Final Draft Assignment #3

Becoming Ms.Marvel

A press conference is being held in honor of Ms.Marvel’s recent achievement, rescuing the mayor of Jersey City from a flaming building.Then, one interviewer asks Kama- I mean Ms.Marvel a interesting question. How did you become the person you are today?

Kamala Khan- Wow! Thats actually a great question. Well, to begin answering this question I just want to say that I had a rough start. You all are probably thinking “how could she have a rough start? She’s a super hero. She has powers.”I gotta tell ya, it wasn’t easy peasy lemon squeezy like most of you think being a super hero is. These powers were just given to me as if I was the chosen one; the chosen one to make things right again. And I was in a stage in my life where I was still figuring out who I am and who Im becoming. Yes , by the looks of it I am a Pakistani girl and I’m young too. When I first gained my powers, I was having some difficulties controlling them. For example, I would try to embiggen myself,(everyone in the crowd oooh’s and ahhh’s at the fact that she can shrink and “embiggen” herself)but instead I would turn small. Or even when I wasn’t trying to do a super power, my body and appearance would tweak out of control. Do any of you know why it was so hard to control my powers in the beginning? NO YOU DON’T AND YOU KNOW WHY YOU DON’T KNOW? BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW ME AND GUESS WHAT? At that time I didn’t know myself either. When I started gaining control over my powers, it wasn’t because of practice or a super hero mentor. My dad and the Quran are the main reasons I was brought to my senses. My father told me that my real name means perfection and that I don’t have to be anyone but myself. Everytime I thought of my father’s words,*Flashback of her father’s words* I stopped overthinking and had confidence and I would be able to complete my missions or rescues. THIS IS WHAT HELPED ME CONTROL MY POWERS. I would turn small by accident because thats how I was feeling…. small. Remembering quotes that my dad would say when he saw carnage on tv such as, “Whoever kills one person, its as if he has killed mankind…. And whoever saves one person, its as if they saved MANKIND.”(A silent crowd full of head nods and smiles as she said these words) This made me feel better and made me want to help and save people. I would like to thank all of you for honoring me but really you all should be honoring yourselves for always being yourself. Don’t ever think that you have to impersonate someone else or another lifestyle to impress anyone. BEING YOURSELF IMPRESSES EVERYONE THANK YOU HAVE A NICE DAY EVERYONE.

*A standing ovation for Ms.Marvel as she tries to walk off stage*

Ms.Marvel! Ms.Marvel!

I will not be taking no further questions.

Final Draft Assignment 3

Artists Statement-

Ms.Marvel inspired me to use my creative juices for more than just an essay. So I decided to do an Alternate universe fanfiction.

My audience is my classmates. You should know my piece is an alternate universe piece, Kamala was actually born in Jersey City, but I wanted to explore the struggles of Kamala if she wasn’t born in America. I wanted to highlight the problems a child may have emigrating to another country.

I want my audience to gain the insight of what kind of challenges even children can face when they are in a new country. I want them to learn how hard it is for someone to come from another country. Perhaps my audience can learn to be accommodating to a person emigrating from another country and welcome them, instead if bullying them or trying to push them out. (Ahem our president)

My audience can conclude from the story, how hard it is for Kamala to adjust to her new school, her bullies, how isolated she feels and how she longs to go back. Many immigrants from other countries feel that way, they feel unwelcome here and want to go back. We as a people need teach out children and ourselves be welcoming to others from other countries.

I was going for high emotional impact here, many people will be able to empathize with Kamala here, as most people are bullied.

Panels of Kamala’s interactions with Zoe and her little angst session before she sneaks out to the party inspired me.

I learned that I can be quite descriptive with my writing if I put the time and effort.

What unique perspective did you bring to your close reading of Ms. Marvel that someone else might not have? What is the value of this perspective?

