Friday, January 31, 2014

Munoz: Two Heros Star Wars The Trilogy

Andres Munoz
Blog Prompt Week 4
Star Wars: The Trilogy


Being a hero are the fantasies of many people in which you want to become that one person with powers beyond imagine helping the people in need and or the damsel in distress. But other people just want to do the right thing these ideologies are described by Joseph Campbell in, The Civic Hero and the Contemplative Hero where he describes that there could be more than one hero fighting for the same cause. The only difference and what we can see in the Star Wars: The Trilogy are the phases or steps to become not only that hero but also the ending of the journey will be different for each hero. Han Solo is clearly the civic hero; the change that proved that Solo could become a hero in the community was when his self-serving desires became the needs of the community and the protection of them. Han Solo as well will be part of the community after the fight against evil is finished considering he has no higher vision to keep fighting for therefore could just savor the victory with the community and continue with their daily lives. For the contemplative hero there is a higher purpose and a spiritual journey. After the victory against evil the hero wouldn’t take credit for the victory and the contemplative hero will often seek to destroy the source of the evil rather than the soldiers and numerous followers of the darkside.  In Star Wars we believe that Luke will become a hermit as Ben Kenobi conserving the force for when the time to teach others the way of the force he would do the necessary even sacrificing for the higher purpose as Kenobi did. Joseph Campbell says that there is a cycle, which the hero takes which is the departure, initiation and return. 

The call of adventure both happens for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, which they both rejected and then at some point accepted even though it took three movies for Solo to accept his call as a civic hero. Departure we could say as well it occurs for both characters considering we don’t know where Solo is from he travels a lot and we guess he departed and let everything behind him, even leaving his life of smuggler to help Luke. Luke in the other hand departs from his home and family.  In departure Luke does have a spiritual guide which teaches him the way of the force, where as Solo lived a life of solitude therefore not having a spiritual guide though having a friend when he is need Chewbacca. The crossing of the threshold where both Luke and Solo partake is the final step to departure. Initiation is something that both Solo and Luke go through though in different times but eventually accept and face. In the phase of initiation they have a lot of obstacles, which they have to fight against such as the darkside and its temptations and Solo refusing to fight with the rebellion. Finally the Return which we don’t really see in the trilogy though we do see how the victory have an effect on all the planet systems, the victory even showed how a native planet with the ewoks could now live in peace and have a fertile life and a fertile planet. The final scene we see the higher purpose of Luke being achieved though he doesn’t fit in the community not because he doesn’t want to but because his powers and knowledge isn’t necessary at the moment so he will become a hermit, for Solo everything turned out perfect where he got the girl, the respect of the community and their acceptance where they can live in peace till evil appears again.

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