Archetypes, which are universal patterns, symbols, and themes, were first applied to literature by the psychologist Carl Jung. The philosopher Joseph Campbell then took Jung’s ideas and developed and elaborated upon the concept of the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is a literary structure applied to stories where a hero goes on an adventure that changes them along the way. Campbell’s book on the subject, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, inspired George Lucas to come up with the premise behind Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, in 1977. A New Hope opens with a Rebel spacecraft being apprehended and boarded by the leader of the unforgiving Empire, Darth Vader. The Rebel ship holds the plans to the Empire’s brand new weapon, the Death Star. Princess Leia, a member of the Rebellion, places the plans into a droid named R2-D2, along with a message. R2-D2 and another robot, C3-PO, leave the ship in an escape pod, and land on the desert planet of Tatooine. The droids are captured by Jawas, a scavenger species native to Tatooine, and sold to Luke Skywalker’s uncle.
Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of A New Hope, works for his Uncle Owen on a moisture farm, but is not content with being on Tatooine for the rest of his life. While Luke is cleaning the droids, he discovers part of Princess Leia’s message, meant
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Since there is nothing left for him on Tatooine, he agrees to leave with Obi-Wan. The two go to the Mos Eisley spaceport in search of finding a ride to Alderaan, so they can deliver the plans to the the Rebels. The pair meet and then hire Han Solo and Chewbacca to fly them to Alderaan on Han’s spaceship, the Millennium Falcon. As Luke is boarding the Millenium Falcon, stormtroopers appear and try to prevent him from leaving by shooting at him. The stormtroopers are unsuccessful, and the group begins the journey to
In movies, novels, and life, people are named as heroes. The heroes we establish and the heroes we recognize, however, may not meet the criteria for a mythic hero. A mythic hero ventures forth on his journey, and comes forth from the hero’s path to greatness. Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who studied many of the great human myths and religious tales, realized, in studying these myths and tales, that there were certain steps that every hero went through. Campbell called this “The Hero’s Journey”; it is based on Carl Jung's idea that all human beings have an archetype.
The popular film from 1977 known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope written and directed by George Lucas, there are many uses of archetypes, which include use of the colors blue and green in light sabers, and the color gold in the character, Luke Skywalker’s, clothing at the end of the movie. The use of these colors throughout the movie help to show the heroic cycle of Luke Skywalker by bringing out the changes he goes through from his purity, to his rebirth, and then finally when Luke gains wisdom from his journey.
Luke’s return most certainly takes place at the end of the movie. It seems all might be lost as Darth Vader has wiped out all the fighters except for Luke. Darth is moving Luke into his sights when Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon appear and remove all threats to Luke’s safety.
Carl Jung was a disciple of Sigmund Freud, despite the two having conflicting ideas. One of Jung’s most well known and accepted theories was the existence of different types of archetypes in the brain. These include the ego, which is where our conscious awareness and sense of identity reside, and the shadow, which is the part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. In the novel A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the protagonist Gene exemplifies the shadow, while his friend, Finny, personifies the ego. The author narrates through the shadow, though he clearly supports the ego. However, he also makes it apparent that it is wrong to be dominated by either archetype.
Many heroes have to defeat a threshold guardian. In Luke Skywalker’s case, Darth Vador is that threshold guardian. When the Rebels are trying to destroy the death star, Luke is faced with the difficulty of choosing between trusting the Force or a machine to help him dodge Darth Vador’s laser blasts. Han Solo and his sidekick, Chewbacca, play a role in helping Luke here. They surprisingly reappear in their junky pirate ship and shoot down one of Vador’s wingmen. Vador’s other wingman is startled by the oncoming ship and swerves into Darth Vador’s ship damaging one of his wings and sending him spinning out into space.
Throughout the years, certain writers were able to set off a deep sympathetic resonance within readers by their usage of archetypal patterns. One of those patterns is known as the hero's journey, which Joseph Campbell gave an understandable idea of in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. According to his book, while comparing world's mythology, he found that no matter how far cultures are from each other, they will still have the same structure of hero's journey in their legends (Voytilla vii).
