May the Fourth be with you!

Star Wars & The Hero's Journey

How Joseph Campbell influenced modern storytelling

Happy Star Wars Day, everyone!  May the Fourth (and the Force) be with you on this fine day!  Did you know that George Lucas, Almighty Father of Star Wars, was inspired by a particular book when he was working on drafts of the original episodes of his epic, Star Wars?  That book was Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces.  Building upon the works of Adolph Bastian, who first theorized that stories all share common elements, and Carl Jung, who defined and named those elements archetypes, Campbell took Jung's archetypes and after studying myths from various cultures throughout history found the story pattern that unites them.  He called this pattern 'The Hero's Journey,' and Star Wars follows this pattern to a 'T'.  To better understand how Star Wars works within the scope of Campbell's work, let's take a closer look at the Hero's Journey, which is composed of three sections and seventeen parts.  The sections are called The Departure, The Initiation, and The Return.  Each of these sections has five or six parts.  Just to be clear, these parts do not necessarily have to take place in chronological order, and some sections have events occur before and inbetween preceding parts.  To begin, let's dissect The Departure.  For reference to younger readers, we're discussing the original movie, Star Wars: A New Hope as well as the sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

The Departure is called such for its reference to the Hero leaving what's comfortable for the world of the Super-Natural, according to Campbell.  This begins with 'The Call to Adventure.'  In stories, this relates to whatever quest the Hero must undergo, and how it begins to pull the Hero along.  Star Wars has Luke being asked by Obi-Wan Kenobi to help him save Princess Leia and bring R2-D2, a little droid holding the secret to defeating the Empire's Super Weapon, to the Rebels.  That call is what would bring Luke away from his life as a humble moisture farmer and into the greater, mystical world that awaits him in that galaxy far, far away.  That same call introduces one of the archetypes Campbell borrowed from Jung, the Mentor.  That Mentor is Obi-Wan, and is often the one who guides the Hero along the beginning of the quest, as well as giving some sort of item or advice that will help him later on.  Here it's the light saber that belonged to his father.  In the movie, the Call to Adventure is followed immediately by the next part of the Departure section: the Refusal of the Call.  Here the hero decides against leaving the life he knows, usually using some other obligation or fear as the reason.  Luke, knowing his Uncle Owen needs him despite years of promises to be allowed to leave, tells Obi-Wan just that.  Even though Luke has been wanting to fight against the Empire for years, this sudden option to do just that causes him to second guess, and he tries to remain.  But fate intervenes and forces Luke to go with Obi-Wan when his Aunt and Uncle are murdered by Imperial soldiers.

 "I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father."

Supernatural Aid is the next part of the Departure section, and in Star Wars it is intermingled with the last two.  Obi-Wan, the mentor to Luke, arrives in time to aide Luke when he is attacked by Tusken Raiders (Sand People).  This is also the part of the story when the mentor would pass on his token or piece of wisdom to the hero, which he does upon giving Luke the lightsaber.  The next part puts us back in order after the Refusal, with Crossing the Threshold.  With all that tied Luke to Tatooine now gone, Luke goes to Mos Eisley, and after a bit of trouble from some of the "scum and villainy" Obi-Wan warned about, meets Han Solo, Captain of the Millennium Falcon.  This leads to a classic mythical element, following the lone animal into the enchanted forest.  Not one of the parts of the journey, many myths and stories include the hero pursuing something that leads him into the unknown, and possibly danger.  This occurs in Star Wars when the Millennium Falcon chases a lone TIE Fighter right into the clutches of the Death Star, after arriving to at the obliterated remains of Alderaan.  This chase leads us into the next part of the Departure, the Belly of the Whale.  It is here, trapped inside the Death Star, that Luke fully accepts the Call by choosing to rescue Leia, despite Obi-Wan and Han telling him to do nothing, and waiting for Obi-Wan to return.  Attacking the detention center and making it to Leia's cell, the Hero and his companions are forced into a Trash Compactor to escape a group of Stormtroopers, landing Luke quite literally in the 'belly' of the Death Star.  Whether he likes it or not, Luke's no longer the farm boy who raced Skyhoppers through Beggar's Canyon.  He has departed from his old life, and has answered the Call.