I added the persepective of a American Pakistani girl herself. I see so much of myself in Kamala. I have gone through the emotions and even similar experiences she has. I know what it feels like to be ashamed in your own skin, and how that can affect yours sense of self. I know what it feels like to be an American when people don’t consider you one. I feel the clash of cultures every day, and how hard it was to deal with that as a child, like Kamala does in my fanfiction.

I learned that personal experiences and adding emotions into your writing can enrich it.

I did not learn the the proper format for a story/fanfiction.

I want to learn how to create an original story.

What, if any, role did class discussions and your peers play in your project?

Class discussions helped narrow down what route I wanted to take my writing on.

I would add more details and make in longer.

What will you take with you from this project into future projects?

I will take my newly learned skill in story writing.

The last thing you want to tell your audience before they dive into your project is try and empathize with Kamala. Also, if you don’t understand any words, google it 😉

Hurt. 

Kamala sat down in a wooden tall mahogany chair and munched happily on her cake rusk dipped in chai. She can hear her father and Aamir devouring their aloo parathas while watching Geo News in the next room over. Her mother combed quickly through her thick, wavy and frizzy black hair.
Her mom asked “beta, are you ready for your first day of school in America?”

Kamala stuck her hands in the air and exclaimed “I’m excited! ”

“Good beta, I know my Kamala will win everyone’s hearts.”

Her mother then divides her hair into sections and tightly braids her hair. Her mother put her backpack on and, together they walk to her new school, Coles Elementary. At the entrance, Kamala’s mom crouches down to her level, adjusts her straps, plants a kiss on her forehead and gives Kamala a big hug
Kamala, giddy to enter the building, trying to free herself from her mother’s grip groans “Ammi, let go na. ”

Her mother sighs “ Acha beta, have good day, I will be right here when you come out.”

As soon as her mother utters those words, she skids off into the massive building. Once she enters the building, she is greeted, by a healthy woman wearing a tan skirt. The woman introduces herself, “Good morning dear, and your name must be Kamala. My name is Ms. Johnson; I will be your 3rd-grade teacher”.

Ms. Johnson leads Kamala into a large room filled with colorful pictures, projects, desks, and an Alphabet carpet! Sitting in the desks is her new class. There are many kids, but none of them actually look like her. Ms. Johnson introduces Kamala to her new class. “Class, this is your new classmate Kamala Khan, she just moved here, Kamala, how about you go sit next to Zoe.”

This girl, Zoe has long shiny blonde hair, Kamala had never seen a girl with a hair color like that! Kamala just knew she has to become best friends with this girl! Kamala then plops herself into her chair and takes out her brown covered notebooks and inserts them into the empty cavity of her desk. Zoe, looks at the books, scrunches her face and asks “ Eww, why are your notebooks brown? They are so ugly looking!”. Zoe and the other girls at her desks all starting saying “Ew’ to the notebooks her mother loving covered.

Kamala turns red in embarrassment. She has no idea as to why Zoe would even ask that, back at her school in Karachi, all the kids used to cover their notebooks in brown paper, it was a requirement. Kamala looks over at the other kid’s notebooks; they were all different colors, some even had shiny stickers. Kamala answers Zoe “I don’t know why my mom put them on.” Ms. Johnson calls everyone to the carpet for reading time and class starts.

At lunch time the teacher escorts the children to the cafeteria. Kamala is starving! She takes out her lunch box and gorges on the onion pakoras her mother packed for her. Pakodas are Kamala’s favorite! While Kamala is eating, Zoe and the girls from her desk group come over and stare at her lunchbox, Zoe says “Ew she is so weird, her lunch is so smelly.”

Another girl yells out ”It kind of looks like poop!!”. All the girls screech and run away. Kamala feels her cheeks burn, and tears well in her eyes. She is so embarrassed, why would they say her favorite food looks like poop? Kamala takes her pakoras and throws them in the garbage. Lunch ends, and she is then escorted back to class with the rest of the kids.

After school, Kamala gets picked up by her mother. On the way home she asks her mom “Ammi, can I get new notebooks? I don’t like the brown paper anymore”.

