Crossing the Threshold

A phone representing someone calling to represent the call to adventure in John Campbell's work on myths.

The book I am currently reading is The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. It is about the adventure of a hobbit in land called Middle Earth.

The call to adventure is done very early in the book. The call to adventure is essentially when the dwarves ask Bilbo if he wanted to go on an adventure. There are many other call to adventures but they are during the adventure. This is the first call to adventure and it kick offed the book.

When the character crosses the threshold into the new world, he feels scared and homesick.
"...Bilbo was feeling homesick..." J.R.R Tolkien

This is important to the story because it starts the charcter at a low point so that the character can grow.
We can predict that the characater will become a full blown hero by the end because of the group he is with which is a tough party of dwarves.

Refusal of the Call

The book I am currently reading is The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. It is about the adventure of a hobbit in land called Middle Earth.
The refusal of the call occurs very early in the story when a party of dwarves and a wizard enter the hobbit's little home without any invitation. Bilbo (the main character) initially refuses the call to adventure that is shown in the quote below.
"We don't want any adventures here..." (3) J.R.R. Tolkien
This is said when Gandalf indirectly asks Bilbo to accompany him in an adventure. The rest of the paragraph describes the nature of Bilbo's race called a hobbit.
This refusal of the call was never refused or accepted.
"To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, walking-stick or say money, or anything..." (14) J.R.R Tolkien
This refusal to call is important because it revealed a lot of character traits in Bilbo and the dwarves. The showed that Bilbo was just a normal hobbit in a pretty little town and how hobbits were never made for adventure. Without this refusal to call, there would have been no change in character was the story progressed because further in the story, Bilbo develops courage which created a story of its own.
The refusal to call created some suspense in the story because it made the readers think of whether if Bilbo was going to accept the adventure. It made the story less predictable and more exciting.
The refusal to call also sets up the character's ordinary world which was living without any negatives in life. It created a mood and atmosphere which contrasted with the rest of the story. This gave the story lots of color.
When Bilbo had to make a decision to accept the call to adventure, he hesitated and accepted the call without any thought. If he hadn't accept the call, the story would not be the same.

Limiting Beliefs

The book I am currently reading is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is a book about a young creature named a Hobbit who leaves his house to win treasure guarded by a dragon.

Above is a cartoon representation of Bilbo, the main character.

There are many things that limit Bilbo from achieving goals. Courage something Bilbio has trouble finding. For example, it took a lot of courage just to leave his house for an adventure. Bilbo is a frail character but he later shows in the book that he is full of courage. Courage is the almost the only aspect that is limiting Bilbo from becoming a full blown hero other than hunger and sleep.

If I were able to speak to Bilbo, I would tell him that courage is not from the outside but the inside. He may be small and short, but it doesn't mean he can't be self sacrificing, cunning, and fierce. Bilbio will most likely accept this because, he has a hard time making decisions and he is easily persuaded into doing things such as leaving his ordinary world when he truly didn't want to.

Hero Study

The book I am currently reading is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is a book about a young creature named a Hobbit who leaves his house to win treasure guarded by a dragon.

In this book the hero is not as clear becausen the main character whos name is Bilbo, is a hobbit who's a coward, chip, and hopeful. Although he has these non heroic qualities, he accepts the quest that the wizard gives him and leaves his home thus leaving his ordinary world. The nature of a hobbit would be to stay, but by making the leap to leaving his ordinary world already shows that Bilbo will most likely become a hero throughout the story. Leaving the world is also self-sacrificing because he will have to leave the home he loves along with the people he love.

Character Archetypes

In the book, The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones, character archetypes are not set in stone. These book is about two characters who are confused about who own a house. This story is set in Canada in a very dark, muddy setting.

There are two main characters who have appeared in the story so far. These two characters do not contain many of the features of any archetype, but most likely because the author wanted to create suspense. These two characters named Mimi and Jay are the first two characters you encounter in the story. They do not have the characteristics of a herald, shapeshifter, shadow, trickster, hero, mentor, or threshhold guardian. The story has much more of a journal entry type feel to it. Evidence of any true archetypes are none while elements of archetypes are there but there isn't enough evidence to prove a character has a certain archetype.

Making Connections

"There was a ratty looking Yamaha keyboard and several other electronnic thingies strew on the floor, their little LED glowing in readiness. Guitars were arrayed on the stands around Action Central. So was what she though must be an electronic drum kit. There were mikes on the stasnds, speakers and headphones, and a music stand and..." Tim Wynne-Jones, The Uninvited, Page 38.

How this connects to me is that I also live for music like this character. I am building a studio myself and this text has triggered many familiar names and images. This excerpt truly connects me to the book. The detail that follows this excerpt will truly illuminate and grab the attention of any musician that is familiar with recording studios. It is easy to relate and ponder the ideas this character had because of his knowledge about music. The "Yamaha" keyboard, the "guitars on the stands". These keywords really brought this room and character to life.

The Uninvited

Books are the world. They provide entertainment, knowledge, and even games. This is why I'm reading The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones.

This book is about Mimi, a fairly young woman travelling north to Ontario to her cottage. When she arrives, she notices that that an unnamed man is living there. After a few hours of exploring and talking in house, the man invites Mimi to his mothers house.

This book started out great. It truly painted a vivid photograph of the characters and the setting truly exploded with complex colors, but as I read on, the book became a tedious read. Judging from the cover and the small description located on the back of the book, I would have though this was a suspense/thriller novel, although it is quite the opposite. So far this novel has left me with several meaningless facts about these two characters, with no building suspense, climax, or resolutions to any conflicts.

I would like to end this blog post by saying that I do not recommend this to anyone that going into this book thinking this is a suspense/thriller novel. It is much more of a mystery book gone terribly wrong. If I must recommend this book, I would recommend it to people ages 13-30 who have read the mystery genre. In the end, it is quite a dissapointing book for the amount I have read.