Star Wars and the hero myth
Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.
Preparation
Critics of the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens have called the film unoriginal and predictable because the story so closely mirrors the very first Star Wars film in 1977. But, in fact, both films follow a structure that pre-dates all Hollywood films, that of the 'hero myth'. That's because director George Lucas based Star Wars on the ideas in Joseph Campbell's 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Later editions of Campbell's book even featured Star Wars' hero Luke Skywalker on the front cover.
In his book, Campbell analyses myths from all over the world to describe the 'monomyth' – a pattern that you can see in myths from every culture. In short, a hero sets off from home on a journey, where he overcomes obstacles and defeats enemies to return with a prize. It's a tale that has been told for thousands of years, from the Ancient Greeks with The Odyssey to JK Rowling's Harry Potter books.
George Lucas was one of the early film directors to directly base his story on the 17 stages of the hero's journey. Typically the hero starts the story living an ordinary life, but something happens that calls them to an adventure that changes everything. At the beginning of Star Wars, Luke lives an ordinary life with his aunt and uncle, repairing robots. When he finds Princess Leia's message to Obi-Wan Kenobi inside the robot R2D2, it is 'the call to adventure' that starts the hero on his journey.
According to Campbell, the hero at first refuses the call to adventure, but a mentor appears who helps them and they decide to 'cross the threshold' and travel into the 'special world' where the adventure happens. The next stage consists of passing tests, fighting enemies and meeting friends as the hero prepares to face their biggest challenge. For Luke the mentor is, of course, Obi-Wan, the friends are Han Solo and the robots R2D2 and C3PO and the enemy is Darth Vader inside the special world of the Death Star.
Next, the hero overcomes obstacles on the way to facing their greatest challenge. There often comes a moment when they face death or loss and that experience gives them the strength to finally defeat the enemy. Luke loses his mentor when he sees Darth Vader kill Obi-Wan, which helps him find the strength he needs later on. When heroes succeed, they return from the special world, changed by their experiences forever. Luke's change comes when he remembers Obi-Wan saying, 'Use the force', and he uses it to help him aim his laser into the heart of the Death Star. Luke takes his first steps to becoming a Jedi, and the hero myth restarts in The Return of the Jedi, except this time his mentor is Yoda.
What is my Favorite Hero's Story?
I'm not really a huge fan of "the hero's journey" who suffer pain and death for the common good and his own personal growth only because is just was written like that. Most of the time, he needs to be saved by close friends, even if it cost "expendable lives".
However, I won't be the one to blame this narrative; at the end the story of overcoming adversity of the poor soul whose suffer to be a beter human is as real as the sun in the sky, maybe because we can mirrored in it, and feel their path as our own; doesn't matter if is a boy in a village or a woman in a big city.
In Luke Skywalker case and by extention Anakin case, were others who decided their destiny. Palpatin uses his own "force" and the Anakin's trauma, in order to create the perfect weapon that will do the necessary to reach his vision of Republic, menacing Anakin's young family safety for the sake of his own plans. At the end, Darth Vader( Anakin) paid the price for Palpatine's lust of power when he lost those he loved the most and his own sanity.
Luke has an alike path, the Resisntace convinces him to fix all past errors. But the main differece between this two "heros" is while Anakin lost all contact with real people, Luke always be cared by his sister Leia, and the others caracters. They fought with and for him, training him and helping him to evolve toward a brighter path.
A winning point for me in Luke"s journey is when he becomes critic with Jedi's system, the Republic, etc and choose to walk is own way, perhaps for the first time in his entire life.
This shows us that in the end, the chosen one could always choose himself.
guys i like spider-man because is a spider
Spider-Man is not a spider... because he is a human that has spider powers. Also, he doesn't change into a spider. You need to rewatch the movies.
For you, is Caillou a superhero or just a bald kid?
my favorite book is the lord of the rings so legolas and aragorn are my hero. They face lots of challenges and the film was amazing. The affects , story ,characters are unbelievable in these years. I read all of the books and watched the series again and again.
My favourite hero story about Spider-Man. I love this famous uncle Ben' phrase - with great power comes great responsibility.
What are your favourite hero stories?
My favourite hero stories is Aang, of the animated series "The Aan Leyend, The Last Air Bender". This historie was wrote by Michael Dante and Bryan Konietzko. This history is about a child that have the power of managing the four elements, air, fire, wather and earth. In a world on the tribes of peoples with power of manage one of these elements, are in war decades ago, bringing imbalance to world. This child have to return the balance, but he´s scared and does not how doing it, so he hide inside of Iceberg for 100 years. When he wake up, he faces obstacles and loss, but helped by his friends he successfuly return the peace on the world.
When, at the lower secondary school, we read the Homeric poems - Iliad and Odyssey - my favourite hero was Hector and, generally, the loser heros.
Currently, I'm more into drama and reality TV shows. However, as I was in school, I used to watch science fiction series and movies. I always liked the fallen more than the hero because I was more interested in the story behind the fallen, to see how they became the person they were. And I don't like the way they perfectly scripted every hero.
Hello everyone,
I'd like the idea about hero in Star Wars. For me the true hero is not Luke or Rey. It is Anakin Skywalker. He chose to become one of the good ones, but unfortunately he became one of the darkest person in the universe.
In the end, especially the last part of the og. trilogy, he turned back to the light side of the force.
May the force be with you
Talking about favourite heroes I don't think that there can be only one but I think I like Harry potter the most because its a kid story as well for adults but mainly it inspires kids and helps them in believing themselves . It makes them believe that heroes aren't only grownups . It's just really inspiring and teaches every single kid out there to belive in themselves and no matter how much problems you face you should learn to enjoy your life and be grateful for what you have