接下來無聊的時候，會開始整理以前在各式各樣的地方曾經寫過的長篇文章，重新集結整理在這個部落格發布。
純粹是給自己看的 ......
在這部落格每一篇文章都馬是給自己看的啦。說什麼呢。
總是這是大四英文作文課要求符合MLA格式的學術小論文。老師沒有限制題目方向，只說是最大限度上與文學有相關聯即可。
我就寫了星際大戰。內容是，關於星際大戰裡面，神話英雄傳統上路克天行者如何在原始的三部曲完成他追尋自我的旅途。
往後有空再來寫關於這個主題，然後是非常自由自在的中文網誌吧。
符合學術格式什麼，實在是有夠痛苦orz
English
Composition III
Jasawa Lin
June 8th, 2016
“Looking? Found someone you have?”:
Heroes in Star Wars
Star Wars, one of the most
successful movie trilogies in cinematic history, has countless iconic
imageries, unforgettable lines, impressive characters and a compelling yet
simple story line of a boy who wants to be a Jedi knight, the guardians of
peace and justice in the universe. In fact, the basic story of Star Wars is so straight and simple
that many have regarded Star Wars as
a fairy tale for children. However, as Kevin J. Wermore, Jr. says, “popular
culture is a contradictory site of pleasure and ideological contest.” The
ideology in Star Wars series varies from feminism, individualism, fetishism and
etc. The symbolism and metaphors behinds the story, the setting of the
universe, and even the filming of the trilogy have always been the hot topics
for people who defends the value of this movie. Most significantly, what Luke
accomplishes in the original trilogy, A
New Hope (1977), Empire Strikes Back
(1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983),
is a well-constructed and compelling journey of a hero in both mythology and
literary perspective. [1]
Luke
is no doubt a hero in the universe; as he saves the Rebellion and the princess from
the threats of Death Star, and gives his father the last chance to redeem
himself as a Jedi. In the latest episode The
Force Awakens (2015), he becomes even more like a myth rather than a real
person, as the protagonist Rey questions about his existence at first. While in
literature and mythology, a hero is not someone who simply save the world. In
fact, George Lucas, the creator of the Star
Wars series, intentionally writes characters of heroes into his story based
on the theory of Joseph Campbell, which is mentioned in his book The Hero with A Thousand Faces.
Hero
is the kind of character that almost everyone already know at a very young age.
The concept of a hero may come from an enchanting bed time story, a powerful
and ancient tale of religion, an unrealistic character described in the myth,
or stories in comic books nowadays which have made thousands of children all
around the world choose the Batman costume during a Halloween party. However,
what exactly is a hero? What does a hero represent in a mythology or fairy
tale? What exactly does a hero accomplish to make him/herself become a hero
that everyone recognizes?
According
to Campbell’s theory, a hero not only can be explained in the perspective of psychology,
but also implies a universal idea that mankind has shared around the world
despite of cultural differences. Heroes might stand for different roles in
their stories whether of a mythological work or of a classic literary work, and
Campbell does not mean to use the general idea of heroes to simply erase and
ignore the differences between cultures and histories. Instead, he finds out similarities
in a great amount of materials from myths and religions, concludes principles that
the heroes follow during their journey, and forms out a whole structure of a
hero’s journey, calling it a “monomyth.”
Heroes
often stand for specific purposes and carry a motivation. They will be driven
by these motivations, and leave the place where they are at the time. In
another words, heroes are people who always have a motivation of their action
in their life or journey. In addition, they dare to face extreme difficulties
that seem to be impossible to conquer for normal people. They will eventually survive
those obstacles during their struggle, whether receiving helps from others or
not. Finally, they are willing to bring “the thing” that is from another world
to where they leave at the beginning, which Campbell used the word “elixir” to
represent it. According to him, elixir is “the boom that [a hero] brings
restores the world” (Campbell 246). The elixir is the reason why heroes often
are regarded as saviors or redemptions of the world, as elixir helps bringing
the world back to a certain balance.
Heroes
may receive elixir from others, or they simply produce them by themselves in
their journey of heroes. The elixir shows in many different ways and often is
hidden in subtle implications in different stories and myths. For example, the
wisdom Buddha realizes and shares with the world during his whole life; the
fire Prometheus stolen from the gods and has brought light and warm to mankind
in dark and cold; and the redemption Jesus brings to mankind by his sacrifice can
all be considered as elixirs. Thus, our consciousness recognize the behavior of
bringing back the elixir as the bravest and the most heroic things that can
only be done by heroes.
