In the second half of The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien the author uses many different settings to continue the character development that he started in the first half of the book. When we last left Bilbo he had a problem on his hands, the dwarves were missing and he was stuck in a giant spider's web. But he was able to break free of the web and kill the spider, proving that he was not the same hobbit that we began the book with. This single action set the entire mood for the second half of the book and with the newer, braver Bilbo more adventures were soon to come.

His first action after getting away from the spider was to search for the dwarves this was just another one of those little details that reaffirmed the new Bilbo. Where the old Bilbo would have sat there and felt sorry for himself and wished for his hole on the hill the new Bilbo simply and selflessly went looking for his friends, the dwarves. Using clever trickery he used the magic ring he stole from Gollum to rescue the dwarves who have been caught by an entire colony of spiders. This brings me to my next point, Bilbo has truly become a friend to the dwarves, and all of the dwarves seem to start admiring the cunning wits that he has attained over the journey, or maybe he had them all along. In fact Tolkien even takes the time to mention a few dwarves bowing to Bilbo showing their respect for him and due to this it is mentioned that Mr. Baggins begins to feel that maybe he is an adventurer.

However all this has happened because the dwarves are missing their "real" leader Thorin Oakenshield who has been captured by the Wood-elves. Although the Wood-elves were kindly people, they had a distrust of strangers and eventually capture the rest of the party. This event is of not much consequence, the next important event is when the party actually arrives at the mountain and before Bilbo has to go in Thorin gives a big speech about how esteemed and honorable the Hobbit is. This proves that Thorin actually has come to respect Bilbo as friend and a companion. After which Bilbo does his job by angering the dragon so that it will come out of its cave where the men below kill him. Bilbo proves himself again by maintaining his composure while in Smaug's lair. Finally the book comes to a close with a great battle between five armies that are all after the Arkenstone, a precious jewel found in Smaug's lair. The side of good wins in this war although Thorin, Fili and Kili all die in the altercation. Bilbo weeps for his fallen companions after he wakes up from the daze that kept him from fighting.

This proves that Bilbo has come to have a great friendship with the dwarves who at first he could not stand. At last the Hobbit is free to go home and live in peace. Not to be bothered for a long time (until Frodo's time, but that's a different story altogether). However it seems to be evident that what Tolkien is trying to say through Gandalf is that it usually takes the last person that you would expect to do something marvelous and fantastic to get the job done and everyone has an adventurous spirit in them and the capacity to do great things, but sometimes it takes someone else or a set of extenuating circumstances to exploit it.