Her mother responds “ Why beta, they make your books look nice and neat.”

Kamala pleads, “Ammi please, I want the pretty notebooks the girls in my class have.”

Kamala’s mother, not wanting her daughter to feel left out says “Okay beta, if that’s what you want.”

School after that day is not so fun for Kamala. Zoe of her friends will not talk to her because they think she smells funny and eats poop. Back in Karachi, she loved to going to school and playing hopscotch with her friends. But now, school isn’t as fun.

On one warm day in late September Kamala’s class is allowed to go to recess, they are sharing the playground with some 4th graders. During recess, Zoe calls Kamala over to play with her and her friends. Kamala is confused but excited, maybe Zoe wanted to be friends with her now. Zoe tells Kamala and, “Okay, so everyone is going to go through the monkey bars, climb the ladder and go down the big slide, like an obstacle course, got it Kamala?”

Kamala excitedly replies “Yes!”

Zoe, responds “great! you go first”.

Kamala is a bit scared, she has never played on the monkey bars before, but she knows that if she wants to be Zoe’s friend, she has to do this. Kamala climbs the bright red metallic ladder and jumps, to grab onto the first monkey bar. As soon as she grabs onto the monkey bar, she cannot hold onto it anymore; she can’t move. Kamala shouts “Zoe, help me, I can’t hold on any longer!”

Zoe and her friends start laughing, seeing Kamala hanging in the air like that. Zoe says, “see; she’s such a freak, she can’t even play on the monkey bars!”.

Kamala can’t take it anymore, she can feel her hands feeling sweaty and her grip slipping. Kamala falls to the ground. The kids are laughing even harder. Kamala feels her face getting warms and tears well up, as they have so many times before. But this time, the tears fall, nonstop, this so embarrassing, she is crying in front of all her classmates. When Zoe sees Kamala cry, she and her friends run away to the other side of the playground, leaving Kamala all by herself. Kamala sits there crying, unable to move. Why do the kids treat her like this? All she wants to be is their friend. Why don’t they like her books, her smell or her food? All Kamala wants to be is their friend.

Kamala did not even realize when another child came up to her. A girl, who was the same color as her, but was a 4th grader, stood in front of her. She extends her right hand towards Kamala, Kamala grabs it and stands up. The mysterious girl asks Kamala “Hey, are you okay?”

Kamala wipes her nose with her shirt and replies “yeah, I’m okay” The mysterious girl introduces herself to Kamala, “ Hi, my name is Nakia, but you can call me Kiki.”

Kamala, replies to Kiki “Hi, I’m Kamala”.

Kiki asks Kamala, “Hey Kamala, do you want to go play with me?”

Kamala excitedly says “ yes that would be awesome!” Friends with a fourth grader, Zoe could never pick on her again!

Kiki then explains to Kamala “I saw those girls picking on you, you know you can tell your teacher, and she will help you.” Kamala never even thought of telling her teacher. After, recess, Kamala went straight up to Ms.Johnson and told her everything. The next day, Zoe apologizes to her, but Kamala still feels like Zoe does not like her.

Ever since that day, Kiki and Kamala play every day at recess.

Rough Draft: http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/06/05/rough-draft-for-assignment-3-2/

PreDraft: http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/24/pre-draft-for-assignment-3-4/

Expections: http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/20/expectations-for-assignment-3-2/

I peer reviewed Kat and spoke with Yamell.

Final Draft for Assignment 3

Expectations for Assignment 3:-                                                          Emailed to professor.

Pre-Draft for Assignment 3:- http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/26/pre-draft-for-assignment-3-5/

Rough Draft for Assignment 3:-  http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/30/rough-draft-for-assignment-3/

Peer-Review:- Discussed Diego’s comic with him in class.


