{"id":993,"date":"2019-11-07T12:26:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T17:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/?page_id=993"},"modified":"2019-12-13T16:48:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T21:48:07","slug":"jonathan-wohl","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/anthology\/fall-2019\/jonathan-wohl\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Wohl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>This Essay Is Real\u2026 or Is It?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Star Wars is filled to the brim with interesting and complex themes when one takes a closer look at the material. One of the most compelling ideas that the series explores is perception versus reality. In the Star Wars universe, nothing is exactly as it appears. Through the events on the planet Dagobah, Lucas reveals facets to Luke\u2019s character that he needs to change to become someone who can save the galaxy. And the truth that lies behind both Darth Vader\u2019s mask and Emperor Palpatine\u2019s persona illustrates just how beneficial the contrast between that truth and their appearance can be for them. This ultimately shows how the contrast between the perception of a person or place and the reality that lies beneath the surface can prove to be very beneficial to those involved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The idea of perception versus reality is one that gothic literature as a whole is very familiar with. As unknowns cloud the minds of both the readers and characters in the narratives, one questions whether or not we really know what\u2019s there. Looking at Star Wars with this gothic lens can allow us to further explore this idea of perception and reality being beneficial &#8212; specifically for the audience. Even though, as the audience, we watch the story unfold from outside of the world it takes place in, the effects of the previously mentioned contrasts spread far enough to create a better and more compelling viewing experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1181 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/files\/2019\/12\/dagobah-300x150.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"482\" height=\"253\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I find the largest example of appearance versus reality in Star Wars to be the events on the planet Dagobah. Luke goes to Dagobah after the battle on Hoth because Obi-Wan tells him to meet a wise Jedi warrior named Yoda there. With him, Luke will train to become more knowledgeable in the ways of the Force. When he arrives, it\u2019s clear that this planet is unlike any that Luke had ever been to before &#8212; it\u2019s swampy and foggy and overall just a very strange place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Luke Meets Yoda\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lXNwJymretA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Soon after arriving, Luke meets a small, green creature who acts very mischievous and feisty at first. Luke\u2019s first interactions with it can truly be described as rude and impatient. He wants to meet Yoda so bad that he doesn\u2019t even bother to give this clearly unimportant creature the time of day. Eventually, through a few cryptic hints, Luke realizes that this creature is actually Yoda himself. Once he gains this information, Luke\u2019s attitude drastically changes. He suddenly becomes polite to Yoda and pays great attention to what he has to say. Though Luke\u2019s initial behavior comes off as rude, this is not because he is a bad person at heart. Rather, it stems from Luke\u2019s impatience &#8212; his desire to find Yoda overrides everything else in his mind, causing him to forget his manners, especially when speaking to a small, old creature who appears to be no threat to him. This impatience revealed by his interactions with Yoda comes back to harm Luke later in the narrative, when he rushes to Cloud City having not completed his Jedi training only to fall right into a trap set by the Empire. This trait could have even gotten him killed in the events on Cloud City, so it is something that needed to be addressed before Luke could become a true Jedi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yoda and Luke Cave Scene from Empire Strikes Back\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wTXV59f6m0g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The cave on Dagobah is another aspect of Star Wars that shows the contrast between appearance and reality. From the outside, the cave appears scary and creepy &#8212; a place where Luke could be hurt, from his perspective. Yoda, knowing the truth of the cave, tells Luke that he will not need his weapons. However, Luke gives in to the appearance of the cave and brings them anyway. Once inside, he meets the spirit of a familiar face that he did indeed need a weapon to fight &#8212; Darth Vader. And after he defeats this Vader, Luke\u2019s own face is revealed beneath Vader\u2019s mask. The reality of the cave is as Yoda mentioned before Luke went inside &#8212; when Luke asked Yoda what was in there, Yoda replied by saying: \u201cOnly what you take with you.