My 5 year old has been introduced to Star Wars and with that I have seen the wonder and excitement in his eyes at space travel, blasters and talking robots. I relived my own amazement when I first watched the movie on the big screen at the age of six.
Below is me in the car trying to explain to my son that Darth Vader is not a robot. He just has a machine to help him breath and wears a black helmet to cover it up:
:Why can't he breath himself?
:He’s fought so much that he’s gotten hurt a lot and the machine helps him keep living.
:Why does he fight so much?
:Maybe people weren't nice to him when he was younger. And now he's always angry and wants to fight people. [I snicker at this one because I think I read it in a parenting magazine or something] Or maybe some people are just mean.
:Why does he want to fight Luke Skywalker?
:He thinks Luke will stop him.
:Stop him from what?
:He just wants to keep fighting and being bad and Luke might stop him. He is on the dark side of The Force. He is evil. Evil is something that is always bad and never wants to change. It’s the opposite of good.
There I said it. I tried not to, but I couldn't avoid equating darkness with evil; pitting darkness against good, that which is light. My son's voice came back to me from earlier years when he asked why his skin was darker than mine. What was he thinking now? Did he realize what I just said?
So there I am worrying about my son’s self-image, trying to explain the concept of good vs. evil in words he can understand, horrified that I just related the historically racist social model of Light = Good and Dark = Bad to my innocent baby whom I would do anything to protect. And what is he thinking at this time?
:But where did he get his cape?
: I don’t know, he bought it from the store [Phew! – I smile to myself, he didn't notice]
