The Known World in A New Hope
Even though Luke so clearly wishes for a more meaningful life beyond the constraints of his humble farm, Lucas still manages to fulfill the Refusal of the Call step, using Luke’s uncle as a plot device to beg him to stay on the farm. This step in the process is shorter than others in the film and is addressed in a short dinner conversation between Luke and his aunt and uncle. Later in the film, when Storm Troopers burn Luke’s family’s property and murder his aunt and uncle, Luke has renewed motivation to set his adventure in motion.
At this point in the cycle, Luke needs Supernatural Aid. His meeting with Obi-Wan Kenobi, where he first witnesses Leia's entire message, serves as his call to adventure and supernatural aid. In this step, the hero receives a special tool to aid them in their journey. In Luke’s case, Kenobi gifts him with a powerful lightsaber, as well as the knowledge of the Force. Although Luke receives his lightsaber early on, he is not fully trained in the Force until much later in the film (this process of learning how to use the gifts he’s been given falls under Road of Trials and the time Luke spends learning from his mentor).
The final step in the Hero’s Journey that happens on Tatooine is Crossing the First Threshold. This step is where the adventure truly begins for the hero, and is marked in A New Hope as the moment Luke leaves Tatooine and literally enters a new world on the planets he travels on, as well as the adventures he encounters while traveling onboard the Millennium Falcon. This stark contrast between worlds also highlights Campbell’s idea of the known and unknown, with everything that happens after Tatooine belonging to the unknown world for Luke. He is pushed out of his comfort zone emotionally when traveling with two new strangers (Han Solo and Chewie), and physically when the ship literally leaves Tatooine. Later in the film, we watch as Luke encounters new alien creatures he has never seen, and faces trials from enemies he would never have faced, had he remained on Tatooine. Overall, Luke’s time on Tatooine does a fantastic job of setting up his character, as well as fulfilling the opening steps of the Hero’s Journey, and paving the way for the adventure that follows
Great Post! I really like your description of how the foundations of Luke's journey are set up from his introduction. Do you think that these elements were intentionally added by George Lucas to fulfil the steps of the Hero's Journey, or do you think he wrote them in separately (because they make a good story)?
ReplyDeleteThe observation that Tatooine is like the known world and that when Luke physically leaves Tatooine it is the crossing to the unknown world is very interesting. It also made a lot of sense that Luke is also pushed out of his emotional comfort zone. Do you think this was created on purpose, or was it a byproduct of Luke leaving the known world?
ReplyDeleteI liked this blog a fair bit, and its kind of funny to me. It's funny due to how it fits with my blog, I practically said the opposite! I wrote about a similar topic and I go on about how this "crossing of the threshold" fits into the monomyth but in a totally different way that what we talked about in class. I noticed that the general consensus was similar to this idea of Tatooine being a crossing of the threshold, and I wanted to find a different analysis of the step of the monomyth. This post is really interesting to me because it shows the creative difference two authors may have yet they take different path the have the same out come. I think this could even be applicable to Siddhartha however I won't go down that rabbit hole. Overall, great post, made me think a bit deeper than most blogs.
ReplyDeleteI never made the connection that Uncle Owen was used as the mechanism of Refusal because Luke had no reason to refuse that call. That's a really good insight! I also thought your point about how his physical displacement into the Cantina and into Space reflect his emotional displacement from normality made a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteYour post does a great job connecting the key scenes from the film to the beginning steps of the Hero's Journey! Before reading your post, I hadn't really thought of Luke's conversation with his aunt and uncle as the Refusal of the Call. Since Luke was initially wary of embarking on this journey, I had thought that his conversation with his aunt and uncle simply reinforced his decision. Instead, I had thought that the Refusal of the Call was when Luke met Obi-Wan and declined Obi-Wan's offer to take Luke to Alderaan with him. But, I can now see how his conversation with his aunt and uncle represents his Refusal of the Call.
ReplyDeleteYou do a really good job of breaking down Luke's "known world" as it relates to the Hero's Journey, and your analysis shows clearly how the first part of Star Wars: A New Hope adheres to the Hero's Journey. You mention that Luke's crossing over from the known world to the unknown world in the Hero's Journey is when Luke travels to Tatooine; I might argue that this happens even before, when Luke's home (his "known world") is destroyed. However, I do like the symbolism of crossing worlds (since Luke literally travels across worlds from his home planet to Tatooine) that's in your interpretation.
ReplyDeleteOops, I just realized that Luke's home planet is Tatooine.
DeleteYou do a good job of showing all the steps on Tatooine and how Luke wants to leave and go on an adventure but is held back by his uncle. I never though about how he quite literally leaves his known world both physically and emotionally. I also never really though about the known world itself in star wars and how mundane it is.
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