Student Question
What is the point of view in The Hobbit?
Quick answer:
The point of view in The Hobbit is primarily third-person omniscient, where the narrator uses pronouns like "he," "she," and "they." This narrator has an all-knowing perspective and occasionally shifts into first person to provide commentary. Although the narrative mainly follows Bilbo, it sometimes shifts briefly to other characters, such as Gollum in "Riddles in the Dark." This approach allows a comprehensive view of the story's events and characters.
The point of view in The Hobbit is the third person point of view, meaning that the story is told with words such as "he", "she", "it", and "they" (rather than words such as "I" or "me", which are the first person point of view, or "you" which is indicative of the second person point of view). The Hobbit is told through an omniscient, or all knowing, narrator, who occasionally slips into the first person to comment on the story. One instance of that can be seen at the very beginning of the story: "I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays...", though there are many examples of the narrator doing things like this. Aside from that, the narration mostly sticks to Bilbo, occasionally branching out to other characters for very short periods of time, such as when Gollum is introduced in the chapter "Riddles in the Dark".
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