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Of Innocence and Experience - Page 3

© Paul F. McDonald

After Anakin discovers that Shmi has been brutally tortured to death by Tusken Raiders, he gives into his anger and hatred and slaughters the entire tribe. One is reminded of Odysseus in The Odyssey, who likewise returns home after the Trojan war to find his place usurped. And like Anakin, he takes his vengeance on the suitors, killing all of them except one. The eventual consequences in Star Wars will be much more severe, however, as Anakin strives to come to terms with the dark side, the animal, in himself.

In an essay called "Symbolism in the Visual Arts," one of Jung's proteges, Aniela Jaffe, wrote about the significance of animals in dream and myth. Jaffe states that animals often represent repressed facets of the psyche, and that "the acceptance of the animal soul is the condition for wholeness." Animals can be presented as helpful companions, but sometimes they are not. And the more dangerous an animal acts in a dream, the "more imperative is its integration into [the dreamer's] life if some irreparable evil is to be forestalled." This is important to Anakin's journey on all kinds of levels.

In the simoultaneously chilling and touching confession to Padme after taking his revenge on the Tuskens, he furiously states, "They're like animals! And I slaughtered them like animals!" In other words, he matches their savagery, unable to let go and consumed by blood lust. Yet this is not the end of the good Anakin in Attack of the Clones. He seems to earn a bit of a respite later in the film, both physically and psychologically, after Padme comforts him.

The most prominent visual symbolism for this is when Anakin eventually tames the monstrous Reek in the arena battle. After riding it and being thrown off, he apparently uses the Force to calm the animal, then jumps back on it, and carries Obi-Wan and Padme away from immediate danger. He tames the negative powers of the wild, abused Reek, and turns them into something positive. Thus he at least temporarily comes to terms with the animal without as well as within.

His respite also comes when Padme tells him that she "truly, deeply" loves him, and he is willing to let them still be killed in the arena. He does not go into a tantrum or use the dark side of the Force to choke their Geonosian captors. He is willing to go with the situation rather than control it, and while he does argue with Obi-Wan about going back for Padme when she falls out of the Republic gunship, he eventually concedes and does his duty.

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