Hero Archetype Luke Skywalker Star Wars Research Paper (Article Sample)

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Hero Archetype Luke Skywalker Star Wars
Stories of archetypical hero have characterized the literary world of movies and theater for many years. The stories are often characterized by the main protagonist starting out a normal life which is suddenly disrupted by tragedy compelling them into a life of adventure guided by a certain goal for survival. This is the life depicted in George Lucas’ epic film, Star Wars, through Luke Skywalker the son of a Jedi Knight called Anikin Skywalker. This brief paper analyzes realism within Luke Skywalker’s hero archetype for the benefit of readers to identify with characters and situations based on social and cultural context.
In the story, Luke Skywalker abandons his morality turning into a Dark Side given to his uncle to lead a normal life until the murder of his guardians at the hands of Darth Vader (Rinzler 121). During this time of loss, Luke finds his father’s friend, Ben Kanobi, and together the duo set out on a journey to save the world from Darth Vader by destroying the Death Star, Vader’s home planet (Rinzler 54). Vader’s planet is called Death Star because it has immense power to destroy all planets and therefore the only way to destroy it will have to involve super powers that can only be depicted by an archetypical hero a position that Luke Skywalker transcends into.
In order to achieve this arduous task, Luke and Ben set on a journey to the distant Death Star with the objective of rescuing a princess seized there and eventually destroying the planet. In the process of the struggle, Luke escapes death from the deadly Darth Vader but Ben is not as lucky and is killed during the invasion. Despite this set back, Luke and his pilot manage to rescue the princess to return her to her planet and using her nobility ties, organizes a fleet of star ships towards destroying the Death Star (Rinzler 28). After a number of attempts and with the guidance of the heroic Luke, the Death Star is destroyed and Darth Vader is eventually defeated.
The evidence showing Luke as an archetype hero can be drawn from his personality and abilities that enable him to achieve the destruction of Death Star and save the universe from the hands of Darth Vander. Luke is intelligent, selfless, loyal, and wise with a sense of good morals, justice and honor. There is also evidence that appeal to Luke’s human side where he exhibits attributes of overconfidence, aggression, short-temperedness and emotional insecurity, normal struggles that people have (Rinzler 87). For instance, Luke has Force potential similar to his father’s and by the time of the events of The Force Awakens his Force potential threatens Snoke and the First Order (Rinzler 98). Also, Luke has ability to use telepathy to communicate mentally over long distances with other persons. At one point he is able to contact all the Jedi in the entire galaxy to “Ossus when announcing his position as the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order and the role that he would play in that position” (Rinzler 189).
In addition to this, Luke has impressive lightsaber skills even with little training and only requires one session with Obi-Wan Kenobi to take on Darth Vader who is more experienced and powerful. In his subsequent encounters with Darth Vader, Luke shows increasing lightsaber skills as he is able to wound Darth Vader on the right shoulder and in the final duel, with extreme effort Luke overpowers Darth Vader on t...