Archetypes In A New Hope

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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 …show more content…

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

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