The Role Of The Hero's Journey In Star Wars

One of the most watched movies, Star Wars: A New Hope and a children's book, The Rainbow Fish, both have something in common. They both have a hero follow the Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell wrote “Hero with a Thousand Faces”, which explains how heros in every story follow the concept of the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey has the hero follow a Departure, Initiation, and Return. Whether the storyline has one of the most complex or the most simple stories, it will follow the Hero’s Journey. In Star Wars: A New Hope, by George Lucas, Luke Skywalker takes responsibility as the hero that follows Campbell’s Hero’s Journey with a departure, initiation, and return.

Luke Skywalker enters the departure, the first phase of Campbell’s hero’s journey.

Luke gets introduced as a “normal” plantation farmer on Tatooine. He learns of the new world, that he does not want to become involved with, when he hears of stories about the empire. One day, his family buys two droids, R2-D2 and C3P0. While cleaning R2, Luke accidentally activates his call to adventure. He activates a hologram of Princess Leia asking for help from Obi-wan Kenobi. Luke decides to go and find Obi-wan with C3P0 and R2, now the heralds because they delivered the call to action. Eventually they find him and Obi-wan asks Luke to join him and to train as a Jedi, but Luke refuses and says that he does not want to get involved with the empire and needs to help his aunt and uncle with the harvest. After Luke refuses the call, they return to his home to find his aunt and uncle supposedly killed by the empire. This causes Luke to answer the call and accepts Obi-wan’s offer. Luke trains under Obi-wan, now his mentor, as a padawan. During this time, Luke receives his talisman, his father’s lightsaber. Then, they go to a bar to find Han Solo, the shapeshifter because he seems to change sides, and Chewbacca for help to cross the threshold. Luke and his new allies, along with his mentor and heralds, enter the belly of the whale. They are stopped by the threshold guardians, which are the stormtroopers that ambush them. Eventually, they get to the millennium falcon, and escape Tatooine. Luke Skywalker exits the departure and enters Campbell's next phase, the initiation.
During Campbell’s second phase of the hero’s journey, Luke enters the initiation.

On the way to the Death Star, Luke begins his road of trials by starting his Jedi training. This will cause him to face the temptation of the dark side, throughout the rest of his training. Finally, they reach the death star and enter the dragon battle, in which they fight stormtroopers and rescue Princess Leia. When Luke finds Leia in a prison cell, which has him meeting a goddess. She has qualities like a goddess, like her beauty and power. She is a princess, so she has a lot of power. During the escape Obi-wan is spotted fighting Darth Vader, the shadow. To the other characters, not much is known about Darth Vader. He has the mission of trying to capture Luke, the hero. Obi-wan knows that his time is up and he needs to step aside, letting Luke finish the quest on his own. He lets Vader kill him, but later on in the trilogy becomes a mentor again. This also happens to be when Luke and Vader see each other during atonement with the father. Vader knows that Luke is his son, but Luke does not know that Vader is his father. He finds out later in the trilogy. Luke has a moment of refusal of the return because he wants to stay and help Obi-wan. He finally decides to leave when Han Solo says, “Luke, come on!”. In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke follows the departure, the first stage of the hero’s

journey.
In the final stage of the hero’s journey, Luke follows the return.

In the climax of the movie, Luke attacks the Death Star, and Darth Vader ambushes him. Everything seems to be hopeless, and he thinks that he failed his mission, but Han Solo comes to the rescue. He chases Vader away as a part of the rescue from without. On the way back, they escape the explosion of the Death Star, which is the magic flight or pursuit. Also, the Millennium Falcon destroys the remaining pursuing TIE fighters during the crossing of the return threshold. Luke becomes the master of two worlds, during the victory ceremony. He conquered the new world by destroying the Death Star. This saved all of the other planets, including Tatooine, Luke’s old world. This gives Luke, and the rest who opposed the Empire, safety and freedom. This is literally the freedom to live. They do not have to face the fear of the Death Star and possibly dying in a second. Finally, when Luke becomes a Jedi during the apotheosis. Luke follows the return in Star Wars: A New

Hope.
George Lucas represents Campbell’s hero’s journey in Star Wars: A New Hope with Luke Skywalker as the hero. Luke goes through the departure, initiation, and return, the three phases in the hero’s journey. This exact same concept of the hero’s journey can be found in almost every story. No matter the culture or origin of a story, it will have the journey. Even the most complex stories like Star Wars and the most simple stories like The Rainbow Fish have something in common, Campbell’s hero’s journey.