"Great, Kid.  Don't get cocky."

The next section of the Journey, The Initiation, takes us back to just before the Belly of the Whale with The Road of Trials.  In this part, Luke is practicing some of the skills he would later master by trying to block stinging blasts from a dummy droid.  This part also continues after Luke & Co. escape from the Death Star, as Luke gets his first taste of space combat at the controls of one of the Falcom's two quad-cannon turrets.  This section is sometimes shown in movies with the 'training montage,' made famous in such films as Rocky (All of them).  Usually, though, the training is somewhat more involved than what is shown in Star Wars.  In literature, the training can span several chapters, often address most if not all of the skills the hero will be using.  

This usually leads to the Meeting of the Goddess, which can have multiple meanings.  If Star Wars was a complete story and did not have sequels that further expanded the story, Luke meeting Leia and seeing her for the first time would be the aforementioned Meeting, as this part has the connotation of the Hero meeting a love interest.  Now any veteran fan knows Leia and Luke are siblings (40 year old spoiler alert?), however in the film (as a stand alone story) Luke clearly has feelings for her.  However, Leia also represents a powerful figure in the Rebellion, and as one of its leaders, she also represents someone capable of bestowing a boon.  This Goddess can also represent the goal of the quest.  Campbell's exact language on the matter is unclear of how important the love-interest aspect is to the overarching theme, but Leia represents a lot to Luke, given she is the reason for his Departure in the first place.

What's next can be confusing, given what precedes it, and it is actually not clearly portrayed in Star Wars but in The Empire Strikes Back.  It's called  can be referred to as Woman as Temptress, or Temptation away from the true path.  Given we were just talking about a woman being the goal of the Hero's Journey, this temptress can also be a woman.  Literature and myth are full of stories of the seductive demon or sorcerer who seeks to kill, enslave, or otherwise cause the hero to fail his quest by accepting her as a reward.  The Iliad and the Aeneid both have their hero's encounter one (if not dozens) of women just begging the hero to stay with them forever, despite it meaning all sorts of bad things for the hero's friends and family.  In Star Wars, however, it is the Dark Side of the Fourth- I mean Force.  Now these temptations most obviously occur in the sequels, in Star Wars itself, Luke's temptation is short but intense.  Having to watch his mentor, Obi-wan, battle the ultimate evil of the movie, Darth Vader, as well as watching him be slain by said evil, Luke finds himself wanting to avenge Obi-Wan with an intense rage.  While brief, Luke's rage leads him to kill several stormtroopers who happened to be between him and Vader, despite the villain marching straight for the heros.  It is only Obi-Wan, now "more powerful than [Vader] could possibly imagine," that can push Luke back to the path, urging him to run instead of staying, fighting in vain against a villain that can not yet be conquered.

The next part is also not directly in Star Wars, Atonement with the Father.  

Before I go on, I'm going to tell you that if by some stroke of fate you don't know what I'm about to talk about already.  Please stop reading.  I'm about to ruin one of the best moments for first time viewers of the Star Wars Sage.  You have been warned.  But seriously, unless you're a toddler, why haven't you seen these movies?  They just released a new one!  It's great!  Go watch them!  #ReySkywalker2016

One of Luke's original motivations for going with Obi-Wan is learning more about his father.  Obi-Wan tells Luke that he knew him, and even gave him his Father's lightsaber.  He also told Luke that Darth Vader 'destroyed' Anakin Skywalker.  (Here comes the spoiler)  So it isn't until 