The
path of a hero’s journey can be roughly summarized in three steps: departure, “a hero ventures forth from
the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder”; initiation, “fabulous forces are there
encountered and a decisive victory is won”; and return, “the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with
the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” (30). Once a hero decides to
depart and leave his/her current condition, “the threshold of the adventure” will
be waiting for him/her and challenging him/her in many ways (77). Protagonists
who follow this pattern are likely to be recognized as the hero in their own
stories. In this paper, heroes in Star
Wars are the main focus, and by looking at the traditional scale and
standard of a hero, the differences and innovation about heroism in Star Wars can therefore be shown.
Andrew
Gordon first points out this structure hidden in the 1977 Original Star Wars. In “A Myth For Our Time,” he traces the action of Star Wars to see how closely it corresponds to this traditional
pattern of mythic adventure. Due to the fact that Star Wars did not announce the release of its sequel at that time,
Gordon regards the first episode as a full story, and demonstrates how Luke
Skywalker, the protagonist, completes the three stages of monomyth. To bring
the scale larger in order to cover the full three episodes, what Gordon mentions
without the acknowledgement of the following stories is an intriguing starting
point.
Luke
is an orphan being left to a traditional and conservative protector, always
wants to leave the deserted planet he is in, and is finally called to the
adventure by his longing and admiration to his real father, who Obi-wan Kenobi,
the protector and helper in his adventure claims to be a the best starship
pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior. According to Gordon, the setting of
Luke is a very typical type of a lonely hero who dreams of recognition and a
sense of belonging. (Gordon 320) After
his uncle and aunt are killed by the Empire, he accepts the adventure ahead of
him, and claims his determination to learn the way of the force and become a Jedi
like his father. By getting rid of the chase from the imperial troopers,
learning the way of the force and being dragged into the Death Star, Luke
crosses the threshold of the adventure by saving the princess and fleeing away
from the demonic Darth Vader. At the end of story, Luke brings back the elixir,
the Death Stars blue plan, and, therefore, saves the Rebellion.
The
destruction of the Death Star signifies the return of Luke, and his function of
being a hero succeeds protecting the world he belongs. At this point, Luke is
clear that he belongs to the Rebellion instead of the Empire. Gordon also mentions
the reasons why Luke’s series of encounters that bring him into the adventure
are not just coincidences that are only convenient to the plot. As the heroes
are destined to go on their monomythes, they have to be called and respond to the
adventure at the beginning. Incidents happening around them emphasize the
destined future, and this situation also happens on Luke’s beginning of the
story, as the droids and the hermit lives in the desert waiting to help, and
the death of an over protective family are the different phases in a monomyth
being materialized into this movie.
What
Gordon depicts is true, but only from a certain point of view. As the true
identity of Luke’s father is not revealed in the first movie, what really
intrigues Luke to go on his adventure and leave the ordinary life behind of him
are not compelling enough yet. His unique position in the Rebellion and the
whole universe are also still in vague. What Obi-wan mentions about the true
destiny that lies along a different path from his is also yet to be answered. Therefore,
the metamorphosis of Luke’s personality and state of mind from an ordinary farm
boy to a Rebellion hero due to one episode of a monomyth are not clear. This
first episode, which is retitled as A New
Hope years later, is in fact a simple story of a boy’s first step into a
larger world, where a more powerful force is waiting to strike him back.
In
the second episode of the trilogy, The
Empire Strikes Back not only brings another great success to the Star Wars series, but also leads the
journey of Luke to a greater and wider stage. On this stage, Luke has performed
a complete monomyth in a way that is very different from the previous episode.
If the trilogy is seen as a single story, this second movie is the “initiation”
part of the story, and almost precisely matches Campbell’s theory. To discuss
Luke’s path on becoming a hero, it is necessary to take a close look at the
second movie scene by scene.
At
the beginning of the movie, Luke, the farm boy who only dreamed of
adventures in the outside world, now becomes the leader of Rebellion.
Meanwhile, Han Solo, the man who once insisted that he would only take order
from himself, at his first scene in The
Empire Strikes Back, walks directly into the Rebel base to the general and
reports for duty. Especially Luke, both of them seem to have found their own
positions after the last episode, and have been through huge changes, as they
have defeated the empire and gained the recognition from the princess and the
rebellion. In another word, they both return the call to adventures, and cross
the threshold of the adventure. Campbell describes that “with the
personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in
his adventure until he comes to the ‘threshold guardian’ at the entrance to the
zone of magnified power”(77).
However,
the Rebellion does not actually win the war after destroying the Empire’s Death
Star. The situation becomes even worse. In the first line of the opening crawl
in Empire Strikes Back. It is very
clear that the movie begins the story in “a dark time for the Rebellion.” The
destruction of the Death Star does not serve as the nadir of a mythological
round, it is simply just a call to the adventure, and bring Luke, the young
hero, to his first step to a larger world. Luke has passed through the
threshold of adventure, consequently drawing the whole empire to strike back.
