Luke Skywalker: From Farm Boy to Imperial Rebel
Luke Skywalker: From Farm Boy to Imperial Rebel
Joseph Campbell describes the Belly of the Whale, one of the seventeen stages of his hero's journey monomyth, as a time when the hero is swallowed by a beast and undergoes a metamorphosis, exiting as a new person and truly entering the unknown. This imagery parallels the process of birth: the hero experiences a period of incubation, undergoes a metamorphosis, and is reborn into a new and unfamiliar world. Using this description and the Star Wars: A New Hope film, this blog aims to pinpoint the scene that best represents the Belly of the Whale event in Luke Skywalker's hero's journey.
At the start of his journey, Luke enters the enclosed space of the Cantina bar, searching for a pilot to take him and Obi-Wan to Alderaan. The dim, ambient lighting of the Cantina's interior seems to mimic the image of the womb from a fetus's perspective. Entering this metaphorical womb called the Cantina bar, Luke exits his known world of Tatooine and enters the unknown realm of intergalactic alien criminals and pilots.
Inside the Cantina bar, Luke experiences his first dangerous encounter with the unknown, nearly dying to intergalactic criminals. Sitting at the bar counter, Luke encounters intergalactic criminals Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba, who intimidate and threaten to kill him by saying, "'Don't insult us. You just watch yourself. We're wanted men. I have the death sentence in twelve systems [...] You'll be dead.'" Facing his first life-threatening encounter with the dangers of the unknown universe outside Tatooine, Luke is forced to accept his own ignorance and the reality that he is no longer in his known environment, no longer working on the Skywalker's farm.
Exiting the Cantina Bar, Luke truly begins his journey through his unknown world of intergalactic dangers. Immediately after the Cantina Bar scene, Luke and company face their first direct skirmish against Imperial Storm-troopers as they take off from Tatooine on the Millennium Falcon. With this first dangerous encounter with the Empire, Luke steps into his imperial rebel role and embarks into the true unknown of intergalactic space, leaving his farm boy life on Tatooine to join the Rebellion and plunge into the unknown.
The Cantina Bar scene accurately represents Luke's Belly of the Whale event in Star Wars: A New Hope. (1) The Cantina Bar acts as Luke's enclosed space, providing him a period of incubation. (2) Luke's life-threatening encounter with intergalactic criminals represents his experience and acceptance of the dangerous unknown world he has entered. (3) Thrust into this unknown world, Luke undergoes an identity metamorphosis, transforming from farm boy to revolutionary. Fusing these aspects into one Belly of the Whale event, the Cantina Bar scene represents Luke's rebirth and transition from the known to the unknown, from farm boy to imperial rebel.
- Max Bolton
This is a fascinating analysis, Max! I find your addition of images nicely supplements your argument. The Cantina being his first true encounter with the unknown is compelling (perhaps it marks the Crossing of the First Threshold), though I wonder if Luke’s departure from Tatooine on the Millennium Falcon is a clearer moment of rebirth.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting analysis, Max! I agree that the bar scene when Luke and Obi-Wan are looking for a pilot to take them to Alderaan, Luke meets people that he would usually never come across. However I also think the scene when Obi-Wan is manipulating the stormtrooper is another belly of the whale scene because Luke is experiencing first hand what the force is capable of. Despite some interesting comparisons, I think this is a very good blog post. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHello Max! I love the way you cleaning structured your argument, and summarized everything neatly in the last paragraph. I have nothing to contribute to such a strong argument, but I will say I think its also worth noting how literally because of the Cantina scene Luke is able to go into the "real unknown" of space travel in the Millennium Falcon. While I see Noor's point that the departure in the Millennium Falcon may also be belly of the Whale because of its physical departure, belly of the whale seemed to me like a step that created some inner understanding of being in a new place, which I think happens first in the Cantina.
ReplyDeleteMax, this is a great analysis of the Belly of the Whale step in Campbell's monomyth. The imagery you point out is very interesting, and I enjoyed how you analyzed the bar as necessarily a place of unknown, of danger, and of rebirth. That analysis is very similar to some of mine on the Crossing of the First Threshold, overall placing Mos Eisley as a place of new danger--as Obi-Wan states, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" than Mos Eisely.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post, Max! I like how you analyzed the Cantina scene as the "belly of the whale" phase of the hero's journey. I really enjoyed how you pointed out that the Cantina itself is dim, like the inside of a whale's belly would be! I think that this scene is a very pivotal moment in Luke's journey as well and understand what you mean when you described this as some sort of a "rebirth" for Luke.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great blog post, Max! I like how you presented your fresh analysis on the "belly of the whale" phase for Luke's journey. I really like how you presented your information neatly and in a logical order that helped us readers understand your thought process in comparing Luke's experience in the Cantina with the "belly of the whale" phase of the hero's journey. I thought that you brought fresh perspectives, specifically your emphasis on the visual aspects of Luke in the Cantina where you compared it to a fetus in a womb. Overall, I completely agree on your analysis and thought very similarly. Great work!
ReplyDeleteGood analysis! I've said this a few times before on other blogs, but George Lucas makes the imagery for Luke hero's journey pretty clear, which is definitely a good thing for people like us who are looking to analyze it. The idea of an enclosed space symbolizing a "belly of the whale" is totally something that George Lucas would've intended us to catch, and I think it's effective to contextualize the dark, dingy atmosphere of the Cantina Bar as an equivalent to the literal belly of the whale scene in Pinocchio. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteMax, this is a very well-structured and compelling analysis! I really liked how you used the imagery of the Cantina as a womb-like space to reinforce the idea of rebirth. The comparison to the Belly of the Whale works really well in capturing Luke's transition from farm boy to someone truly stepping into the unknown. I see the point about the departure on the Millennium Falcon being another potential moment of rebirth, but your interpretation highlights how Luke’s internal transformation begins in the Cantina. Great job tying in both visual and thematic elements to support your argument!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very well-written and compelling blog post. When watching the movie, I never thought of him leaving Tatooine as him joining the rebellion, but I completely agree with your analysis of the movie. I really enjoyed the format of your blog. It made me visualize an actual movie review blog. Good job.
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ReplyDeleteMax, this is an interesting perspective on the Cantina bar. I also see the Cantina bar scene does represent the entering to the unknown world. I like how you showed images that matched with the surrounding texts.
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