\u201d By not trusting Yoda\u2019s words and taking his weapons inside even after he was told he didn\u2019t need them, Luke revealed the fear and unnecessary aggression that laid within his heart. And taking those feelings into the cave meant that his current fear materialized in the cave as well: a confrontation with Vader. The differences between the truth of the cave and how Luke sees it showcase aspects of Luke\u2019s character that get him into trouble &#8212; unnecessary aggression was another component of his choosing to go on the journey to Cloud City that almost got him killed. And these facets to him become even more issues that must be resolved before Luke can truly become a Jedi worthy enough to be Yoda\u2019s successor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lbbG02LB7g0\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lbbG02LB7g0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Darth Vader himself is another incredible example of how appearance differs from reality in Star Wars. Until the end of Episode V, he is portrayed as being completely evil &#8212; even among the most important people on the Death Star. At the end of Episode V, however, he reveals himself as Luke\u2019s father, giving both Luke and the audience quite a shock. This also comes with inner conflict on both parties: for me personally, I wondered just how bad Vader really was. Throughout Episode VI, he maintains the fact that he is too far gone to return from the dark side, though Luke keeps hold of the idea that his father is still good at heart. Eventually, Luke\u2019s idea is proven to be true &#8212; while Emperor Palpatine is electrocuting Luke, Vader sacrifices his own life to kill the Emperor, saving Luke. While it is unclear to me whether or not Vader had this betrayal in mind before speaking with Luke, the fact of the matter is that Vader\u2019s appearance of devotion to the Emperor was what allowed Vader to ultimately defeat him. In this case, the Emperor having a false sense of Vader\u2019s true emotions was vital to Luke and the rebellion\u2019s success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1182 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/files\/2019\/12\/palpatine-300x178.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/files\/2019\/12\/palpatine-300x178.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/files\/2019\/12\/palpatine-500x297.jpg 500w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/files\/2019\/12\/palpatine.jpg 590w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another example of the idea that the contrast between appearance and reality is beneficial to the related characters would be Emperor Palpatine in the prequel trilogy. For a large majority of this trilogy, the Emperor hides his true identity as Darth Sidious in order to retain his role as the Chancellor of the Galactic Senate and later as the first Emperor of the new Galactic Empire. The fact that he doesn\u2019t show his true self to those around him allows him to gain their trust, and he takes advantage of this trust to start the Clone Wars and eventually gain unrivaled power over the galaxies. In a sense, this specific case of a difference between appearance and reality is what spawned the evil that would persist for generations until the Rebellion was just barely able to destroy it. While there have been many occasions where the hiding of intentions has revealed crucial truths and created success for those involved, this is one scenario where it caused great despair for many. This is because Palpatine\u2019s intentions were malicious &#8212; he did not wish to help the world in the end like Luke and Vader did. So while hiding his true identity was indeed beneficial to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">him <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in achieving his goal, its effect on the world reflected his true intentions &#8212; similarly to Luke and Vader.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Looking to how gothic literature explores the idea of appearance versus reality can add even more substance to the discussion on how Star Wars handles the topic. In an introduction to gothic literature by Marie Rose Napierkowski, perception in the gothic is related to something like a \u201cdream.\u201d Many gothic texts are written in such a way that appearance is indistinguishable from reality, leading to a \u201cdreamlike atmosphere\u201d where unknowns attack the reader from all sides as they try to figure out what is real and what isn\u2019t. (Napierkowski) While Star Wars isn\u2019t exactly the same in this regard, of course, the aforementioned dream atmosphere can be applied to the conversation around the original trilogy, at the very least. When Vader tells Luke he is his father, for example &#8212; on a first viewing, the audience will be shocked by this and reactions will vary heavily. Some will want it to be untrue, as Vader has been only evil up to that point in the narrative &#8212; others hope that it <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> true as it is an incredibly interesting direction for the story to take. The shared aspect of both cases is that neither viewer knows for certain that this piece of information is true, as Vader could be lying. The audience may even leave the theater not knowing for sure what the truth is, at least until it is confirmed in the next film.