! please help me.

bump

1. Name one of the main characters and explain why the author focused on him or her. Does this character remain static in the work, or does he or she grow and change in the story? Discuss the development of the character or the lack there of, in the narrative.

A. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit. He wants desperately to have an adventure and is always looking for one. Tolkien wanted children to learn family values. Instead of staying for the Springle Ring with Belladonna Took as he promised, he seeks out the wizard Gandalf who grudgingly lets him tag along on an adventure. Along the way, Bilbo learns that home is where the heart is and comes back home to his little hobbit hole in the Shire.

B. Gandalf is a Wizard. Tolkien wanted us to see that life is not all fun and games. The wizard is very busy from the beginning to the end and never has much time to laugh or enjoy life, like all the rest of the characters. He learns from little Bilbo that food and drink and good cheer are better than staying busy and never enjoying life.

C. Thorin Oakenshield is the leader of the Dwarves. They were refugees from the Desolation of the Dragon, Smaug. Thorin seeks to become King Under The Mountain. Wealth and dominion have a stong hold on his mind. He realizes in the end that Friendship is more important. Tolkien focuses our attention on this because it is important to know what is truly important in life. Thorin becomes more obsessed with keeping all he can of his rightful kingdom, but after a great battle and as he is near deat, finally realizes the importance of other things.


2. Discuss the influence of the setting upon the plot of the work.

A. The setting is the Shire. This is a strange and wonderful land filled with hobbits and dwarves and elves and fairies and orcs. The different lands of the different people are filled with magical weapons and tokens that must all work together. Only the little hobbit, who goes through everyone's land, can see how to get everyone together with the Arkenstone because everyone sees it from everyone's diverse points of view.

B. The setting is Middle-earth, a land before our time when dragons and goblins and trolls and elves and magic was still around. This is a fantasy, and allows fantastic things such as men who change into bears, eagles big enough to carry a person, magic secret doors, swords that glow if an enemy is near, and much else.

C. The setting is our own world either a long time ago, or in the distant future. It lets us see that all of our own legends have a basis in fact and there might have been, or might one day be, a world that somehow inspires our imaginations shapes our myths and fantasies.

3. Identify and discuss the main theme in the narrative.

A. The main theme is the growth of character in Bilbo Baggins. He begins the tale as a rather foolish and frightened person and ends by showing wisdom and courage. In the first chapter, he grows frightened at the very talk of adventure. By the last, he is quite proud to be setting down the story for others.

B. The main theme is that living alone, like a hobbit in a hole, by yourself with no friends and no activities is no way to live life. If you have a little adventure once in a while, your life is enriched with friends and experiences that teach you things you need to know. You have a lot more fun, too.

C. The main theme is that it is better to give than to receive. Bilbo went the whole way expecting to get 1/13th of the dragon's gold. He came back with a lot less, but he felt good because he had given most of it away to the folks he met along the way who needed it more than he did.


4. Describe the dominant tone of the work.

A. The tone of this book is like that of a person long ago speaking to readers in a distant future. He is trying to describe things that happened so far back in time it might as well have been another world. What seems ordinary and commonplace to him, seems like fantasy to us.

B. This is a book that captures the imagination with an appeal to the sense of wonder that is found in children. The fact that adults still love this book shows us that this sense of wonder can still be evoked.

C. The book's tone is like that of a story told to small children. Things are repeated so that anyone can understand. The author uses words that make children think it is very adult and important. This is not really a story for adults to enjoy, but it is a classic for young children.


5. What insights have you gained after reading the book?

A. Things that look very exciting, may also be very dangerous to live through, and one should appreciate the finer, more common things of life more and let the exciting and unusual simply happen rather than go seeking it.

B. There are a lot of things that we take for granted that we appreciate more when we see how other people live.

C. Gold and silver aren't everything. But if you have it, you can help people.


BTW, this is due tomorrow. IKES! please help me.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for you, I'm afraid. Only a top gun student who can read a book like this in a day could attempt to get a passing grade by waiting until the night before. This is not a hard book. If you had trouble with it, and yet were clever enough to get here and seek help, then you are not a bad student. You are a lazy student.

Do yourself a favor and make time to read a book every week of your life, or live in fear of deadlines and standards. It will get easier and easier and you will find everything else in school and your career easier, too. Pick something you like. But do it.

By the way: If you actually read the book, you will know whether to choose from answers A. B. or C. And I hope no one tells you which is right! If you have read it, then good luck and don't wait until the last minute next time!

looky here - another student who wants help the day before a paper's due - let's see, Gil, where have we seen this before?

no offense meant,
aryne *

I thought the same thing, aryne...
<Teacher mode> You had the whole summer to work on this! Don't you think you'd be under a lot less stress at the moment if you'd gotten to it a little earlier? Maybe you'd have enough time to do your own work rather than asking us to do it for you. </Teacher mode>

Hmm... Gil, you're too nice. Perhaps highlite should have done its own homework

Hehe, I've read the book many times and I'm not sure if I could choose between A B and C!!

Not being nice at all, I'm afraid. Whatever grade highlite gets will surely be what he deserves!

Some questions obviously have more than one answer! Others have answers that may look good, but contain a flaw. Others are obviously whacked out!

Perhaps even my "correct" answers would be marked wrong by a teacher who looked at things differently.

And you can't just choose A for all, B for all, or C for all!

If anyone did that, they are mathematically certain to fail!*

Bwah hah hah hah hah! NO MERCY!!!!


Eruve, I don't know how you teach! They would have to lock me up! (Masculine aggression...)







*Unless the teacher doesn't deserve the honor of being called such...

I don't teach anymore (except my own kids..., but then all parents do that). I never made it past the substitute stage. I decided I'd rather work for minimum wage as a cashier and be pleasant to people than put up with the stress... It might have had something to do with the fact that I was teaching high school level French in Nova Scotia, a place where the minister of education in his/her (not my PC use of the pronouns, there ) infinite wisdom decided that students through grade 9 were required to take French but not to pass it! (At least this was the case 10 years ago.) Did the students know about this situation? You bet they did and took full advantage...

BTW, Gil., have you ever visited this page:
www.speakeasy.org/~ohh/homework.htm

What a link! I hope highlite and all the other kids seeking homework help start using it, like that reporter did on some thread I recently read.

We need to direct them to it on ENTMOOT as a matter of policy! Perhaps bmilder could put up that link in the title banner just to be helpful!

I thought the "multiple choice" method gave the student the individual attention he so obviously needed!

(Now you see, I'm stereotyping! I'm assuming highlite is a boy! Fit's the profile though.)

What bugs me, is that people like that reporter often wind up making more than Bohemian lab techs and cashiers!

Say "Larvie!"

(I never knew what the French meant by that!)

Yeah, I love that sarcasm site. You're never quite sure when they're joking or just bsing. Did you see the news article some reporter did for the movies that actually used some of the stuff from that summary? :lol:

yeah, people here were making fun of them for it...

aryne *