Star Wars: The Magic of Myth

The curator of the Smithsonian Institution's Star Wars display presents a companion volume to the exhibit, exploring the mythological, historical, and cultural influences behind the blockbuster movie and containing hundreds of movie stills and artist sketches. Simultaneous.

As Joseph Campbell and other scholars have noted, there is a certain typical hero sequence of actions that can be found in most myths.  First, the hero must separate from the ordinary world of his or her life up to the point at which the story begins; then, in the new world through which the journey takes place, the hero must undergo a series of trials and must overcome many obstacles in order to achieve an initiation into ways of being hitherto unknown; finally, the hero returns to share what he or she has learned with others.

This story pattern can be found throughout classical mythology.  Campbell himself cites the examples of Jason--who left the cave in which he was brought up in order to search for the Golden Fleece and then returned with his prize to recapture his homeland--and Prometheus, who traveled to Mount Olympus, stole fire from the gods, and brought it back to earth.  The knights of King Arthur's Round Table set off to seek the Holy Grail, and the great figures of every major religion have each gone on a "vision quest," from Moses' journey to the mountain, to Jesus' time in the desert, Muhammad's meditations in the mountain cave, and Buddha's search for enlightenment that ended under the bodhi tree.

As these last examples show, the journey is often not just a physical adventure that takes the hero from one place to another but it is also a spiritual one, as the hero moves from ignorance and innocence to experience and enlightenment.  This is one reason why the middle leg of the journey is called "initiation"; as in the initiation rites of primitive cultures, the hero must give up the "childhood" that innocence and dependence represent and "come back as a responsible adult."  In a psychological sense, then, this is a voyage of self-discovery, an expedition whose true destination is the realm within each of us, where we must find our own unique center with all its strengths and weaknesses.  Joseph Campbell puts it this way:

"All the life-potentialities that we never managed to bring to adult realization, those other portions of ourself are there [in the internal world]; for such golden seeds do not die.  If only a portion of that lost totality could be dredged up into the light of day, we should experience a marvelous expansion of our powers, a vivid renewal of life.  We should tower in stature.  Moreover, if we could dredge up something forgotten not only by ourselves hut by our whole generation or our entire civilization, we should become indeed the boon-bringer, the culture hero of the day- a personage of not only local but world historical moment.

If we look at Luke Skywalker's story in this light, its meaning begins to glow.  Luke's journey through the three films transforms him from a rebellious and impatient teenager, itching for adventure, into a grown-up hero who has confronted his strengths and weaknesses and found the power to help save the world.  Along the way, he encounters ogres and wizards, mazes and traps-the archetypal symbols of the hero's journey.  In cracking his voyage, we will identify all the classical elements that help to make a myth of Star Wars."

But Luke's is not the only journey, the only transformation, that the Star Wars trilogy describes.  Part of the joy and fascination of this particular myth is that it is full of heroes, sometimes found in the most unlikely places.  Several of the main characters set off on a journey, encounter trials, and return profoundly changed.  We will also see how Han Solo, the princess Leia Organa, and even Darth Vader and See-Threepio go through their own transformations and discover their deeper natures.

In myth, heroes are almost always drawn from the extremes of life; they are often either princes or paupers.  Sometimes the hero is the child of distinguished parents--the father is, say, a king or a lord--but because of some difficulty surrounding the child's birth, such as a prophecy or a curse, he or she is sent far away into the wilderness or wasteland to be reared in humble circumstances.  For example, the royal twins Romulus and Remus, the eventual founders of Rome, were suckled by a wolf and reared by a shepherd.  Perseus, son of the great god Zeus and the princess DanaÙ, was brought up in a fisherman's hut until he was old enough to set out on his adventures, which included slaying the evil monster Medusa.  Similarly, at the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker is a poor farm boy, living with his foster parents, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru Lars, on the remote desert planet of Tatooine.  It will be quite some time before he discovers his royal heritage.

As the trilogy opens, Luke is like the Fool, the first card in the Tarot deck, which is an ancient fortune-telling tool.  This card shows an inexperienced youth setting out on a journey; the way ahead is unknown, and the youth is completely unaware of the dangers that await him.  In some decks, the youth may even be shown unwittingly on the verge of stepping off a high cliff. Like this archetype, Luke's character as the story begins is unformed and untested, innocent of a wider experience of the world and unaware of what lies ahead.  The hero's journey actually begins with the call to adventure, the first occurrence in a chain of events that will separate the hero from home and family.  Sometimes that call comes from within the hero's own nature, and the hero will set out of his or her own accord, but usually fate brings the call, often sending a herald-a person or animal who literally carries a message that causes the journey to begin.  In the Arthurian cycle, the herald appears as an old hermit, who visits the court of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and tells them that he who will succeed in the quest for the Holy Grail is yet unborn, but will be born before the year has passed.  Lancelot, after hearing this, leaves the court to continue on his adventure.  He comes upon an imprisoned princess, the fair Elaine, whom he frees and marries.  They beget a son, Sir Galahad, who eventually embarks on the successful quest for the Holy Grail.  And so unbeknownst to Lancelot at the time (and to the other knights at the Round Table), the old hermit had indeed set him on his inevitable life's course.  Usually the hero does not initially recognize the hand of fate at work; the precipitating crisis appears accidental or even commonplace, even though it represents the opening of the hero's life into a world of unsuspected power and danger.

In Star Wars the story begins with a damsel in distress and a message gone astray: Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio set out to carry Leia's plea for help to Jedi Knight Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi on the planet of Tatooine, but they are waylaid by Jawa scavengers who roam the planet searching for junk to sell.  The Jawas take the droids to the Lars homestead, unintentionally becoming the hand of fate that brings the princess's message-and the call to adventure-to young Luke.

Traditionally a herald was the messenger of a royal personage; now we use the word to mean not only someone who brings news but also someone "who precedes or foreshadows," a presage or harbinger.  Artoo-Detoo satisfies both these definitions, for he will not only make known to Luke the existence of the princess but is also an omen of events to come.  While he is humble and unremarkable, the little droid carries within his "rusty innards" the plans for the Galactic Empire's battle station, the Death...