Last warning

Darth Vader says, "No, I am your father," as Luke hangs by one arm in The Empire Strikes Back, and then after Luke nearly kills Vader in Return of the Jedi, does any sort Atonement occur.  Only when Luke defiantly announces to the Emperor, "I am a Jedi, like my father before me," does Luke find atonement with his father, and then again as Vader admits to Luke, "You were right about me," in regards to Luke believing that his father still has good in him.  According to Campbell, the atonement does not have to be literally a father and son reconciling.  The idea has more to do with whatever holds the most influence over the Hero.  For instance, Odysseus reconciling with his wife after being gone for so long.  It does often involve beings, however, and does end up commonly being represented by the Hero and someone close to him or her.  Here are some of Campbell's exact words on the concept:

"Atonement consists in no more than the abandonment of that self-generated double monster—the dragon thought to be God (superego) and the dragon thought to be Sin (repressed id). But this requires an abandonment of the attachment to ego itself, and that is what is difficult. One must have a faith that the father is merciful, and then a reliance on that mercy. Therewith, the center of belief is transferred outside of the bedeviling god's tight scaly ring, and the dreadful ogres dissolve. It is in this ordeal that the hero may derive hope and assurance from the helpful female figure, by whose magic (pollen charms or power of intercession) he is protected through all the frightening experiences of the father's ego-shattering initiation. For if it is impossible to trust the terrifying father-face, then one's faith must be centered elsewhere (Spider Woman, Blessed Mother); and with that reliance for support, one endures the crisis—only to find, in the end, that the father and mother reflect each other, and are in essence the same. The problem of the hero going to meet the father is to open his soul beyond terror to such a degree that he will be ripe to understand how the sickening and insane tragedies of this vast and ruthless cosmos are completely validated in the majesty of Being. The hero transcends life with its peculiar blind spot and for a moment rises to a glimpse of the source. He beholds the face of the father, understands—and the two are atoned." 

After the Atonement comes the Apotheosis, which again occurs in Jedi, and it involves Luke finally going all in on the Jedi business.  We see him arrive at the palace of Jabba the Hutt, using the Force to gain an audience with the mighty gangster.  We see him calm, focused, and knowing full well what must be done.  He has moved on to being a master of his super natural world, in this case the Force, and is ready to return to the physical one, in this case coming to rescue his friend.  In some works, this involves either a physical or spiritual death, from which the Hero is then reborn anew with the knowledge or power to complete his goal.  Another way one might look at the Apotheosis, then, could be that the deaths of Aunt and Uncle on Tatooine was Luke's Apotheosis, as he decided to become a Jedi from that moment onward.

What follows the Apotheosis is the Ultimate Boon, which is usually the goal of the quest.  In the Argonaut legends, one of these is the Golden Fleece which would grant Jason, their leader, a kingship.  For Luke, it is the defeat of the Empire, which is represented by the destruction of the Death Star.  Twice.  Three times if you count Star Killer Base.  But I digress.  It could also be said that the death of the Emperor is another Ultimate Boon, especially since that was part of the goal of Luke's quest.  In some stories, like those of King Arthur, the Boon is something transcendental, like the Holy Grail of Christ.  In The Lord of the Rings, that boon is literally peace for the world, achieved by (SPOILER ALERT) destroying the Ring.  (Seriously guys that book is almost as old as Star Wars.)  Regardless which story you read, the Boon is always the goal of the quest, whether it's slaying the dragon, saving the princess, finding the McGuffin, or saving the world.  

The final section of the Journey is The Return, where the Hero goes 'home' with the boon to share it with his world.  Now since movies generally End with the Boon, or shortly thereafter, the final section of the Star Wars Hero's Journey gets a shuffled around at the end of the movies.  For instance, the first part of The Return is the Refusal of the Return.  Mirroring the Refusal of the Call the Hero is now master of his domain, and may not wish to return to the realm of mortals.  In Star Wars, that refusal is a bit more emotionally involved.  Unwilling to abandon his dying father after finally making nice with the once very evil man that was Darth Vader, Luke nearly refuses to leave the exploding Death Star in order to save his father.  Another Refusal of the Return is actually more interesting to think about because it's quite the opposite of a Return.  If Luke had stayed with Yoda and completed his training the first time, in Empire, it could be said the power and knowledge he would have attained in that Apotheosis would have done more for the people he is fighting for (everyone not wearing a gray scale uniform for the Empire) than going off to try and save Han and Leia did, and that his Refusal to Stay is his real Refusal of the Return.  Essentially, the concept is that the Hero, now with the power/knowledge/item needed to complete his quest, now considers keeping it for himself.  Essentially, it is a second temptation to abandon the Hero part of the Journey.

