The interesting revelation I had about Star Wars being a hero story
In class today we watched a very
interesting video about hero stories as told from the perspective of Joseph
Campbell. I am a Star Wars fanatic so this educational video was actually very
interesting to me. This video enlightened me to the patterns that are present
in almost every science fiction movie that I have seen in my lifetime. In this
blog I will analyze the connections that I have come to understand from the
archetypal hero to both Star Wars and the Matrix. Having seen each movie(s)
(plural in regards to the Star Wars series) it was particularly easy for me to
understand the historical significance in each movie and connect the archetypes
to each of the characters in the movie.
There
are three main stages to a hero’s journey. These three steps are the departure,
the fulfillment and the return. In star wars the departure scene occurs when
Luke is given the call to adventure from Princess Leia when she delivers the
message. In the matrix it is given to Neo when he is told to “follow the white
rabbit”. In regards to this particular call to adventure, we learned in class
today that a popular call to adventure for hero’s is that they follow a deer or
other woodland animal to an environment in which they have no knowledge or
personal connection. This is true in regards to Neo’s call to adventure in the
Matrix. Another popular aspect of the call to adventure in a hero’s journey is
when he is engulfed in the “belly of a whale’. Today we learned that the whale
represents the subconceous and the water surrounding it represents the deepness
or darkness that we fell. When a hero character is engulfed inside of a “whale”
so to speak, they are escentially inside of themselves searching for a truth
that will change them on the inside. One could think of it as a competition or
fight betweed the Id and the Ego. In the case of star wars the “whale” could be
represented by the scene in which Luke and Princess Leia are trapped inside the
trash compactor. In the Matrix Neo is essentially trapped inside a tourture
chamber in which he must escape alive. In both of these cases the “hero” is
fighting with himself to succeed in whatever he is attempting to accomplish. In
the fulfillment stage the hero is learning and accomplishing his task. This
task will eventually be fulfilled and change the hero’s way of thinking. A
particular step that I have discovered in this stage that is present in both of
these movies is the apotheosis stage in which the hero becomes sort of “God
like”. In Star Wars, this would occur when Luke becomes a Jedi. In the Matrix,
when Neo becomes The One is when he finally achieves his highest order of
fulfillment. The final step in the hero’s journey is the return. A main aspect
of this step is when the Hero achieves the freedom to live. In Star Wars this
occurs when Luke is victorious over the empire after he rebels. And in the Matrix
this occurs when Ne leads the humans to be victorious over the machines.
