Sunset and Twilight
In the second acts of The Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi, Anakin and Luke Skywalker receive similar guidance from older characters who have taught and cared for them, and from whom they are about to be parted.
In The Phantom Menace, when Anakin is about to depart from the hovel where he lives on Tatooine, leaving his mother Shmi Skywalker behind, he hesitates: "I don't want things to change." Shmi replies, "But you can't stop the change, any more than you can stop the suns from setting."
In Return of the Jedi, when Yoda is about to die, his student Luke Skywalker visits him in the hovel where he lives on Dagobah. When Yoda indicates that he is coming to the end of his life, Luke objects: "Master Yoda, you can't die." Yoda replies, "Strong am I with the Force, but not that strong. Twilight is upon me, and soon, night must fall. That is the way of things – the way of the Force."
When the first six episodes of the Skywalker Saga are understood as a chiasm, these two scenes – from the middle acts of the first and last films – correspond to each other like a pair of bookends. Both scenes take place in small hovels and both take place before major turning points in Anakin and Luke's Jedi journeys: Anakin is about to begin training to become a Jedi, and Luke is about to face the final test that will complete his training as a Jedi.
In both scenes, Anakin and Luke resist saying goodbye to older characters who have cared for them. However, Shmi and Yoda both accept the separation and, by referring to the natural cycle of day and night, gently point their young charges to the fact that change and loss are natural parts of life.
EXPLORE FURTHER…
Characters: Anakin Skywalker / Luke Skywalker / Shmi Skywalker / Yoda
Films: Episode I: The Phantom Menace / Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: change / death / grief and loss / letting go / light and darkness / mothers / nature and technology / teachers and students
Interpretive Tools: Ring Theory
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