After the Refusal is the Magic Flight.  Campbell describes it as necessary for the Hero to have this as part of the Journey if the Boon he sought was something guarded jealously by the powers that be, though it can also be a journey empowered by those he sought to get the boon from.  In Star Wars, the Magical Flight is essentially any time a character goes from one world to another, usually care of hyperspace.  In particular, the Millennium Falcon is the usual way these characters transport themselves, whether the trip be dangerous or not.

The next part, which is more common that the Flight, is the Rescue from Without.  Essentially, the Hero requires assistance from either a supernatural or mundane source in order to recover from the ordeals of the quest.  For instance, Lando and Leia saving Luke after his encounter with Vader in Empire, or Han intervening at the last second in Star Wars as Vader was about to fire upon Luke's X-Wing.  The idea is that the Hero may be unable or unwilling to return to the natural world, and the world has to come and get him.

The next part of the Journey is Crossing the Return Threshold.  Here a hero is meant to overcome the desire to remain in the supernatural world by accepting that the real world is, well, real and the place he belongs.  He's meant to bring whatever boon the Gods (or whatever) gave him and share it with the world.  But the hero is faced with having to figure out how to share said boon with a world totally wrapped up in it's own quests, which are implied to be self serving as opposed to the Hero's goal for mutual benefit.  While a perfect example of this in the original Star Wars trilogy is hard to identify for Luke, one might be when Luke puts his father to rest, leaving behind the power offered by the Dark Side, and joining his friends.  Another might be Luke taking the knowledge he gained from Yoda after his death and rejoin his friends in order to help destroy the second Death Star.  More traditionally, it can be represented by a hero like Odysseus who must venture into the world of the after life and come back to the realm of the living in order to continue his journey home.  

The penultimate part is the Master of Two Worlds.  This is when we see Luke, surrounded by friends and comrades, make peace with the ghosts of his fellow Jedi, before leaving them to be present in the celebrations of the living.  Essentially, here the Hero has found his place in both worlds, being competent in them as the Hero.  Sometimes the Hero ends up in a position to use his boon to help people, either as a king or leader, or in Luke's case, a great teacher.  Sadly, if you take into account the Force Awakens, that does not end well, but you can't blame the hero for the weakness of others.

Finally we finish with the Freedom to Live.  This is implied to mean a freedom from the fear of death, allowing a person to "live in the moment," something that is pushed for by the Jedi in the prequels.  That lack of fear allows a person to live by not having to worry about the future nor the past, and enjoy what's happening to them.  This is representative by the heroic victory overall, and not by any particular action.  It is an idealistic interpretation of what a successful Heroic Journey's completion is supposed to bring about.  Again, referencing The Force Awakens, we know this does not last, and Campbell implies this is fated to happen, thus perpetuating the Journey.

Overall, Campbell's Journey is very prevalent in movies and literature, if you look for it.  This has led to no end of criticism of the idea, from it being so vague it lacks meaning to being more interested in making everything seem the same instead of any interesting discussion on the differences.  I could write an equally long blog about that, but for today, I wanted to present how Star Wars works with this framework, considering that Lucas actively studied Campbell's work in order to provide a structure for his story to stand on.

Thanks for reading!  This is easily my longest post.  If you read the whole thing you rock.  I am going to be talking some more about Campbell's work, as well as Jung's, in an upcoming post about archetypes.  I'll also be discussing what they have to do with my work, specifically.  While I am not trying to make my story fit Campbell's model, it will no doubt share in all seventeen parts in some way by the very nature of Campbell's attempt at a universal story model.  That said, I am not a slave to Campbell, and will have something interesting due to its own merits.  Best wishes!