                         Artist statement  

I decided to write an essay for this assignment because I thought it is the best way to express and explain my ideas in a complete and detailed format. My audience for this assignment is of course my professor and also an average American Citizen who is not well informed about Islam. Before they start reading my paper, they should know that I tried my best to cover all ideas that stood out to me from this comic series. I want them to learn two things from my project, first one is to get an idea of how this comic series paints a beautiful picture of what a Muslim household is like, and the second thing is how this comic series fights against the stereotypes of Muslim people living in the states. I think they would be able to learn these two things since I have already mentioned these things now, so it would be easy for them to point it out in the actual essay. The emotional impact that I am hoping to achieve from this project is religious tolerance racial harmony. It is not that only one or few sections of Ms.Marvel had inspired me to create my project in this type, it is the overall idea that made me write an analytical essay on this assignment, so I can have the freedom and space to express my thoughts completely. I am not so sure what I have learned about my writing process through doing this project, but I know that I picked up some ideas from Ms.Marvel and then explain it with my own observation of the society and then supported it with an example from the book itself. I think the one unique perspective that I brought in this project was the fact that I’m a muslim immigrant myself, although I wasn’t born in the states but still I can relate to this comic series on another level, and think of something related to Ms.Marvel that someone else might not. In terms of what I learned through this project, well this was my first experience with a comic book. It introduced me several things, the art of telling stories through pictures, and the fact that sketches are also part of literature. I would still like to learn how the story of “Kamala Khan” would turnout in the next part. I got so much help from the peer review on my rough draft and from my professor’s feedback. They helped me to narrow my focus and thoughts in one specific direction. If I had another week to work on my project, I would probably expand the three paragraphs containing my main ideas. The deep analysis that I did in this project to get the most of it and to make it relevant to today’s society, I can use that deep analysis technique in my future projects. I would like my audience to know one last thing, there maybe some points that you won’t agree with me. But I can say that I have a firsthand experience of these things so just bear with me. It would all make sense by the end.


                        IDENTITY

Migrating to other countries can be resulted in some hard choices for first generation of children. The struggle to blend in a new community, to own a new culture, to keep in touch and follow their own virtues and ideas can easily make them confused and frustrated. They often feel ashamed for being different and try to deny their stereotypes. For our third and final assignment, we read a comic series named ,”MS.MARVEL”. It is a story of a teenage girl who was born in New jersey, where her parents moved from Pakistan. In the beginning she seemed a bit confused and scared while she tried to adjust herself in the community and be like her friends. This comic series does a great job at portraying the actual version of Muslim people living in the states.

This comic series shows us the insights of Muslim immigrant households and their way of life. We all can clearly see that dividing wall between the beliefs of two completely separated communities. For instance, in the very beginning scene. The main character “Kamala Khan” is  trying to smell “Bacon” but she can not eat it because that is against her religious belief. And when she goes to her friend’s party and accidentally drinks alcohol, she gets so terrified and spits it out. These are just some examples of how Muslim people have to be careful and frightened while trying to adjust themselves in western culture.

This comic series also does a fine job in highlighting stereotypes of Muslim people. For example, the idea in American’s mind that muslim women are required by their parents to wear headscarf and like it is a matter of death and life. There is a scene in this comic series where a white girl named Zoe asks Kamala, “But I mean… nobody pressured you to start wearing it, right? Your father or somebody? Nobody’s going to like, honor kill you? I’m just concerned.” Well this is pretty much the mindset of an average American. They believe that all religious practices are accompanied by someone else’s pressure. And ironically nowadays these same people are identifying Muslim women by their headscarves and harassing them.

Another idea that I think this comic series shed some light on or tried to defend it was the most famous and everlasting thought that “All muslims are terrorists”. (Period. No exception). So when Kamala becomes Ms.Marvel and gains super powers, she then jumps into the lake to save Zoe from drowning. But before doing that, she remembers something from Muslim religious book. Which is, “WHOEVER KILLS ONE PERSON, IT IS AS IF HE HAS KILLED ALL OF MANKIND– AND WHOEVER SAVES ONE PERSON, IT IS AS IF HE HAS SAVED ALL OF MANKIND.” This verse clearly tells us what are the actual Islamic views on violence and humanity. But people still find a way to ignore the authentic version of the religion and blame everyone who follows it because of an individual person’s acts.

