Seen Together: Star Wars
What do a galaxy far, far away and your living room have in common?
It turns out, quite a bit. In fact, Star Wars has so many layers that I can only present you with a sampling of ideas for discussion after watching this movie. Pick the ones that will make the most sense to your child.
The Importance of Self-Control
If you always wanted to become a Jedi, you first need to have power over your own emotions. Without impulse control, you will be absorbed by the dark side, and you will be the slave to your skills, not their master.
How do you obtain this level of mastery? It is implicit in the advanced age of Obi-Wan and Yoda that experience and long practice are required, along with long term mentoring by an experienced master. This becomes a bit more explicit when Yoda starts training Luke.
To train your child, I suggest to set up “tasks” to learn self-control, the exact details should be adjusted to your child’s personality. If she is shy, ask her to go and talk to a person of authority. If she is impulsive, ask her to have her favorite candy sitting next to her bed for two weeks, but not touch it. You get the idea.
Good vs Evil
This is the most obvious thread and is even made explicit in the movie. All of us have the temptation of the “dark side” in us, and it requires constant vigilance not to fall for it. This is made particularly hard because the “evil” means seem to be justified by the noble ends we are pursuing. However, sacrificing our integrity sends us down a slippery slope that ultimately makes us part of the evil we wanted to fight.
The most likely connection to your child’s world is revenge. Use the emotional energy in this movie to make her see that retaliation (be it with siblings, classmates, etc.) is wrong (but stress that self-defense is allowed).
Parent vs Child
A classical theme since Oedipus killed Laius, his father, the struggle between son and father is in the center of Star Wars. This movie is as good a chance as ever to talk about the natural development of the relationship between your and your son or daughter.
Tell her that you will always love each other. However, once she reaches puberty, it is important for her to define her own personality. By definition, she will have to focus on the differences between you and her. This is not a problem, in fact you expect this to happen and encourage it, but ask her to follow some simple rules. This may also be an opportunity to talk about drugs, which are the human equivalent of the dark side. Once started, they consume you. You can not turn back.
The Responsibility of Talent
Why do the Jedis use their powers to keep peace and do justice instead of taking control for their own advantage?
If you have a perfectly Machiavellian world view, this may not make sense to you, either, and you can dismiss this point as one of the peculiarities of Hollywood movies.
An alternative perspective is to look at this as one of the highest levels of human consciousness, lived for us by religious leaders, and sometimes even by secular ones (being German myself, the care packages sent by Americans to Germany after the WW II come to mind). On an everyday level, this means we have a responsibility to develop our talents, and use them for the benefit of society as a whole (but it is OK to benefit ourselves, too). Instill the wish to do something useful with their lives. Look at all the duties (school, etc.) as preparation for their future task.
May the Force be with you.
