Crossing the First Threshold in Star Wars: A New Hope

 2. Examine George Lucas’ Star Wars: A New Hope as a hero’s journey narrative. Try to focus on one scene in the film/step in the hero’s journey, and reflect on how Joseph Campbell’s monomyth encourages us to understand that moment in the narrative.

It’s well known that George Lucas’ Star Wars: A New Hope was written with Joseph Campbell’s monomyth in mind. The plotline of the movie clearly reflects this, with most steps of the monomyth, particularly the separation and initiation sections, distinguishably identifiable. In particular, a distinctive moment is the switch from “Refusal of the Call” to “Crossing the First Threshold,” when Luke makes the personal decision to leave Tatooine and join Obi-wan in his journey. As the pivotal transition between the Separation and Initiation stages, it represents a transformation in Luke’s character, from a civilian to a member of the rebellion. 

Campbell’s monomyth initially involves the refusal of the call to adventure, which is explicitly outlined in Star Wars when Luke refuses to join and be trained by Obi-wan Kenobi. Specifically, this is done out of a sense of loyalty, duty, and concern for his life and family on Tatooine. Together, each of these elements–his family, his obligation, and his morality–represent Campbell’s “threshold guardian” preventing Luke’s descent into Initiation. Specifically, Campbell states: “With the personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the ‘threshold guardian’ at the entrance to the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound the world in four directions—also up and down—standing for the limits of the hero's present sphere, or life horizon,” imagining the threshold guardian to be a literal or metaphorical boundary in every direction. Luke’s remaining family, serving as ties to safety, responsibility, and blood, bind him to his previous life.

Only when his family and livelihood literally go up in flames is he able to Cross into the world of peril. Mentally, the destruction of his safety is the crossing, into a mindset bent on a path of risk and revenge. Symbolically, this is represented by his crossing into Mos Eisely. As Obi-wan states, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” than Mos Eisely, and thus the previously unimaginable action of venturing into the spaceport and crossing the border between a safe life and a danger-filled one. Campbell’s language in describing the threshold– “guardian,” “custodians,” “parental” –also imply the familial archetype of safety and the known sphere.

George Lucas’s use of Campbell’s monomythic steps is clearly apparent in Star Wars, especially with the steps in Separation and Initiation. In particular, analyzing “Crossing of the First Threshold” and the steps immediately surrounding it shows a heavy adherence to the hero’s journey. Following Campbell’s symbolism and the critical step of Crossing the First Threshold and developing the hero’s resolve to the journey, Lucas implements a storyline with the “threshold guardian,” familial ties, physical borders, and representative landmarks of the two worlds at the core of the hero’s journey: the familiar and unfamiliar.