These are the two ideas that stood out to me in this comic series. It can be really helpful for Muslims living in states if people read this series and get a new perspective on several issues. But the problem remains the same, because people who are Islamophobic and believe that is a religion of oppression, are not going to even touch this comic because it propagates the “Liberal Agenda.”

Final Draft with Artist Statement

Reading the comic Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson, has brought me memories of my past when I was struggling to transform to this new world (America), and where I wanted to experience everything that I could not in my home country. There is gender inequality where boys can do anything and girls cannot. My brothers could do anything and I had restrictions and limitations in my life. I was stuck between my desires and my parents’ expectations and believes. My life changing experience was coming to America. The bridge between my past life and my new life was insecure because I struggled to cross and embrace a whole new life which changed everything.

I was so excited, but somewhat nervous at the same time. I was nervous of how I’ll stick to my own culture and religion when I was scared of losing it. Because people used to gossip that America is a country of freedom and where young get spoiled and leave their culture and religion. Departing from my old life was the hardest challenge but the minute me and my family stepped out of the airplane into the ‘land of opportunity’ we looked ahead at the bright future we had lying in front of us. I was looking towards my freedom because I was told by my friends that girls are free like a bird and they could do whatever they want and that there are no restrictions on anything. I was happy.

Similarly, in the comic Ms. Marvel, Kamala a young Pakistani teenager, wanted freedom from everything she was stuck in such as culture, dos and don’ts. She just wanted to be free like her friends. Kamala’s parents were strict and conservative. They wanted her to be good, obedient, and a polite girl. Yet, she wanted to be wild and try things that were forbidden. In the below scene 1, she asked for permission to go to a party with her friends’ late night. And there is this gender ideology in our culture that boys are allowed to go out late night but girls can’t. Girls are known as family izzat meaning honor, prestige and reputation. If girls do something wrong then everyone will gossip about that family yet if boys do something wrong, the people won’t give attention. This makes us girls wanting more freedom and experience of everything that boys do.

Scene 1:

Kamala: “Abu?… can I go to a party tonight?”

Kamala’s Dad: “but it’s not safe for a young girl to be out late at night with strange boys, drinking God knows what…”

Kamala: “… if I was a boy. You’d let me go to the party. May I be excused.”

The conversation between Kamala and her Dad in this scene shows a lot of overprotection from her Dad. She was not allowed to attend the party because she is a girl and especially late night with her friends was totally forbidden. Her parents did not want her to be in any trouble. They also did not want other families to gossip about them If something went wrong with Kamala.

Likewise, something similar happened to me too. When I came here to America, I remember me and my twin brother were graduating from our high school and we had prom. I was desperate to go and attend it with all my friends as this was my first party ever. I asked for permission from my parents. My mother started conversation with me about other girls in my family and the girl I used to be in my country. She told me that “Hira you never attended any parties back then” I was silent and told her okay I am not going to any prom. I then asked my father if I could go to prom with my girlfriends, he said when and where and how is it going to be a party and all. I even told him that I won’t eat and drink anything. I explained him everything. He said no at last. I was not shocked or upset because I knew I was not allowed to attend prom. And so my brother went to prom and I did not. I sometimes did get depressed and sad for a while because I did not have anything to do, all I was supposed to do was obey my parents.

Scene 2:

Kamala (to herself): IT’S JUST A ONE PARTY. IT’S NOT LIKE I’M ASKING THEIR PERMISSION TO SNORT COCAINE. I’VE ALWAYS DONE WHAT THEY ASK ME TO DO…AREN’T I ALLOWED TO DO ANYHING MY WAY? JUST ONCE? … EVERYBODY ELSE GETS TO BE NORMAL. WHY CAN’T I?

