Page "The Hobbit" Paragraph 23

Several teaching guides and books of study notes have been published to help teachers and students gain the most from the book.

The Hobbit introduces literary concepts, notably allegory, to young readers, as the work has been seen to have allegorical aspects reflecting the life and times of the author.

Meanwhile the author himself rejected an allegorical reading of his work.

This tension can help introduce readers to readerly and writerly interpretations, to tenets of New Criticism, and critical tools from Freudian analysis, such as sublimation, in approaching literary works.