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thinking of appearance and reality in Star Wars as a \u201cdreamlike state\u201d can give us a lot of insight on how the audience is impacted by the contrast. Take the previously discussed example with Luke on Dagobah, for instance. Clearly, the audience isn\u2019t going to create insights into Luke\u2019s character based on different juxtapositions between appearance and reality on a first viewing. However, Luke\u2019s attitude towards Yoda <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">will<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> cause the audience to question whether or not he\u2019s really the true hero they may have thought. In the same vein, his defiance of Yoda\u2019s words by bringing his lightsaber into the cave achieves the same affect. This questioning of whether or not the Luke they see on the screen is real when they may have a different idea of his character in their heads creates suspense and anticipation as they can\u2019t wait to see what Luke does next. The same applies to Vader, as his words to Luke about being his father and wishing for the two of them to defeat the emperor together clearly contradict his actions of staying as the emperor\u2019s right-hand man. This causes the audience to wonder about the truth behind his words up until the very moment that he betrays Palpatine and shows his true intentions. Both of these examples show how these contrasts can affect the audience in either subtle or more direct ways. By leaving the audience in a dreamlike state of not knowing the truth from the fiction &#8212; an effect similar to what the gothic can provide &#8212; Star Wars can impact the viewer on a more intense level than what would be possible otherwise. Ultimately, this creates even more support for the idea that clouding the truth is beneficial, even from the standpoint of creating a compelling narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The way in which Luke perceives both Yoda and the cave on Dagobah differ wildly from their respective realities. In the same way, the true character of both Vader and Palpatine contrasts with how they present themselves. This is not a bad thing at all, however. For Luke, the differences reveal to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">himself <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the truth that he must confront. And with Vader and Palpatine, these differences assist them greatly in achieving their respective goals. Even for the audience, the lens of the gothic illuminates how <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">we <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">benefit from this classic contrast by experiencing more compelling narratives. In the real world, many people lie all the time. People wear figurative masks to hide their true feelings and intentions often &#8212; one could even argue that our world is built on this foundation of lying. However, as shown in Star Wars, this is not inherently a bad thing &#8212; the contrast between what one sees and what is really there can oftentimes lead someone to the most important revelations, or perhaps even to becoming a hero in the eyes of many. But only if the one utilizing this power has a good heart, of course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lucas, George, director. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Lucasfilm LTD, 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Used to discuss the scenes on Dagobah and the finale at Cloud City.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lucas, George, director. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Star Wars: Return of the Jedi<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Lucasfilm LTD, 2004<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Used to discuss the scene with Luke, the Emperor, and Vader.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lucas, George, director. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Star Wars, Episode III, Revenge of the Sith<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Lucasfilm LTD, 2005<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Used to discuss Chancellor\/Emperor Palpatine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cPalpatine\/Legends.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wookieepedia<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/starwars.fandom.com\/wiki\/Palpatine\/Legends\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/starwars.fandom.com\/wiki\/Palpatine\/Legends<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Used for information on Palpatine\u2019s character before he became the Emperor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Napierkowski, Marie Rose. \u201cPDF.\u201d <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/teachers.parklandsd.org\/smith\/files\/2013\/02\/Overview-of-Gothic-Literature.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">http:\/\/teachers.parklandsd.org\/smith\/files\/2013\/02\/Overview-of-Gothic-Literature.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Used to connect the gothic to my topic of appearance vs. reality in Star Wars.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Essay Is Real\u2026 or Is It? Star Wars is filled to the brim with interesting and complex themes when one takes a closer look at the material. One of the most compelling ideas that the series explores is perception &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/anthology\/fall-2019\/jonathan-wohl\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":594,"featured_media":0,"parent":451,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-993","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/993\/revisions\/1186"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}