Luke Skywalker: a Modern Epic Hero
Luke Skywalker is an example of someone who embodies a modern epic hero. Skywalker is the central figure in the movie Star Wars IV A New Hope written by Gorge Lucas who reflects the values and heroic ideas of his society. Luke faces many laborious challenges throughout his journey to destroy the evil Empire. Throughout this journey, Luke stays true to himself and does not give into the thought of failure and believes in the force. Luke is tenacious, courageous, and determined to defeat the mighty evil Empire.
Luke is willing to sacrifice his own life to rescue Princess Leia. Skywalker finds Obi-Wan Kenobi and together they take R2-D2 to Alderaan, like the princess instructed. After they find a pilot, they
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discover that Alderaan is no longer there and then get sucked in to a tractor beam from the Death Star. Luke and his droids locate Princess Leia in the detention cells within the Death Star and he risks his life to save her. Skywalker almost dies rescuing the princess. Luke Skywalker feels as if completing his mission to save Princess Leia is more important than saving his own life. Luke is dramatically significant and glorified.
One example that shows he is glorified is when he receives a meat for destroying the death star, Luke Skywalker was once just a typical, normal kid who was a field hand to his uncle but later turned into the brave, courageous, determined kid of whom he is now. Luke Skywalker is capable of using the force to help him with all of his challenging battles. The force is extremely strong within in Luke Skywalker. Luke is willing to look the evil demon of fear in the eyes and take the bull by the horns. What makes Luke courage’s is that the knows it is not going to be easy, he knows its going to be very difficult, but he is still willing to help the with destroying the Death Star Also, he is by far one of the most intelligent and courageous men. Skywalker uses his intelligent brain to his advantage; he’s always out thinking his opponent. Throughout all of Luke Skywalker’s battles there is always a chance of death; however Luke is willing to risk his very own life for the rebellion and Princess Leia. Luke Skywalker figures out that the droids are being followed by the evil Empire he goes back to his home to try and rescue his uncle. He always takes charge when called upon. When Princess Leia needs assistance, he steps up and lends a helping hand to rescue her. Through every adventure Luke undertakes, he shows how courageous he actually is. Courage is what guides Skywalker into conquering his fears and destroying his …show more content…
enemies. The evil Empire is humongous and several people believe that it is completely unstoppable.
Luke on the other hand, begs to differ. The evil Empire establishes itself within the gigantic Death Star and using Darth Vader’s help, they demolish the Jedi Order. The Jedi Order has nearly been eliminated when Luke Skywalker makes the decision to help destroy the evil Empire. He gets sucked into the Death Star and captured, but he fights his way out with Princess Leia and his droids. After he escapes, he comes back with more people for the final battle. In Luke’s final battle of the Death Star, he is able to use the force and communicate with Obi-Wan Kenobi who guides him into the long hard fought battle of
victory. Luke Skywalker is a selfless hero, always putting others before himself. Luke puts his life on the line to rescue Princess Leia. Skywalker shows courage by standing up for others and fighting the evil Empire. Luke Skywalker is courageous, persistent, and brave which all characteristics of being an epic hero. Throughout the entire movie Luke shows many traits of being tenacious, courageous, and determined. Luke has superior qualities and risk’s his very own life to pursue the destruction of the evil Empire.
Star Wars also tells of a similar story; the most unlikely set of people can stop an entire evil empire. The movie begins with Princess Leia’s capture by the evil empire. In an attempt to save herself and her mission plans, she sends two robots, R2D2 and C-3PO, to deliver a message to the illusive Ben Kenobi.
He is being forced to abide by the rules in prison and at first, does not get a warm welcome by his fellow prisoners because he refuses to abide by the captains order which is simply to get their minds right. He is soon challenged to a fight by one of his fellow inmates. Throughout the fight, it is clear that Luke is being brutally beaten. He can barely stand up on his feet but he refuses to give up. To me, this is a sign of resistance of power because he does not want to just face the fact that he lost this battle.
George Washington. Aragorn. Beowulf. Captain America. Martin Luther. Han Solo. Wright Brothers. History, books, and movies are full of these types of characters. Whether they led our country to victory or saved a galaxy far far away, these people can be defined as heroes. A hero could be defined as someone who is cunning, shows justice and mercy, and has the courage to take on many challenges. In J. R. R. Tolkien’s renowned book The Hobbit, he fills the pages with many heroes. There is Thorin, King under the mountain, who has come to reclaim his home. There is Bard, a bowman, who kills the chiefest and greatest dragon Smaug. There are the mighty eagles, who rescue the dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf moments before their death. And there is also
An epic hero is character who is brave and noble, and that person is someone who carries good leadership traits and goes through an epic journey. Usually an epic hero is from an epic, and an example is Odysseus. Odysseus goes through a journey to return back to Ithaca, his homeland. In the modern era, there are epic heroes all around us. They can be in books, movies, or plays. One great example of a modern epic hero is Woody from Toy Story 3. He is confident, courageous,selfless, and humane. Woody is a toy cowboy and his owner, Andy is going off to college. Woody and his buddies get misplaced and get donated to a child day care center. There, they have to try to escape and return home, after realizing how bad the place
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.
