Star Wars: A Hero's Journey

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One of the most prominent figure in mythology study was Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist. In 1949, he published a book titled The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In this book, he claimed that all heros in the myth have common characteristics and they usually all go through a same journey to be heroes. He also called his idea as a monomyth, titled A Hero’s Journey. In 1979, George Lucas read his book and became influenced by the theory Campbell proposed in his book. As a consequence, he created a scientific fiction movie Star Wars:A New Hope, which exemplifies as a modern expression of Campbell’s monomyth. Furthermore, Luke Skywalker, the hero George created in the movie truly echoes with Greek and Roman heroes in mythologies; as well as …show more content…
At the beginning of this stage, heros always refuse to end his journey because of some particular important reasons. In Luke’s case, he didn’t want to return back to meet the Princess because he want to avenge for Obi-Wan Kenobi, who saved him from Darth Vader and sacrificed for him. In the myth of Romulus and Remus, after Romulus accomplished his task, he also refused to go back to live in the city of his grandfather Amulius, instead he wants to build a city which became city of Rome. In these two cases, antagonist often made hero refuse to return since there’s crucial connections between them and the heroes. Moreover, after accomplishing the task, the heroes always serves as the master between their physical world and the spiritual world. For Luke, after defeating the First Order, he not only became the commander of the Rebellion, but also he became more dexterous at using and controlling force in this journey. Similarly, after accomplishing all twelve labors, Heracles gained his awards- immortality and possessed both physical and spiritual body. Lastly, after all the journey of a hero, they finally have the freedom to live. For instance, in Luke’s case, he had the opportunity to live with the rebellion and start another journey. As for Perseus, it occurs much earlier in his life. Specifically, he got his ability to live on the world when Danae was locked in the chamber. He made noise to get people’s attention thence wait for the rescue. This stage usually occurs somewhere in hero’s journey and it marks the start of a new journey. In general, Luke Skywalker in Star Wars:A New Hope portrays himself as a hero and his journey of growing as a hero definitely corresponds to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth: A Hero’s Journey. More importantly, he also resembles with numerous Greek and Roman heroes in Classical Mythologies that share the same characteristics and the journey of a
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