The characters in this story face many trials that require them to have the courage to overcome them and advance towards their overall goal. Bilbo wasn't exactly an adventurous person, but as the dwarves and Bilbo progressed on their journey, Bilbo's mother's genes began to take over and they became more wary, adventurous, and courageous. Later in the journey, the dwarves began to rely too much on Bilbo, which caused Bilbo to do almost everything. Although Bilbo had to do almost everything, he gained more courage and did not doubt himself as often. Bilbo displays the most courage among all 14 members of the group. When he was ordered to go and spy on the trolls, when Bilbo had to fight the evil spiders, but the event that shows the most courage is when Bilbo was on the mountain and met Smaug face to face alone. The first point is when Bilbo is assigned to go and spy on the trolls. This is therefore the first official test since they left the trip. Bilbo and the others see this light so they come closer wondering what it is. They get to a point where they can't get any closer, so they send Bilbo to explore the area. “You have to go ahead and find out everything about that light, what it is for and whether everything is perfectly safe and smart.” (pg. 40-41) Bilbo finds some trolls near the fire talking, and remains there for a long time unnoticed. Then Bilbo tries to pickpocket William but fails and starts arguing. The dwarves become wary and follow Bilbo's trail, but go straight to the fire where the trolls are. Now the trolls and the Dwarves argue and Bilbo quickly hides in the bush. The dwarves are captured and then Gandalf arrives and saves them. Bilbo showed his courage by spying on the trolls and does this...... middle of paper......ge spiders all by himself, which took a lot of courage because there were about 6 spiders in Bilbo's verse, but eventually Bilbo and the dwarves managed to escape the spiders. The third paragraph is where Bilbo shows the most courage in the book and is where Bilbo faces the dragon. Not an easy thing to do when you know the creature is 20 times bigger than you and can kill you instantly, but Bilbo continued anyway. The first time in the cave he managed to steal a golden cup. The second time wasn't so good that he almost ended up dying if it weren't for the puzzles and quickly escaping the flames. Eventually Smaug was killed and everything was mostly back to normal. We gain strength, courage and confidence from every experience where we really stop to look fear in the face... we have to do what we think we can't do. - By: Eleanor Roosevelt