A recurring scene throughout the Star Wars saga involves the characters taking a break from the adventure and drama by sitting around a table and sharing a meal. A common literary and dramatic device, it serves the purpose of gathering the characters for exposition. They can discuss what they've been doing, what motivates them, what matters to them, and what they would like to do, helping to move the story along. It also allows the reader or the audience an opportunity to get to know the characters on a personal level, fleshing themselves out to the reader or the audience by doing something all mere mortals do.
The first meal scene most of us ever saw in a Star Wars film was Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, and Luke Skywalker gathered around the dinner table in A New Hope. The scene establishes Luke's restlessness and his uncle's resistance to Luke leaving the farm or discovering anything about his heritage. It emphasizes the home as a place of safety but from Luke's standpoint, a place of stagnation. The cave-like interior is a hiding place from the dangers of the outside galaxy, but it is also keeping Luke from his destiny.
However, there is another reason why these scenes exist. The importance of hospitality and sharing a meal dates back to ancient times. The Greeks stressed tremendous importance on hospitality, often sharing one's home and dinner table with storytellers and travelers. It's a way for people to bond together and to share knowledge. The concept of it is called "Xenia," and it sets forth rules of obligation between guest and host. The host provides the guest with food, drink, and a bath. Asking the guest any questions until the guest has had his or her fill is impolite.1 Similarly, there is a long tradition of hospitality in the Middle East2 and the New Testament also bids Christians to be hospitable to strangers and guests alike.3
The ancient idea of hospitality arises in The Empire Strikes Back. When Luke arrives on Dagobah, Yoda rejects the artificial nutrients from Luke's rations ("How do you get so big eating food of this kind?"). Yoda brings Luke into his small hovel for a fresh-cooked meal, some sort of "rootleaf stew," and shelter from the weather (poor Artoo is left out in the rain). Yoda is doing what is proper to help a stranded stranger in need, offering comfort, food, and a place to stay. He doesn't even ask Luke any questions until Luke is inside his home and eating. But of course there is more to Yoda's hospitality than the goodness of his heart. Bringing Luke into his home allows him to determine if Luke is truly ready to be trained, sharing with Luke his very first lessons in patience and what it means to be a Jedi.
Meanwhile, Lando Calrissian uses hospitality to trap Han, Leia, Chewie, and Threepio in Cloud City. He offers them shelter in gleaming quarters and invites them for a meal. But he doesn't tell them Darth Vader and Boba Fett are among the guests. In Greek and Middle Eastern tradition, what Lando does is a horrible violation of something sacred, and not just because he betrayed an old friend. It would have been just as dire, if not worse, had Lando done the same thing to a stranger. Had Lando been in the hands of an ancient poet or playwright, he would have suffered a terrible fate for his crime, one far worse than an angry Wookiee choking him or Darth Vader altering a deal. The Greeks considered hospitality a religious as well as a social obligation and violators could incur the wrath of Zeus.4 In the Bible, God's wrath was incurred when the people of Sodom and Gamorrah violated the rules of hospitality with regard to two angels disguising themselves as human.5
Return of the Jedi doesn't have a traditional meal scene per se, but it is interesting to note the issue of hospitality does arise in this film. The characters experience the false hospitality of Jabba the Hutt's palace and the genuine hospitality bestowed upon them by the Ewoks. In the first act of Return of the Jedi, Jabba the Hutt lavishly shelters, entertains, and offers sustenance to a variety of underworld characters but his generosity can turn deadly on a dime. He makes a further mockery of the concept of hospitality when taking the main characters as prisoners. Jabba provides new clothes to Leia, but it's in the form of a slave dancer's outfit. He provides her drink but he forces her to imbibe from his chalice filled with who-knows-what. He forces Artoo and Threepio into his employ while he plans to execute Luke, Han, and Chewbacca for entertainment purposes.
The Ewoks provide a stark contrast later on in the film. They may live in humble tree huts instead of a large palace, but once the heroes are able to convince the Ewoks they mean well, the Ewoks accept them as one of their own. They shelter the heroes, provide Leia clothing, and by implication, give supplies to the Rebels leading the raid on the Imperial bunker. The Ewoks even assist the Rebels in their mission.
