Is 'The Hobbit' an allegory

Answer 1

Answer #1 No, it is not. Frank Baum invented it precisely because he thought that many Fairy Tales were not appropriate for children, so he should come up with something new, and less violent than other stories. Answer #2 No. Folktales tend to be passed on, over time, by word-of-mouth. The original author tends not to be known. For how the tale speaks to its audience and what it says tend to be more important than the original teller. The subject tends not to be too local, because it tends to have a moral lesson and to support so-called universal truths. Folklore represents the generations of cultural expressions, customs, daily activities, sayings, and stories that trace the life of a particular people or nation. The Wizard of Oz traces the life of the people of Oz and of their neighboring lands. And the moral lessons and universal truths of folktales may be found in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But the book has a known author and most particular locales. At one point, Lyman Frank Baum [May 15, 1856-May 5, 1919] referred to his Oz books as royal histories; and he consistently described them as fairytales. If the events really happened, then the Oz books fit into the uppermost levels of historical fiction.

Answer 2

Answer

No, Tolkien clearly stated that it was not an allegory. In one of his letters he comments:

"I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language. (And, of course, the more 'life' a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.) " Plus the book was written in the 30's so there was no way it was an allegory about the 50's and 60's, like many believe

Answer 3

No

It was one of the first of the so-called realistic Fairy Tales- it starts out in reality- in this case England, a super-event occurs- ( Alice falls down the rabbit hole- and Bang- it goes into Fantasyland overdrive- a similar ploy is used in Wizard of Oz, which starts off in a normal Kansas farm setting, the crisis here is the Cyclone storm- and then spirals into fantasy...I don"t like this approach- but then again you don"t have Dragnet ( realistic) cops being abducted by a UFO, do you?

Answer 4

No, it is not a folktale. It is a fantasy, not something that has been passed down over the centuries.

Answer 5

Yes, it is a fantasy story. Anytime you have dragons and magic, you can pretty much peg it as fantasy. The wizard and invisibility ring, along with dwarves and elves really clinch the genre.

Answer 6

It is definitely a fantasy book. Most people would consider it classic in both the time it has been in existance and the format fitting the classic legend format.

Answer 7

No it isn't. Tolkien wanted England to have a mythology of its own, so he created a world that could easily be transformed into ours, but it isn't based on anything factual.

Answer 8

Yes