The evil and fierce power from the dark side is the real challenge that Luke is
destined to face with. At the same time, this is the power that will ultimately
make him separated from the world to receive an initiation, forcing him to
undergo metamorphosis both physically and mentally.
Meanwhile,
Han Solo leads a bigger and more significance role in the second story, as the
story line is separated into two parts that happen simultaneously. While facing
the threats from Darth Vader, what Luke and Han choose to do and their
consequences are an important comparison to see how Luke crosses his threshold
of adventure while becoming a true hero. Therefore, the analysis of Han is
another important part in the following discussion.
For
Han, his life is never a simple story about a superhero who wins over a
princess’ heart, brings her back safe and sound, and sacrifices himself to a
better cause. It is the search of his own identity and position in the
Rebellion that he fights his life for. Through a lover’s eyes, he not only
finds himself, but also clarify a true value of his life, instead of a price
that Jabba the Hutt, the most deadly criminal in the Star Wars universe, would
pay for his dead body.
After
the opening crawl already states that this “is a dark time,” Luke immediately
comes across his first frustration in the first scene. He is attacked by a
wampa that comes out of nowhere, unconsciously being dragged to the animal’s
cave and hung upside down. To make the situation even worse, no one seems to be
able to find him. The droids cannot detects any life signal. The Rebellion’s
high technology fails to find their commander either. C3PO can even count the
exact probability of their surviving chances. Only the spirit of Obi-wan Kenobi
can find Luke in the storm, and gives him an instruction to the Dagobah system.
This help from the outsider implicates that Luke has to be constantly dragged
away from the real world and bore with his tests of initiation.
For
another example, Luke is constantly being upside down in this whole movie,
whether he is lifted in a wampa’s cave, trained by Yoda, or hang at the bottom
of the Cloud city. For Luke, he is a new-born hero who just learn his destiny
lies on the path of the force, realizing that this powerful energy can lead him
to likely both the light side and the dark side, which he also does not know
much about yet. He is not clear about the future that the Rebellion is fighting
for, the destiny Obi-wan teaches him to follow, or even the right Jedi master
he needs to learn from. He is forced and trapped in situations that are hard to
get away with by himself. In the cave, he uses the force to grab the
lightsaber, cuts off the monster’s arm and flees away. He has to stand upside
down with his hand in order to train his way of using the force at the Dagobah
system. At the bottom of the Cloud City, his force calls to his sister, Leia,
in order to leave the city and his father’s chasing. The force is the strongest
element during these times, helping Luke to defeat the obstacles. It is also a
strong metaphor of Luke crossing the threshold of adventure by using the power
from inside his own mind and will, which is the force.
Luckily,
Luke also receives guidance he needs to get away with these upside down
situation. In the wampa attacking, Obi-wan finds him outside in the cold and tells
him to go find Yoda in order to become a real Jedi. While Luke is trained at
the Dagobah system, Yoda is around him, trying to lead the boy out of his own
confusion. However, Luke does not always listen to his masters, often chooses
for himself another path instead of his mentors’ intensions. Besides, he fails
all the time. He is not able to save his friend, loses one of his hand, and is
stroke by the cruel truth of his identity: Vader is the long-lost father, the
Jedi Knight, who Luke wants to become, and the most dreadful villain in the
universe, who is seduced by the dark side of the force and betrays everything
he used to believe in. When the father and son finally confront at the end the
road, Vader is offering the “only way out” to end this destructive conflict.
Luke, yet again, chooses for himself and jumps down the cliff. He is luckily
saved, flees away from the Cloud City. In this way, he crosses the threshold
again and goes back to the starting point, his position as a leader, who needs
to guide the Rebellion to confront the Empire.
Luke
is not the chosen one to be the savior of the universe. Instead, he chooses for
himself and takes on his own way of being a Jedi master instead of an old path.
While confronting with Vader, Luke learns how powerful and destructive the dark
side of the force could be, and the truth that the father figure he used to
believe and count on is actually a white lie. When his father’s lightsaber,
which Obi-wan gives him to help him make his first step into a larger world,
falls down the cliff with his cut hand, the pain represents the realization of
Luke to remind him of going on his own path, instead of any former’s path. The
realization for Luke to choose for himself, and become his own self is the
elixir he receives from all the disillusionments at the Cloud City. Luke’s
journey thus can also be seen as a bildungsroman, as his monomyth is a clear
scale and process of a young man’s growth.