The Phantom Menace returns to the more traditional theme of hospitality. Anakin generously offers shelter from a sandstorm to offworld strangers, even though he lives in a small hovel with his mother. When he says Shmi "wouldn't mind," it's because this sort of generosity is a shared value among the Skywalker family. Qui-Gon is aware of the Skywalkers' poverty; he quietly gives Shmi something (food capsules, according to some "expanded universe" sources) and says, "These should help." But Shmi thinks nothing of feeding three extra guests and allowing them to stay in her small home. In fact, Qui-Gon respects this sacrifice so much, he chastises Jar Jar for displaying poor manners and snatching fruit off of the table. One of the rules of Xenia is that the guest must be courteous and not be a burden.6
A review of the book Making Room: Recovering Hospitality As A Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl notes that: "Hospitality is implicitly subversive in the way it shatters social boundaries, especially those boundaries enforced by table fellowship. When we eat with the lowly and welcome strangers and 'sinners' to our table, we topple social expectations and bear witness to the kind of love God has for all his creatures."7 This reminds one of how this simple meal brought together slaves, a great Jedi Master, a lowly exiled Gungan, and a queen, breaking down the galaxy's social and class structures. This small group forms a bond that ultimately affects the fate of the galaxy.
Interestingly enough, Attack of the Clones has more meal scenes than any other Star Wars film, more than the other films combined. Almost all of these scenes are part of Anakin's courtship of Padmé. First there is the scene on the transport to Naboo, where they share their first meal alone. Even though they are in a crowded hold, they have a personal conversation about love and what it means. They have a picnic alone in the Lake Country and a romantic dinner at the retreat house. The concept though of hospitality remains. There is the deleted scene where Anakin and Padmé go to her parents' home on Naboo, where they share a meal with her family. Padmé's family welcome Anakin, a stranger, into their home despite their worries Padmé is in enough danger to need Jedi protection. Her mother and her sister also realize Anakin is a potential suitor. Later on in the film, there is a parallel with Luke's meal with Owen and Beru in A New Hope, where Anakin and Padmé gather with the Larses in the very same dining room. It's not a meal per se, but Beru offers them drinks. Finally, there is Padmé bringing Anakin something to eat after his mother's death, complete with that staple of comfort food in the Star Wars galaxy, blue milk. The meal scenes with Anakin and Padmé allow the two to get to know each other better and grow closer. Anakin is able to integrate into Padmé's world and she becomes part of his, each of their families offering hospitality to the other.
Only one meal scene in Attack of the Clones doesn't involve Anakin and Padmé, and that is a brief shot of the clones eating in a Kamino mess hall. The setting is stark and austere. Judging by the expression of a clone's face as he's eating, the food isn't particularly tasty. It emphasizes the curious lack of human connection among these clones.
Revenge of the Sith does not have any types of these scenes. Perhaps it is because there is no sense of comfort or connection among the characters anymore. But it is interesting to note that we never see the Imperial or Sith characters offer anything in the way of food or drink to anyone. Even when Obi-Wan visits Kamino, presumably as a major client, the polite-seeming Kaminoans don't even offer him a glass of water.
A great deal has been made of the references to the mythical in the Star Wars saga, but few have considered hospitality as part of that tradition. It is clear, dramatic devices aside, that there is significance in even the simplicity of sharing a meal together.
Footnotes:
1. <http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek)>
2. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality>
3. "Applying the Scriptures to Every Sphere Of Life." Wittenberg Gate website. 2004. <http://dory.typepad.com/wittenberg_gate/2004/11/christian_hospi.html>
4. < http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek)>
5. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospitality>
6. <http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek)>
7. Gushee, David. "Making Room: Recovering Hospitality As A Christian Tradition." Christian Ethics Today: Journal of Christian Ethics website. 2001. <http://www.christianethicstoday.com/index.htm>
