A Rey of Hope: Feminism, Symbolism and Hidden Gems in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

A Rey of Hope

A Rey of Hope

Feminism, Symbolism, and Hidden Gems in

Star Wars

The Force Awakens

Valerie Estelle Frankel

Other Works by Valerie Estelle Frankel

Henry Potty and the Pet Rock: A Harry Potter Parody

Henry Potty and the Deathly Paper Shortage: A Harry Potter Parody

Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey

From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey in Myth and Legend

Katniss the Cattail: The Unauthorized Guide to Name and Symbols

The Many Faces of Katniss Everdeen: The Heroine of The Hunger Games

Harry Potter, Still Recruiting: A Look at Harry Potter Fandom

Teaching with Harry Potter

An Unexpected Parody: The Spoof of The Hobbit Movie

Teaching with Harry Potter

Myths and Motifs in The Mortal Instruments

Winning the Game of Thrones: The Host of Characters & their Agendas

Winter is Coming: Symbols, Portents, and Hidden Meanings in A Game of Thrones

Bloodsuckers on the Bayou: The Myths, Symbols, and Tales Behind HBO’s True Blood

The Girl’s Guide to the Heroine’s Journey

Choosing to be Insurgent or Allegiant: Symbols, Themes & Analysis of the Divergent Trilogy

Doctor Who and the Hero’s Journey: The Doctor and Companions as Chosen Ones

Doctor Who: The What Where and How

Sherlock: Every Canon Reference You May Have Missed in BBC’s Series

Symbols in Game of Thrones

How Game of Thrones Will End

Joss Whedon’s Names

Pop Culture in the Whedonverse

Women in Game of Thrones: Power, Conformity, and Resistance

History, Homages and the Highlands: An Outlander Guide

The Catch-Up Guide to Doctor Who

Remember All Their Faces: A Deeper Look at Character, Gender and the Prison World of Orange Is The New Black

Everything I Learned in Life I Know from Joss Whedon

Empowered: The Symbolism, Feminism, & Superheroism of Wonder Woman

The Avengers Face their Dark Sides

The Comics of Joss Whedon: Critical Essays

Mythology in Game of Thrones

We’re Home: Fandom, Fun, and Hidden Homages in Star Wars the Force Awakens

This book is an unauthorized guide and commentary on Star Wars and its associated comics and books. None of the individuals or companies associated with the movies, comics, television show or any merchandise based on this series has in any way sponsored, approved, endorsed, or authorized this book.

A Rey of Hope

By Valerie Estelle Frankel

Copyright © 2016 Valerie Estelle Frankel

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

Print ISBN: 978-0692614655 (LitCrit Press) 

Contents

Introduction

Symbolism

Themes

Rey’s Heroine’s Journey

Finn’s Hero’s Journey

Diversity Arrives: Countdown to the Force Awakens

Feminist Subversions

Rey as Mary Sue

Works Cited

Introduction

Most of us have seen the Original Trilogy so many times, it’s taken on a life of its own in our memories. Beyond the fact that we can all quote Yoda from memory, there’s also the weird distortion that happens when every single cute moment has become a T-shirt or a meme. You’ve probably attended a Star Wars wedding. The Force Awakens is as much a sequel to our collective memory of those films as it is to the films themselves.

In that context, a lot of The Force Awakens is about revisiting the big ideas of the Original Trilogy through the eyes of a new, younger set of characters, and rediscovering them. There’s no way to strip away the cultural baggage that’s accrued to the first three Star Wars films, and get at the essence of what they actually were—so instead, this film aims to connect to that collective miasma of shared ideas, while making it all new again (Anders)

While there were countless callbacks to the first film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens stunned many fans with its central trio – a Black Stormtrooper, a Guatemalan fighter pilot, and a woman as the Chosen One. Certainly, the industry has been heading this way, with the final Hunger Games film and Mad Max: Fury Road arriving the same year. Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman films have been scheduled, after Black Widow and Scarlet Witch took charge in Avengers 2. It’s a world of women warriors, even on the big screen now.

The film succeeded too, making one billion dollars by day twelve – the fastest in history. It’s one more step affirming that women can kick butts onscreen, that cross-racial romances are okay, that anyone can be a Jedi, or at least, use a lightsaber.

This book uses a close viewing of the film along with its prequel books, tie-in comics, guides, and so forth to discover what Star Wars has created in all its nuances. How does Rey bring us a new kind of storytelling, and how close is her arc to the traditional heroine’s mythic journey? Is Finn on the hero’s journey or something else? Why is Rey being called a Mary Sue? With deep insight, it reads deeper symbolism into jungles and flaming swords, and above all, the seeing and masks so vital to the film.

Another issue to explore is diversity as women and people of color invade the galaxy smoothly -- as if they’ve always been standing there reading displays or taking on the Death Stars in tiny fighters. Certainly, Star Wars is trying to include modern fans of all races and genders, welcoming them to become Rebels, aliens, or even Stormtroopers. Yet in their rewrite of history and often unusual gender roles, there’s a great deal of subversion taking place.

Symbolism

Fandom

Subtly, there’s a heavy current of fandom in the new film. Kylo Ren is devoted to Darth Vader – beyond collecting his helmet and lightsaber, he dresses like him down to the helmet and devotes his life to Vader’s goals. He vows to Vader’s skull:

Forgive me. I feel it again... the call from light. Supreme Leader senses it. Show me again the power of the darkness, and I’ll let nothing stand in our way. Show me, grandfather, and I will finish what you started.

His actor Adam Driver adds that Kylo Ren is truly obsessed:

[Kylo Ren] feels that he was actually onto something, even though in Vader’s final moments where he kind of relents. That even could be interpreted as just a moment. Not to taint an entire life, or career, of doing good work. For [Kylo Ren] it’s just a moment. (Woerner, Adam Driver).

Ren mostly values The commitment. Also, the ambition, and the loyalty. The self-sacrifice in him. They’re all huge, epic things to live up to (Woerner, Adam Driver).

Rey, Finn, and Poe are likewise all fans of the first trilogy heroes. Poe, the child of Rebel parents, knows all the stories. Poe Dameron grew up hearing tales of heroic pilots and their trusty astromechs, and as such, has always fostered a deep respect for his droid companions (Hidalgo 11). In Before the Awakening, a stunned Poe meets General Leia Organa and she sends him on a mission. She smirks, You should see your expression (176). When she compares him to Luke, he’s surprised and flattered at once (178). Poe also thinks to himself in Before the Awakening, that he is

…one of the hundreds of millions – if not billions—of sentients who had been conceived in response to the Empire’s fall. Poe wondered sometimes how many beings had chosen not to have children while Palpatine lived, how many had thought bringing a child into the Emperor’s galaxy would be not a blessing, but a curse. (154)

Thus he owes his life to the Rebels’ better world, while Rey may be the child of Luke or Leia. She too is a fangirl, struck with devotion