Families of Star Wars

Star Wars has been a favorite science fiction saga of mine since I was a little kid. I have very much enjoyed the lasers, jedi, spaceships, and the intense action scenes found throughout the tale. But I have recently realized that Star Wars is filled with sociological metaphors and beliefs. This includes the institution of the family. Family is very important in the story, and nontraditional families seem to appear quite often. However, it seems as though George Lucas has a negative viewpoint of these types of families, and feels that they result in a dysfunctional family. Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are raised by somewhat traditional families. Neither are raised by biological parents, but they have the traditional “father” and “mother” figure in their lives; Luke has his Uncle and Aunt on the planet of Tatooine, and Leia has her adopted parents on the planet of Alderan. When they mature, they grow into adults who not only posses good morals, but actually become leaders of a rebellion for the greater good. They work to correct the apparent flaws of the social institutions of the Empire, and viewers are led to believe that they are successful.

Now on the other hand, children of nontraditional families in the story turn into the villains. Boba Fett is raised as a son (despite the fact that he is actually a clone) by Jango Fett. Jango is a single father. He appears to be a good father to Boba, and it appears as though Jango loves the boy. However, they are constantly on the move because Jango is a bounty hunter. Thus, Boba also grows up to be a bounty hunter who cares for nothing except money. Another example of a nontraditional family would be that of the Skywalkers. Anakin’s mother raises her children by herself, and struggles in doing so. She actually sells herself and her family into slavery because she cannot afford to care for her family. And thus, Anakin suffers from inner agony throughout the tale. He finally snaps in Revenge of the Sith, and slaughters the people he once called friends. By doing this, Skywalker reshapes the government of the republic, and disrupts the entire structure of their society. Perhaps George Lucas is hinting that these single-parent families are not appropriate for child-rearing, and the child will only suffer in such an environment. And through this suffering, the children will mature into dysfunctional adults, and disrupt social institutions. Perhaps Lucas is implying that children raised in a single-parent home will suffer the same fate as Anakin Skywalker, and they will turn to the Dark Side of the force.

Discussion questions:
1. How is Lucas’s portrayal of nontraditional families similar/different to our contemporary society?
2. What are some of the effects of single-parent families on children? Does this environment lead to dysfunctional families?
3. Are nontraditional families beneficial to our society as a whole, or do they cause social institutions to crumble? Explain.

African womanism is an ideology that struggles to be defined admist other womanist and femenist views. There is a lot of controversy on what term we shall call these people that prescribe to this ideology. Do they want the race or gender to be emphasized or other? Just like the academics struggling with this name game, I became thoroughly lost trying to balance the differance between black and african, feminist and womanist. The confusing academic dribble aside we can learn through African Womanist theory. What i find particular important is that the black womanist can't totally extracate themselves from the male gender because they need eachother in the fight for racial equality. Many feminist theories were white centered and did did not account for the cultural diffances of resulting from oppression. I believe as the more encompassing fact of racism is undermined and challenged that women as a collective will have more power. More clear cut objectives will be able to be considered when challenging male dominated society. Black females deal with more elements when defining themselves because race issues offer a myriad of challenges let alone female oppression and inequality.

Discussion questions
1 What are the advantages and disadvantages of black women ideolically seperating themselves from black men?
2 How does the politics of naming bog down black womens quest on self identification?

Bloodchild

Octavia Butler's BloodChild follows a society of humans on a preserve who are governed and watched over by a superior insect-alien race, The T'lic. The T'lic use the humans to host and give birth to their young in a blood ritual. The story focuses on the love story between a young male who is the future host of T'Gatoi's offspring. T'Gatoi is a powerful T'Lic with political influences.

Questions:1. The general "deal"is for each human family to offer at least one son to the T'Lic to breed their young. Apparently The T'Lic prefer women but leave them free to bear more children (more future hosts). Do you believe that this tradition or the story exhibits forms of sexual discrimination towards both genders that can be paralleled to our society?

2. Bloodchild exhibits reversal of gender roles when the T'Lic use mostly men to "birth" their young, and T'Gatoi is a powerful T'lic whose a female political figure. What roles in society that are dominated by one gender are beginning to welcome the other gender?

The Lottery

The story "The Lottery" is one that I have read many different times during middle school and high school. Everytime I have read it the story has struck a major chord, but for different reasons each time. The title in itself depicts a clear image in my mind that is an obvious reflection of our society. The lottery, to us, is a way to win MONEY. It is a chance to win hundreds, thousands, even millions at the cost of a few dollars. But this is not the case in this story. It is a device used to cast out one member of a group. Whoever is lucky enough to draw the slip of paper with the black dot wins that opportunity of being stoned to death by their peers. This black dot is a symbol of the end and a mark for death. Given the story, some of the things that America values don't seem so valuable after all . For example, the idea of "tradition" and "beliefs". The two concepts are extremely important to the American value system and many people do not want change them and those who do are frowned upon or seen as radicals. Nobody likes a stray. Also, the idea that these traditions are instilled in children from the time they are young, in this case "old enough to throw a stone", is somewhat scary but can explain many things in today's society. The fact that no one, not even the family of the woman being stoned, stood up or tried to save her is ridiculous because we see ourselves as individuals who stand up for what we believe in and those we care about, not sheep following the rest of the flock. To end, I want to throw it out there that just because we have a belief or tradition does not mean that is is right or the right way and only way to do something. Also, many of our mistakes as humans were based on these very belief.

Discussion Questions:

1. Name a few parallels of today's society found in "The Lottery" and explain how they reflect society.

2. Give some examples of "traditions/beliefs" that are instilled in us as children that aren't necessarily "a good thing".

3. Discuss other symbols that have been used as marks for death by a society and the beliefs behind these symbols.