If
we look back on Han, who goes on his own journey of a monomyth at the same
time, his direction is just the opposite from Luke. While Luke is trying to
look for the right path and ideal to stand for, Han is always escaping. He runs
into a huge creature’s stomach to hide himself from tracking, sticks on a Star
Destroyer to avoid the scanning, and flees to the Cloud City to have
protections. During the whole movie, he is forced, and passively makes almost
every decision instead of his own mind. He is not able to play “solo” during
this whole journey, and even the Falcon does not back him up this time. In
fact, the malfunction of the Millennium Falcon implies the captain’s mentally
destructions and confusions while facing the challenges of destiny and the
threatening from the evil. When Han falls into the trap and is froze into
carbonizes, he reaches the bottom part of the monomyth, yet he is not able to
cross the threshold again in order to return to the place where he used to be.
He is left in another world, apart from Luke and Leia.
If
the sequel never happened, Han’s story would have ended, and he would become
the tragic hero who does not finish his own monomyth, even though he finally
reaches the true value in his life of a scoundrel when he fearlessly embrace
his doom in the carbonizes dressed in all white. Because Luke receives his
initiation and cross the threshold safely only with a loss of his right hand
after this episode, he has the ability to save his friend from the other world,
and the next movie The Return of Jedi
shows this situations of these protagonists at the beginning.
For
Han, although he seems to fail the test and does not bring himself back from
the challenge, in my opinion, the moment when he is dressed in all white,
receives a kiss and the love from the princess, and calmly brings the legendary
line “I know,” Han has marked his own changing and growth at that moment,
implying that he is never going to run away like he used to for the past of his
life as a smuggler who hunts and is hunt all the time anymore.
In
the last episode, everything comes to an end. Luke visits his Jedi master Yoda for
the last time, and realizes that facing and confronting his evil father are his
destiny. He builds his own lightsaber, embraces the identity of being the
devil’s son, and brings his friend from the carbonized freezer. Han is saved by
friendships and love, returning as a hero to keep on fight with the rebellion
also. As the title “The Return of the
Jedi” has implied, Luke is the redemption the world deserves. At this
point, if Luke and Han fought together to defeat the Empire, this movie will
end in a fairy-tale style that would never make Star Wars a classic. Instead, Luke
and Han split up again. Han and Leia fight the battle of Endor, while Luke
meets his father at the presence of the Emperor, the master of evil. As the
heroes, Han and Luke save the world they belong to different ways, yet both of
them complete the monomyth in a similar form. Han makes the destruction of the
Death Star possible by turning off the shields. Luke saves his father’s soul
free from the manipulation of the black armor, and he burned down this cyborg
body after he passes away. The destruction of objects being burned down in
ashes symbolizes the world free from fear, threat, evil, and violence. That is
to say, they both save the world from the dark side of the force.
In
conclusion, Luke’s journey of a hero constructs the value of the story, which
makes this trilogy maintain its appealing charm for decades. The hero that Star Wars series represents not only
includes a complete structure of a monomyth, but also a contemporary
explanation of savior and redemption. Through Luke’s eyes, the audience
experiences the confrontation between the dark side and the light side. The
spaceship that travels in hyper speed and the space station that sizes of a
small moon may never exist, but the struggling, the suffering and surviving of
mankind against fate are real. In fact, it is this fictional structure contains
the monomyth that appeals to the modern day society and even across generations.
“In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private,
unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream”(4). What Star
Wars has created is not only the pantheon that Campbell described as the power
source of a myth., but also makes the tale of heroes alive again from the
ancient works of literature.
Bibliography
Campbell,
Joseph. The Hero with A Thousand Faces.
2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968
Decker,
Kevin S., and Jason T. Eberl, eds. Star Wars
and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine. Chicago: Open
Court, 2005. Print.
Gordon,
Andrew. "Star Wars: A Myth for
Our Time." Literature and Film
Quarterly 6.4 (1978): 314-26. Print.
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. Dir. George Lucas. Lucasfilm,
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1977. Blue-ray.
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. Dir. Irvin Kershner.
Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 1980. Blue-ray.
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. Dir. Richard Marquand.
Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1983. Blue-ray.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Dir. J. J. Abrams.
Lucasfilm, Bad Robot, and Truenorth Productions, 2015. DVD.
Vinci, Tony
M. “The Fall of the Rebellion; or, Defiant and Obedient Heroes in a Galaxy Far,
Far Away.” Culture, Identities and
Technology in the Star Wars Films:
Essays on the Two Trilogies. Ed. Carl
Silvio and Tony M. Vinci. Jefferson: McFarland, 2007. 11-33. Print.
Wetmore,
Kevin J., Jr. The Empire Triumphant:
Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films. Jefferson: McFarland, 2005. Print.
[1] The
prequel trilogy is not mentioned in this paper, as I do not include the story
of Anakin Skywalker to be in the part of the discussion of Luke Skywalker’s
journey as a hero.
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