In the above scene two, Kamala is very disturbed. She wanted to do things that she like, going out to parties and having fun with friends was all she wanted. Yet, her parents did no let her go out to party late night because she is a girl. Her parents were also scared and were being protective.

Back then in my country I never went out to any trips, proms, parties, or graduation except school and home. That was all I did in my teenage life. I had this thinking that I am in America and I can do anything I want and nothing can stop me. But I did not know that my culture will stop me from what I wanted to do. I stayed silent the whole time and I was used to hearing no from my parents. Even now that I am married my parents still say no to me if I want to go alone to malls or any other things.

 

 

Expectation: emailed

Pre-Draft:  http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/24/pre-draft-assignment-3-2/

Rough Draft:  http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/31/rough-draft-assignment-3-3/

 

Artist Statement:

I did a personal essay. There are a lot of things from the comic Ms. Marvel that had inspired me throughout the comic. I see myself in Kamala the main character in the comic in some ways. The way her parents treat her, she is from Pakistani like me, she had so many restriction and over protection from her parents as me. So I thought I would like to do personal essay. My audience is everyone. Especially people from other cultures so they would have ideas about my culture and my personal life. They should know that every culture hold different aspects we should all respect our culture and obeying our parents is not something bad but it is good for our future I believe. I think my audience will able to learn my writing and understand it well because reading Ms. Marvel made us all understand that she was at first very innocent girl and she wanted to try and experience new stuff and things that she was forbidden from but then she got superpowers and she struggle to hide them. There were a lot of emotional impact. I chose a scene where kamala asked her parents if she could go out to a party late night with her friends but they say no. similarly I was not allowed to attend my prom. My parents did not let me go to prom and I did go deep in this conversation. Since Ms. Marvel character Kamala Khan is Pakistani and came here when she was young and then she struggled with her parents obeying. She was frustrating and tired of the culture she was following because she could not do anything like her American friends could. I had the same story in life. I know that it gets hard to follow culture once young girls comes here because they want to be free like the others. I think I did learn something but I have to work on my writings I feel like I still have some empty spaces that I need to fill in my writing skills. I think there are slot of things that I learned throughout the projects we did in this class. Every assignment I learned something new and in this I had learned slot. I had never read a comic and wrote a personal essay on it. It was fantastic to read a comic and then write deep essay on it. It was pleasure to read Ms. Marvel. I really appreciate it.

A coming of age story, thanks dad

Expectations for Assignment #3

Pre-draft for Assignment 3 and answering the questions!

Assignment #3 Draft

Naval was my peer reviewer!
What inspired you to choose the format you did for this project?
I wanted to talk about the comic because I had learned so much from it. I learned that its not only about the text, images played a huge role in understanding the material.
Who is your audience for this project? What should they know before diving into your work?
My audience for this project is anyone and everyone and what I want them to know before diving into this is that ANYONE can be into comics, I never thought I would ever like comics because I thought it would be super hard to understand and read but here I am connecting myself to one haha.
What do you want them to learn from your project?
I want people to know that even if you can’t relate to her being a super hero you can relate to pretty much anything else. She’s a normal girl trying to understand where to fit in the world and how to understand how people see her. She’s the under dog everyone roots for, and I saw a bit of me in Kamala.
Do you think they’ll be able to learn that? Why? Why not?
I do think they will be able to learn this because we can all relate to being teenagers wanting to do our own thing and having our parents constantly annoy us trying to understand why.
What emotional impact were you going for?
Not anyone in paticular, whatever you feel is right and I hope people get different emotions out of it.
What specific panels of Ms. Marvel inspired the type of project you created?
The intimate scenes were the ones I based it all around because it’s something I, as a young women can relate to with my own mom and in many ways am still dealing with.
What did you learn about your own writing/creation process through doing this project?
I learned that writing everything you think is hard and many people might not understand the message you’re trying to present to them but in my best efforts I tried to illustrate that in the best way possible.
What unique perspective did you bring to your close reading of Ms. Marvel that someone else might not have? What is the value of this perspective?
The perspective of my own experience connect to Kamalas relationship with her father. In many ways I relate, and think most can to. You get to an age where you want to do your own thing but parents cant seem to understand why and may view it as lashing out and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
What did you learn through this project?
I learned that with any great literature piece you grow with each piece you write. I learned comics if anything are harder and more complex to understand and that underestamating them closes opportunity to learn about different forms of literature.
What did you not learn?
Still did not know if Bruno and Kamala get together ahahah :(.
What would you still like to learn?
I would like to know if the writers of Ms. Marvel were scared to write another part, wondering if it would be as good as the first.
What, if any, role did class discussions and your peers play in your project? Naval helped me understand that whatever idea I have is a great one, because starting the thought process of a new project is about opening yourself up to new materials and formats.

