{"id":419,"date":"2018-11-20T08:34:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T13:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/?page_id=419"},"modified":"2018-12-17T17:36:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T22:36:32","slug":"luis-arguello","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/anthology\/fall-2018\/luis-arguello\/","title":{"rendered":"Luis Arguello"},"content":{"rendered":"

Individual Agency Amongst the Military Ranks<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1949, \u00a0George Orwell published his dystopian novel, 1984<\/i> in which he imagined a future where a global surveillance system was used to monitor and control citizens. Independent thinking was censored and holding unorthodox or controversial thoughts that opposed or questioned those in power was considered a criminal act. In Star Wars<\/i> this is exactly how the imperialistic First Order operates. Much like the Empire before it, the First Order uses fear to control the galaxy.<\/p>\n

Yet this fiction is neither a long time ago nor in a galaxy far, far away. In fact, some would argue that such a dystopian future has become present in today\u2019s America. In 2013, Edward Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), leaked legitimate documents to the press describing how the NSA and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were spying on thousands of innocent American citizens without probable cause.<\/p>\n

Edward Snowden was labeled a traitor by the US government. As an NSA contractor, he witnessed the development of surveillance software being used against the American public. In June of 2013, Snowden decided to copy and reveal thousands of classified NSA documents to the press. He was charged with two counts of violation of the espionage act of 1917 and theft of government property. Snowden has been ostracized by the US government and the intelligence community, and currently lives in asylum in Russia. However, there is a large majority of people that consider him a hero because of his selfless act of exposing the government.<\/p>\n

Similarly, in The Force Awakens,<\/i> we meet \u00a0FN-2187, a stormtrooper who was abducted at birth and forced to fight for the First Order. We see him gain some individual agency after a brief skirmish in Jakku that ultimately leads him to join the resistance against the First Order. Though Finn is called a traitor by a fellow stormtrooper in The Force Awakens<\/i>, Rose Tico recognizes him as a hero of the Resistance in The Last Jedi<\/i>. Like Snowden, labeling Finn as a hero or traitor depends largely upon the perspective of the person doing the labeling.<\/p>\n

This project aims to dissect the reasons why Finn goes from being a faceless stormtrooper to a hero of the resistance as well as Snowden\u2019s motives for leaking NSA documents. It is important to understand that unlike Finn, Snowden is not a defector, but a whistleblower, and although his moral compass doesn\u2019t lead him to join a rebel army and fight with a blaster like Finn, his motives for exposing the American government are strangely similar to Finn\u2019s reasons for defection from the First Order.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

People who are familiar with the new Star Wars movies agree that Finn is a hero of the Resistance, taking in consideration that most viewers are biased towards the Resistance. Finn\u2019s actions certainly portray him as a heroic character. From early on he is known as FN-2187, a byproduct of the First Order\u2019s task to train soldiers since birth. After the First Order\u2019s raid on Jakku that led FN-2187 to have a change in his conscience, \u00a0he decides to defect from the First Order and try his own luck in the outer rim of the galaxy. Since he lacked pilot training he first mustered the courage to free Resistance pilot Poe Dameron who was being held by the First Order. When Poe asks FN-2187 why is he helping him he simply replies \u201cbecause it is the right thing to do\u201d (19:58), right before he agrees that he also lacks the pilot training in order to leave the First Order.<\/p>\n

How and why they meet is extremely important to the development of our hero. For it is via his interaction with Poe that \u00a0FN-2187 loses his facelessness and becomes Finn, a new identity of which he seems both willing and proud to embrace. Right after Poe and our newly named hero are shot down and crash into the desert of Jakku. Soon afterward Finn fortuitously meets Rey and Poe\u2019s Astromech BB-8. Stalked by the First Order, Finn impersonates a Resistance fighter in order to gain their help escaping Jakku. The massacre on Jakku clearly influenced Finn\u2019s decision to escape the First Order. Furthermore, although he has some signs of an awakened conscience and starts to act less like a faceless stormtrooper, his motives for defection are clearly self-seeking, in that he wants to get as far as possible from the First Order.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After eluding the First Order they arrive at Tokadana, where they meet Moz. It is here that Finn is faced with a choice to leave Rey and make it to the outer rim or deliver BB-8 to the Resistance. He chooses to leave Rey. When confronted by Moz she says that she sees the eyes of someone that wants to run; to which he replies emphatically that she doesn’t know where he’s from or what he has seen. Pivotal to the development of his individual agency this trait starts to solidify his individual agency and getting farther and farther from the faceless stormtrooper that he was. In the following scene, we see that Finn also comes clean to Rey about who he really is, it really speaks volumes of his individual agency when he swears the First Order forever, and how much he is not a faceless stormtrooper. However, he still chooses to leave.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/qIF4WC2UCn0<\/p>\n

It is right after he makes that decision to leave Rey that the First Order attacks Tokadana. The First Order ends up taking Rey hostage and Finn is compelled to rescue her. One could argue that his new more human identity makes him embrace the most of humanity, he literally comes back for the sole purpose of asking about Rey, not to mention he develops a plan and sneaks into Killer Base in order to save her. His new identity leads him to care about others rather than just himself. Finn\u2019s selflessness is reflected visually on-screen as he holds Luke\u2019s lightsaber for the first time–a symbol of justice. It is telling, too, that agents of the First Order begin to label him a traitor: first by the baton-wielding stormtrooper and later on Star Killer Base by Kylo Ren.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8kUx9oL1wqE<\/p>\n