Plato’s Allegory of the cave is also the Hero’s Quest as defined by Joseph Campbell. Kirsten Brennan analyzed Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces, and broke it up into parts with comparisons to Star Wars and The Matrix in her article “Star Wars Origins”. There are three basic stages in the hero’s journey. The first stage is the Departure. This is the hero leaving his natural realm to entire into something greater, usually to leave the cave. Within the Departure is the call to adventure, which is seen in Princess Leia’s message for help. Next is the refusal of the call; Luke has to stay and help out with the harvest – “Look, I can’t get involved”. Following the refusal, the hero then receives supernatural aid, and this comes in the form of Obi-Wan when Luke gets ambushed by sand people. This aid from Obi-Wan, combined with R2-D2’s insistent need to find Ob-Wan, saves Luke from also being killed by the same stormtroopers that kill his aunt and uncle. After being rescued or aided by a supernatural force, the hero accepts the quest, crosses the first threshold, and enters into the belly of the whale. In Star Wars, the threshold is Tatooine, and the belly of the whale can be viewed as either the Cantina or the trash compactor on the Death Star. (online)
The second stage according to Campbell, and analyzed and compared by Brennan, is the Initiation. This is where the hero attains some level of divine; for Luke, he becomes a Jedi. The first part of the Initiation is the road of trials. For Luke his first trial is the lightsaber training on the Millennium Falcon, and his final trial doesn’t occur until he beats his father aboard the second Death Star, realizes his dark emotions, renounces the Dark Side, and refuses to fight any more. Following the trials, the hero meets the goddess, which can be seen when Luke rescues Leia from her cell. Next comes the temptation away from the path, seen by Luke’s flirtation with the Dark Side while captive aboard the second Death Star. Following the flirtation, the hero atones with his father; likewise, Luke finally saves the soul of his father, Anakin, in the waning moments of Return of the Jedi. After the hero atones with his father, he reaches Apotheosis, or a god-like state. Following the death of the Emperor and the saving of Darth Vader’s soul, Luke is now a Jedi, “like [his] father before [him]”. After reaching the final stage, the source, comes “the final boon”, which is seen with the destruction of the Death Stars, in both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, as well as the death of the Emperor. (online) The final stage, at least in Star Wars, occurs out of order due mostly to the complex story arch in which A New Hope by itself is one journey, and the entire original trilogy is an over-arching journey as well. Perhaps, though, this complexity is an integral reason for the appeal of Star Wars.
The final stage of the hero’s journey, as outlined by Brennan’s interpretation of Campbell, is the Return. While it is interesting to note that there is no actual “return” in Return of the Jedi, there is one in A New Hope. The first stage of the Return is the refusal to return, and we see this when Look doesn’t want to leave the Death Star, but instead wants to avenge Obi-Wan’s death, and shoot Darth Vader. Obi-Wan’s wisdom echoes through to Luke, “Run Luke, Run”, and Luke heeds Obi-Wan and runs. Following the refusal is a “magical flight”, which is seen many times in Star Wars, almost always aboard the junky, but somehow reliable Millennium Falcon. After the hero’s magical flight, he is “rescued from without”. This is actually in both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, as Han saves Luke from Vader during the attack on the first Death Star, and Darth Vader saves Luke from the Emperor at the end of Return of the Jedi. After being rescued by an outside character, the hero crosses the return threshold, and likewise Luke destroys the first Death Star, and lastly, he saves his father from the “Dark Side”. The hero then becomes a master of two worlds. Interesting, Luke can only accomplish this dual mastership at the end of the trilogy, for he became a master of the human world with the destruction of the first Death Star, and he became a master of the divine world, or the Force, when he conquered the Emperor and saved his father. Lastly is the freedom to live, seen by the multitude of celebrations at the end of Return of the Jedi. (online)
The final piece of the mythical hero are the other, random mythical elements which Campbell outlines and Brennan compares to Star Wars. The first element is the two worlds. This can be seen by Plato’s division between the cave and the outside world. This can be seen in Star Wars by the natural and technological worlds. Many mythical stories also contain a prophecy, and Star Wars is no different. In Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker is considered to be the prophesied “chosen one”, “the one who will bring balance to the Force”, he fails, and in failing, he unknowingly passes this prophecy onto his son, Luke. Other characters include, the Mentor, the Oracle, the Failed Hero, the Shapeshifter, and the Animal familiar. All of these are represented in Star Wars. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda fulfill the Mentor and Oracle figures, and both guide Luke throughout his journey. Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, is the failed hero from the prequel trilogy, while Han Solo and Lando Calrissian fulfill the shapeshifter roles, and Chewbacca fulfills the role of the Animal familiar. The final mythical elements in the hero’s journey are wearing the enemy’s skin and following a lone animal into the enchanted wood. We see this in A New Hope when the Millennium Falcon follows a single TIE fighter towards the Death Star, and later, Han and Luke put on stormtrooper disguises in order to sneak out of the Falcon and eventually into the Detention Block to rescue Princess Leia. (online) This is also seen in Return of the Jedi when Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca (along with other, less important Rebels) take a stolen Imperial shuttle down to the forest moon of Endor, and then Leia follows Wicket, an Ewok, into the “enchanted wood” of Endor. As one can see, Star Wars contains all of the major elements of the mythical hero, and thus it is easy to understand why the story is so compelling and why Star Wars has become an incredible phenomenon. And to think, as Charles Chaplin outlined in his biography of George Lucas, Lucas originally wanted to create just an ode to the television serials of the 1950s and 60s, like Flash Gordon. (41-42)
The hero also represents a level of the Allegory. If the hero is a commoner, than he/she begins at the first stage. Star Wars utilizes this with Luke Skywalker. If the hero is of royalty or a commoner with apparent super-human characteristics, then he/she begins at the second stage. Star Wars also utilizes this with the story of Anakin Skywalker. If the hero begins as a superhero or a small god, then that hero begins at the third stage. This is common in Greek hero myths, such as Hercules, and prevalent in the Norse myths, for all of the heroes within the Norse myths are gods (but their gods are naturally flawed and doomed). If the hero begins at the final stage, then there is no quest for knowledge or item, but rather a quest to save humanity, to rescue those below him (or her). This can partly be seen in the story of Christ, someone who is sent from the source to save humanity, but also takes on the second stage by beginning in this world as a metaphysical commoner. After assuming his role as the hero, the hero must then go on a journey to get an artifact or object that will save humanity in the story. In Star Wars, Luke must discover the Force and become a Jedi Knight to save both his father and the Rebel Alliance.
http://www.mrheadlee.com
http://www.vimeo.com/mrheadlee