If you had another week to work on your project, what would you do with it? How would you change it?
I would have gone more deeper in and expanded my writing and maybe even drew something connected to the comic.
What will you take with you from this project into future projects?
To enter everything with an open mind even if challenging.
The last thing you want to tell your audience before they dive into your project is… that this is an analysis from a non comic book reader but I tried my best to understand this different form of art. I’ve learned a lot as a reader and I’m proud to say that I am more open to different types of reading pieces. I hope you all enjoy and remember this class of writing where we all learned something new about ourselves.

Going into reading this comic I really had no idea what it was going to be like. I’ve never been into comics before because I just figured it’s all the same thing. It also takes a lot for me to get into something too so I didn’t really know what to expect. Getting into Ms. Marvel opened my eyes to what comics are really about and I’m not going to lie I was super lost at first. What was really intimidating was that everyone seemed to know a lot and were talking freely about it. So then I’m faced with pretending to know what’s going on or asking questions and getting somewhat a gist of what I will be reading. I chose to ask and I’m pretty glad I did because now I can write this beautiful piece of writing you’re about to read. My analysis of the comic will revolve around the scene with her father and how I believe their relationship shapes and molds her as a super hero and young woman.
It’s no secret her dad is a traditional older muslim man and is protective over Kamala but you see a very compassionate side to him as well. Unlike Kamalas mother, her dad seems to be the voice of reason. We see this when she’s fighting crime because she goes back to say something her father always says. This shows me that even though she finds her father annoying she still views him as a protecter. The scene I want to focus on is the one where she just gets back from fighting the guy and robots from the basement and her mother starts yelling at her about how she’s changing and “this isn’t the Kamala she raised.”During this argument the dad tells the mom that he will have a talk with Kamala. During the conversation he ask her what is going on and although Kamala doesn’t tell him she confides in him for comfort. We see this because they have a one on one in the kitchen showing me a intimate setting. Her dad starts telling her a story on why they decided to name her Kamal and the story is quiet moving. He continues to let her know how her name means perfection and that they named her that because her mother was told that after her brother was born she would no longer be able to have any more children but then came Kamala. This scene showed me another side of her father that I had not really seen before. In the beginning we see him acting his role and being the typical striked dad. But in this scene I saw that protecting fatherly relationship and you see the love he has for Kamala. Kamala is confused with everything thats going on in and around her and her parents note that right away. Her father knows getting it out of her isnt going to happen so to ease her mind he reminds her how much she is love. The author did this on purpose and the reason for this is to show how the dynamic between her and her dad is and in a lot of ways he plays role in how she is. I believe his role impacts the way she deals with situations, she’s careful when being Ms. Marvel and the reason for that is because of they way her father watches over. Kamala won’t put herself in risky situations if she doesn’t have to, she’s always very careful with the way she approaches problems and I feel like the voice of her parents grounds her and helps her become the Ms.Marvel Kamala eventually ends up being.
In many ways I envy the relationship Kamala and her father share. Although I can’t relate to having that father figure there to be a protector, I saw a lot of the characteristics from the father in my mom. My mother plays a huge role in who I am because with every choice I make I think about what my mother would say or do. Kamala is the same way, she goes back to her dads voice whenever things get too much or for a voice of reason. Something that was a cute touch for the scene in the end was when they ended their deep talk but he doesn’t forget his role and reminds her she’s still in trouble. I feel like this whole scene is something we can all relate to because we were all teenagers once and the conflict of wanting to branch out but still being too young to learn is a struggle.
I see myself in Kamala and in many ways it’s a story on a young women coming to become her own person but also learning to not forget where she comes from. I believe her father helps mold her into acceptance and understanding that she is not weird and if anything she is more unique than anyone else and for that I find this comic beautiful because the way we see her become more confidant through out the comic shows her journey to become the strong Ms. Marvel she learns to know and love.