He introduces Lone Star to the power known as the Schwartz which he later uses to defeat Dark Helmet. Vespa is once again captured and her dad, King Roland ends up giving the code. With the code Dark Helmet unlocks the shield and transforms his ship into “Mega Maid”, a giant robot with a vacuum to suck out all of the air from Druidia. While all this happening Lone Starr and Barf continue to try to rescue Princess Vespa as well as destroy Mega Maid. In comparison to “Star Wars” there is a critical light saber fight between Dark Helmet and Lone Starr due the prevention of Lone Starr getting to the self destruct button for the ship. Lone Starr looses his saber but still defeats Dark Helmet by using the shwarts. Lone Starr races back to the ship that is occupied by Barf, Princess Vespa and Dot, before the ship self destructs. As they escape in a nick of time the people of the ship frantically pack into the escape pods except for Lord Dark Helmet, President Skoob, and Colonel Sandurz. They get blasted into space along with the remains of the
Theme of Top Gun is that we as humans will stick together to support or fight a common cause, because in the movie Top Gun Maverick has to find the love of his life, get over his friend's death and has to fight with his academy enemy to help save people's lives. The archetypes of this movie are hero, mentor, and innocent. Maverick is a hero, Viper is the mentor because he is the Top Gun instructor and helps everybody with their flying and lessons. Goose is the innocent because he does nothing wrong yet he ends up dieing because of a problem with the plane.
The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative that appears in novels, storytelling, myth, and religious ritual. It was first identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell in his book A Hero with Thousand Faces. Campbell also discussed this pattern in his interview to Bill Moyers which was later published as a book The Power of Myths. This pattern describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds. Campbell detailed many stages in the Hero’s Journey, but he also summarized the pattern in three fundamental phases: Separation, Ordeal, and Return that all heroes, in spite of their sex, age, culture, or religion, have to overcome in order to reach the goal. Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, provides a good example of the Hero's Journey. This story describes the adventures of Alice, a young English girl, in Wonderland. Although she lacks some of the stages identified by Campbell, she still possesses many of them that are necessary for a Hero to be considered a Hero.
Cool Hand Luke was based on the experiences of Lucas Jackson, a war hero who returned to the United States. Lucas is sentenced to prison after he is caught drunkenly cutting the heads off of parking meters for no apparent reason. For this offense, Lucas is given a sentence of two years at a notorious Florida prison camp run by a hard-core warden. Initially, Lucas is not well liked by either the guards or inmates due to the fact that he sees himself as an independent and ignores the pecking order in the prison. The reputation of Lucas begins to change when he shows resilience in a boxing match with Dragline, the alpha male inmate. His reputation is cemented when he bluffs at poker with a losing hand, earning him the name “Cool Hand Luke”. From this point forward Luke is revered by the other inmates and looked at as a leader and role model.
Psychologist Carl Jung proposed that humankind has a collective unconscious, which is manifested in myths and dreams, which harbors themes and images that all humans inherit. Carl Jung’s proposal about the collective unconscious is expressed when archetypal and mythological criticism applies to literary works (Archetypal Criticism). Neverwhere is a novel written by Neil Gaiman, which is heavily influenced by archetypal and mythological concepts. Neverwhere is the story of a young man who tries to help an injured girl named Door on the street, when he soon realizes that this is no ordinary person that he has come across and he has to go into the underworld to get her help. Richard goes to get her help from a man in the underworld named Marquis
Many of the stories that have been told for centuries, or have recently been created, incorporate the story of a young innocent character who embarks on a journey and becomes a hero, known as The Hero’s Journey; a series of steps that all heroes follow. This journey not only shows the main character becoming a hero but also shows the hero move along a path similar to that of adolescence, the path between childhood and maturity. The Hero’s Journey was created by a man by the name of Joseph Campbell. He wrote a book called The Hero with One Thousand Faces, a novel containing a variety of stories that follow the steps of the Hero’s Journey. One famous creation that follows The Hero’s Journey is the science fiction film trilogy: Star Wars, created by George Lucas. Lucas depicts the struggles that take place along the path of adolescence through the story of a protagonist Luke Skywalker, who strives to become a Jedi Knight to show that Campbell’s Hero’s Journey reflects the struggles that youth go through whether they are depicted in a story or not.
The constant theme throughout this movie is the battle between good and evil, right and wrong, and light and dark. Anakin Skywalker is the main protagonist throughout this film. There is an internal fight going on within him concerning what side of the force he should follow. The light side means he would have to allow Padme, his wife, to die. The dark side would allow him to save her or at least have the fear of losing her. He slowly starts to turn to the dark side with guidance from Darth Sidious (Chancellor Palpatine). Anakin believes he is doing the right thing which in turn will save Padme from dying in childbirth.
Star Wars is well known for its amazing stories and characters. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope portrays the established Hollywood’s narrative style through its plot. Princess Lia is held hostage by Dark
Although Star Wars takes place "in a galaxy far, far away," that does not mean that it is not significant or that it cannot be used to help us better understand our own society. Star Wars has had an enormous impact on our society and our popular culture. Just as anthropologists study other cultures, which in turn helps them better understand their own cultures, we can better understand ourselves by studying how technology is represented in this far-off place. By studying ...