Luke Skywalker and the Hero's Journey.....

[poltr1]

Last month, R downloaded the Angry Birds: Star Wars game to her cell phone, and M has been playing it non-stop ever since. She has been asking me all sorts of questions about the storyline. So a couple of weeks ago, I started showing her the original trilogy (episodes IV-VI). She has now seen each of these movies at least twice.

But she still has questions, like how the Empire became "the bad guys" ("corrupt" is a better word, but not exactly in a 10-year-old's vocabulary), and how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. So I tought about showing her the prequel trilogy (episodes I-III). After 5 minutes of episode I, M got bored and said she wanted to see episode IV again.

(Yes, I'm aware of the "machete order" that one fan has proposed -- showing the episodes in this order: IV, V, II, III, VI.)


As I was watching the movies with her, I was reminded of a different, much older story: The Hero's Journey. This story dates back to the ancient Greeks. Those of you who are familiar with the works of the late Joseph Campbell are familiar with this story. There are several online references comparing and contrasting the two stories. Here are links to three of them:

http://www.mythologyteacher.com/The-Hero%27s-Journey.php

http://mythandscifi.edublogs.org/2011/02/24/luke-skywalker-and-the-hero-journey/

http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/2007/12/luke-skywalker.php