While it can be easy to underestimate the importance of stage descriptions, setting plays an important role in most literature, including fantasy focused on characters. Setting can be written to represent conflicting forces or ideals and to help illustrate the conflict and overall idea of ​​a story to the reader. A literary work that uses setting to emphasize conflict and enhance plot development is the novel The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. Throughout the novel, Tolkien emphasizes the importance of two central locations: Bilbo's home on The Hill and the mountain where Smaug the dragon lives. Not only do these places differ in location, as many miles separate the Hill from Smaug's Mountain, but they also represent contrasting features from Bilbo's perspective. Through his contrast between The Hill and Smaug's Mountain, Tolkien illustrates how Blbo's character evolves throughout the story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay From the beginning of the novel, when Bilbo first describes his hobbit hole in The Hill, the importance of the hobbit hole to Bilbo is evident. Not only does the picturesque Hobbit Hole represent safety, comfort, and happiness to Bilbo, but it also contains countless memories of his family, who originally built the house, and of his childhood. Bilbo acknowledges his love and familiarity for his home when he says “…it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort” (Tolkien 1). In essence, the hobbit hole represents everything Bilbo has ever known and everything he values. However, as the story progresses, and Bilbo moves away from his home in The Hill, Bilbo's character changes dramatically – he becomes more competent and his values ​​change. By the time he reaches Smaug's mountain, Bilbo has faced many conflicts, from getting lost in Gollum's cave and managing to escape to fighting off the spiders that attacked him and his friends, as he walked through a forest to join the army. Overall, The Hill helps explain to the reader how Bilbo's character develops and becomes a hero - as his journey progresses, he learns to fight against his fears and discomfort, the opposite of this that The Hill gave him, and he learns that adventure is not adventure. as bad as he initially thought. While the Hill is a safe and comforting place for Bilbo, Smaug's Mountain contains the opposite: an unknown territory of danger and wickedness. The mountain appears menacing by the second Bilbo and the others reach "...the dark cavernous opening in a great rock face between the arms of the Mountain" (Tolkien 189). For Bilbo, Smaug's Mountain is the pinnacle of the less favorable aspects of adventure and represents exactly what Bilbo seems to fear: danger, discomfort, and change. Before Bilbo even knows what the adventure will be, he vehemently refuses Gandalf when he first goes to Bilbo at The Hill to propose the idea of ​​the adventure. Bilbo justifies his own refusal of adventure by stating: "We are simply quiet people and have no need for adventure...I cannot think of what anyone sees in them" (Tolkien 6). However, by the time Bilbo reaches the mountain, his outlook on adventure, as well as his character, has changed dramatically. Along the way, Bilbo not only experienced danger, but also learned to face and overcome it. Bilbo's journey and the conflicts he faced along the way developed and revealed the.