Question about The Hobbit

[Josh]

Just finished reading The Hobbit for a class I'm taking. Yesterday we had a one question quiz on the book, which I found to be rather interesting; I thought I'd share it here and see how you pholks would answer it. Here goes:

The events that occur between the riddle game with Gollum and the final adventure on Smaug's mountain could be seen by some as episodic, not related to the book's central plot. Are these events irrelevant, or do they somehow contribute something to the book? Explain.

[Brenden]

The whole thing with Gollum isn't terribly important to the book itself except that Bilbo getting the ring allows him to hide from Smaug later. At least if I'm remembering properly, I haven't read the book in a while.

[Vlad!]

The Hobbit is ultimately about the adventures of Bilbo, so I don't see how the chronicle of a series of his adventures could be seen as unrelated. These events provide learning and growing experiences for the group (especially Bilbo) and are a part of the tale as much as anything else. Maybe in this modern age of convenient transportation some forget that at one point in our own history the journey was perhaps more dangerous or more exciting than the destination. Recall that Bilbo titled his book There and Back Again, not The Defeat of Smaug and the Battle of the Five Armies.

To me, this question seems as absurd as if someone asked if the books Joshua through Malachi were really necessary to the Bible, since after all they're just 'episodic' and 'not related' to the central plot of salvation.  

[phaith]

Not only is getting the ring important to the story of Bilbo in the hobbit (saving the dwarves from the spiders, freeing the dwarves from the elves, hiding from smaug on the mountain), it is also what pushes Gollum out of hiding so that he pursues Frodo in the 'lord of the rings' and it is in Gollum's recapturing of the ring from Fordo's hand that results in it being destroyed and everyone saved from the dark lord...so...ya...kind of important.  

[Josh]

Okay, but again, the question is concerning what happens AFTER Bilbo's encounter with Gollum...

[phaith]

Okay, but again, the question is concerning what happens AFTER Bilbo's encounter with Gollum...

I thought I was mentioning what happened after.    

[PaulDA]

I thought I was mentioning what happened after.  

Awww, how cute!^ =)