In The Fellowship of the Ring and in the Star Wars trilogy, Frodo Baggins and Luke Skywalker, the archetypal heroes, demonstrate the heroic quality of selflessness for Frodo when he leaves the Shire then when he takes up the ring at Rivendell and finally when he attempts to leave Mordor by himself, and Luke shows selflessness when he goes to save Leia and then when he joins the Rebel Alliance and finally when he goes to redeem his father. Both Frodo and Luke demonstrate selflessness in their respective worlds with Frodo when he leaves the Shire and when Luke goes to save Leia. Leaving the Shire and accepting the mission that Gandalf gives him to bring the ring to Rivendell, Frodo shows his selflessness. He admits what he is stating “‘I am
Unlike Odysseus, Luke listens to directions carefully and tries his best to save people. When Luke was trying to defeat the Death Star, he heard Obi Wan Kenobi in his mind. Obi Wan Kenobi told Luke to believe in The Force. Luke being
In Cool Hand Luke, the movie begins with the word, VIOLATION, across the screen. The word is from a parking meter and sets the tone for the entire movie. Luke Jackson, the title character, is arrested for cutting off the heads of the town’s parking meters while drunk, or in legal terms, for destroying municipal property while under the influence of alcohol. When asked why he cut the heads off the parking meters, Luke answers, “You could say I was settling an old score.” While it leaves the viewers believing that he probably received a parking ticket at some time in the past, no clues are given to what the old score may have been.
Though Dragline had the physical advantage, Luke persevered through the beatings and had even said that he would have to be killed to be stopped. Moreover, Dragline is unable to defeat Luke and he is not allowed to kill him either. Coincidentally, Dragline leaves the ring in defeat, thus showing the whole prison that Luke has the superior authority and influence and therefore becoming the new leader (Pierson et al., 1997). Luke attempts to show that if you endure the challenges of petty authority and power [representation of Dragline], you will come out victorious and that you don’t need anything more than ‘nothing’. One of the most crucial lines of the film, spoken by the Captain, was, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate’ (Pierson et al., 1997), and was said on behalf of the non-conformity Luke had portrayed by escaping prison.
Often through great literature, there is an epic hero. In the Odyssey, Homer tells the journey of one man’s journey home from the Trojan War. The protagonist of the epic poem Odysseus is often regarded as a great hero. However, Odysseus is not quite the glorious soldier that people often see him as. Odysseus shows that he is an antihero through his pride, disloyalty, and bloodthirstiness.
Far off in a distant galaxy an infamous story would begin, A New Hope. This episode is the one that began it all and lead to one of the most influential sagas of all time. Opening with the beautiful rebel leader Princess Leia, her ship undergoes direct attack from the known and feared villain, Darth Vader. He orders his troops to look about for important documents, meanwhile Leia says her famous message into R2-D2, a droid unit “Hel...
The second time, he led his friends around the world to convince the 12 Olympians to fight for his cause, to save the world as we know it. He brought backup to where the fight was occurring to help take down the evil forces. These great deeds prove that he is a true hero.
The hero’s journey has different stages that make it up. One of those stages is known as crossing the threshold. Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars show ways that a hero crosses the threshold of their quest. In Star Wars Luke Skywalker joins a jedi named Obi-wan Kenobi on a journey away from his planet. Luke crossed the threshold when Obi-wan first took Luke to a cantina in Mos Eisley. The hero of the monomyth often faces trials after crossing the threshold. Luke faced his first
Greek mythology is a beloved part of literature that has given humans thousands of stories to tell. From stories about deadly quests, powerful deities, to the even more famed aspect of Greek Mythology, its epic heroes. One of the many authors who took inspiration from Greek Mythology, and will serve as reference for this paper, is Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. 1988. The most well known epic heroes from Greek Mythology which Edith Hamilton writes about in her book are Hercules, Jason, Perseus, and Theseus, but the debate lies in which of these heroes is the best. To which the answer is, Theseus is the better epic hero because he possessed superior strength, intelligence, and courage, he was the most just from all other heroes,
To the world today, a hero is someone distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, or strength; but really, anyone can be a hero. A hero can vary from someone as well-known as George Washington to someone as unheard of as anyone’s very own mother. Someone who has done a good deed for someone else is hero. The biggest heroes are the ones in well-known books and plays, such as Odysseus from The Odyssey, or have made a huge difference in the history of this world, like Mahatma Gandhi. Siddhartha Gautama is a hero, but not in the same way Odysseus or Gandhi are. Although these three influential people went through different journeys in order to accomplish different things, they are all heroes in their own way and have been through the same cycle of the road of trials and crisis/salvation.