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Why does Thorin reject Roac's advice in The Hobbit?
Quick answer:
Thorin rejects Roac's advice due to his overwhelming greed and obsession with the treasure in the mountain. This greed clouds his judgment, leading him to refuse sharing the riches with neighboring people affected by the dragon's destruction. Thorin's anger and fixation on the treasure make him dismissive of Roac's suggestion to make peace with Bard. His irrational response is also influenced by his deep-seated pain over losing his family and kingdom.
Thorin—who, throughout the novel, proves himself to be a thoughtful and consistent leader of the quest—becomes overtaken with greed once he arrives at the mountain. Like the ring, which can cause its wearers to be obsessive, possessive, and paranoid, the gold and treasures within the mountain cause Thorin to lose sight of his thoughtfulness and diplomacy. When Roac suggests that Thorin and the party share their riches with the people who live near the mountain and have been destroyed by the dragon's fire, Thorin turns him down. Instead, Thorin angrily asserts that he alone will control and possess the riches within the mountain. Thorin's pain over losing his entire family and kingdom is also playing into his irrational response.
This section of the novel occurs in Chapter 15, when Roac brings Thorin news of Smaug's death but also the armies of the men and elves that are coming to claim the treasure. Roac advises making peace with Bard and using some of the dragon hoard to do so. It is important to remember how Thorin's character has become obsessed with gold-greed since his arrival at the mountain. He has literally become taken over by thinking, dreaming and talking about the treasure. This explains his somewhat irrational response to Roac:
Then Thorin burst forth in anger: "Our thaniks, Roac Carc's son. You and your people shall not be forgotten. But none of our gold shall thieves take or the violent carry off while we are alive."
Thorin also asks Roac to take news of these events to his kin, in particular Dain, and to ask him to come swiftly with a dwarven army to help them protect the treasure. We thus see one of Thorin's heroic failings - his greed that here is determining his actions and making him lose common sense and perspective.
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