Comparing Lusus Naturae And Star Wars

The connection that I can make to Lusus Naturae a connection with the book/ film franchise Star Wars. The comparison that I can make between these two stories is in the similarities between the townspeople/ the protagonists family and the xenophobic Galactic Empire that is present in the Star Wars series.

The first comparison I can make is in the similarities of the “reasonable” actions that both factions commit in order to protect themselves. In Lusus Naturae, to avoid the shame of having a diseased daughter, and all the nuisances that came with it, the protagonist’s family decided it would be easier to “kill her off” in order to avoid the ongoing shame that she apparently caused them. By killing her off, it would protect their social class,

In Lusus Naturae, once the people of the village learn that the protagonist is still alive, they create a mob to go hunt her down. The townspeople were so distressed by the fact that the protagonist was still alive that they “[were] marching towards this house, in the dusk, with long stakes, with torches.” In the scenario, they were looking to kill the protagonist, believing that she was some type of monster, far too different from them for their own comfort. An event comparable to this occurs in the movie Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. The leader of the newly formed Galactic Empire had a drastically different ideological view than a group of people known as the Jedi, and had schemed against them for years. Once he finally had enough “evidence” (forged/ manipulated by himself) that the Jedi wished to overthrow him from his place as leader, he decided to order the army of the Galactic Empire to hunt down and kill all members of the Jedi Order. His actions also brainwashed the public into distrusting the Jedi, despite their past reputation as peacekeepers. His command sent the armed forces on a large hunt for many years, which, to me, seems very closely related to what occurred in Lusus Naturae. In both stories, those who were different from the norm (the protagonist from Lusus Naturae and the Jedi) were hunted down and killed because they did not fit in to the mold society wanted them