Romantic Hero's: Luke Skywalker

-

    One of the vocab words that jumped out at me this week, was the idea of a “romantic hero”. An archetype where the main character blazes their path, relying on their feeling and intuition over the better judgment of themselves and others. The best representation of this archetype is in Star Wars, specifically Luke Skywalker.

Luke Skywalker starts as this bright-eyed farm boy, seeking an escape from his outer rim world, unaware of all the struggles between tyranny and liberty throughout the rest of the galaxy. The iconic shot of him looking out into the setting sun of Tatooine showcases the emergence of many traits of romantic heroes, an innate sense of duty, and going to the norm of society around them.

Luke looks off into the distance, longing for adventure

As the movie progresses, so does Luke, meeting Obi-Wan, the old sage who mentors the young Jedi and begins to guide him on this epic journey of realizing his true purpose in the larger galaxy. He learns to wield the Force and how to become a Jedi Knight. His main goal is to rescue Leia, a princess who has been captured by the evil Galactic Empire. He confronts the Galactic Empire and the fearsome leader, Darth Vader, who commands the Death Star, a powerful battle station that hosts the power to destroy worlds. Eventually, he rescues the princess from the clutches of the Empire and blows up the Death Star, saving the galaxy by embracing his role as a Jedi.


    This entire story parallels many of the pioneers of the fantasy genre and the romantic hero archetype, beginning with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan fills the role of the old wizard who teaches Luke the magical powers of the “Force”, which relies on the wielder letting go of rational thought and focusing on intuition. The damsel in distress is filled by Princess Leia, who has fallen into the clutches of Darth Vader, who fulfills the role of the epic “dragon” that the hero must defeat. In the end, the way that the hero achieves victory isn’t through the traditional use of “guidance systems” rather it’s through the Force, focusing on their inner thoughts and feelings. 

Luke learns to let go and let the force guide him to destroy the Death Star


Comments

  1. Nathan WangSeptember 29, 2024 at 6:02 PM

    Great post Johnny! I especially liked the last paragraph where you mentioned that "guidance systems" didn't lead to his ultimate success; instead, his inner thoughts lead him to victory. Even if guidance systems make us feel comfortable, even if the rules under which we are governed make us feel safe-sometimes we need to listen to ourselves over the overwhelming voices of others.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2024 at 6:16 PM

    I liked how you took a word from our vocab and expanded on it connecting your own life with what we learned in class. Your summary allowed for a proper understanding of your conclusion - that victory isn’t always achieved with traditional guidance systems.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Awareness In Water

-
 David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This is Water”, advocates for an awareness of our consciousness and perspective in day-to-day life. He claims that avoiding our “self-centric” nature and focusing on more positive alternatives keeps us grounded and allows us to master our thinking. When reading this speech for the first time I drew immediate parallels to my journey as a swimmer. The time consuming nature of the sport and the consistent repetition of spending 2 hours a day staring at the black line at the bottom of the pool, reinforces the “day in, day out” mentality. My coach would impart various sayings to us as well, unlike Wallace however, my coach takes joy in being the older fish. The most impactful adage that my coach has said, and relates closest to Wallace's awareness, is to stay in your lane.  When he first said it to me as a starting swimmer, it was probably to avoid me constantly messing around with others or being too rowdy in the pool, just “stay in my own lane” and do
Read more

A Limited View on Price Controls

-
Image
     Henry David Thoreau opens his essay on civil disobedience with the aphorism, “That government is best which governs least” and asserts the importance of a limited government that allows the people to decide what's best for them. Whether this statement is true politically is often a topic of debate, economically, however, this statement could not be more final. In most cases, the producers and consumers determine the most efficient equilibrium price and quantity of any good without government intervention. This economic truth is soon cast away by politicians, hoping to increase their own political clout, by placing price ceilings on goods and preventing the mechanisms of the economy to self-regulate. Placing a price ceiling on a good and expecting the price of a good to decrease without adverse effects is similar to declaring cancer illegal and expecting that all cancer patients become cured the next day. When polled, economists largely agree that rent control negatively impact
Read more

The "Golden Age" of Swimming

-
Image
     Looking at the 1920s as a decade, it's often called the “golden age” of America, where economic prosperity seemed to abound. Innovations began to transform American life, and women began to gain various rights, putting them on more equal footing with men. Culture began to develop, and Jazz music and silent films began to take America by storm. However, beneath this golden veneer, the ugly reality of income inequality, exploitation of workers, and immorality swelled. This “valley of ash” was eventually exposed, in 1929, when the Stock Market crashed, and America entered the Great Depression. This would completely upend the economic prosperity that America had enjoyed so freely prior, and cause the transgressions of the previous decade to be revealed. The Speedo LZR Racer tech suit being revealed Although in completely separate circles, a similar story emerges for swimming during the 2000s. Companies like Speedo, Adidas, and TYR, greedy for more sales, looked for ways to creat
Read more