What would life be without the common people? What would it be like if every culture was made up entirely of great warriors, noble and powerful lords and ladies, full of adventure and excitement?
Seems to me like it would make the extraordinary... well, ordinary.
And, yes, it's true that the Hobbits take things for granted... and that they're often not the smartest beings. But what would Middle Earth be without them?
To quote Gandalf:
"...I have been deeply concerned about you, and about all these charming, absurd, helpless hobbits. It would be a grievous blow to the world, if the Dark Power overcame the Shire, if all your kind, jolly, stupid Bolgers, Hornblowers, Boffins, Bracegirdles, and the rest, not to mention the ridiculous Bagginses, became enslaved."
Or Frodo, though you might say he's a little biased on the matter
:
"I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don't feel like that now. I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again."
But the Hobbits are more than just the common people who, so to speak, keep things in balance. Underneath all the comfortable happiness, lies a toughness and fire. Why else would it be two hobbits, not elves or Dunedain, to complete the quest?
"There is a seed of courage hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid hobbit, waiting for some final and desperate danger to make it grow"
How else could the Hobbits have been the ones to rid the Shire of Saruman and all his men?
Anyway, the bottom line is: The common people, the little folk, are the salt of the earth.
Or, to quote Gilbert and Sullivan: "If everybody's somebody, then no-one's anybody!"