Kamala “Who Am I”

I’m not the typical young looking female with blonde hair and outstanding body I’m Kamala Khan originally from Pakistan growing up in Jersey City.  I always wanted to fit in with the in crowded, needed people to see me as myself. I  always felt like the geek in the group. I didn’t like my hair it’s to dark my body is flat looking like a string beam. Why do I have to continue my religious valves in this new country? “Why can I have the glorious blond hair and fabulous body as Captain Marvel. “Why can I be less complicated?, Why can I go out like the other kids my age. Why, Why ?. This was Kamala Khan a young woman who felt the need to always wanted to become someone besides herself. She always dream of being Captain Marvel because of her beauty and power. Even as she was reboot int the person she became she still was confuse to how her power was to make her the ideal person. When learning her new power it made her realize the difficulty one faces trying to lose their true identity. After becoming aware of how her power can make her strong kamala had no reason to feel small or inferior of anyone.

The scene I choose in the Ms. Marvel is Kamala standing tall with her fists swollen with power. I choose this scene because here is where Kamala took notice of who she believes to be. Her inner quote “Who Am I?”, as she develops confidence within herself at that moment not feeling small when she came around earthly people (Zoe) who make her feel inferior when she is near her but, letting those in her present see her as Ms. Marvel and not Captain Marvel. Kamala is taking the stand to put her power towards building her self-esteem as well as reassuring her true identity. As Kamala getting to knowing herself it became a confusing roller coaster ride, one that she had to take in order to bring out the best in her. It was a difficult transition because she was transforming into someone else (Captain Marvel the blonde) and fighting within herself which made her power weak until she learns to connected her powers to believe into herself.

We all had some Kamala in us. Growing up as children we face many challenges trying to fit in. We all at one point disobey our parents when we were told to come straight home from school we might detour and hang out with peers before heading straight home. Understanding Kamala parents who have their expectation and values for their daughter. Parents who come from a different country hoping and wishing for their children to have a better life than the one they have naturally will want the best for their kids. You will find that a daughter and father relationship will be quite different than a mother and daughter. Kamala mother was very hurt and shame the way that her daughter behaved. Female are supposed be ladies of elegant not shaming the family whereas the father was angry but more understandable. He took time to explain to is daughter why she was special explaining her name, what it meant, and why it was special. Everyone goes fades shame, and disappointed but with love and understanding from those around us will bring peace happiness and joy.

Ms. Marvel

Artist Statement

What inspired me to choose the format for this project was the comic Ms. Marvel itself. I felt like I wanted to know more and curious to know what would happen after the ending. I decided to sort of switch up the very last scene with my own perspective and extend the scene a bit. I decided to recreate the scene with a different idea. My audience can be anybody. Especially those who love and enjoy comics. I noticed that Ms. Marvel has more to it so I wanted to recreate the last scene with my own idea and imagination. I want my audience to know that the last scene of the comic could of ended in many different ways. I want them to learn that in my scenes I decided to have Kamala reveal to her mother that she is Ms. Marvel and include her mother’s reaction and opinion on Kamala’s powers. I believe my audience will be able to learn this easily by reading the panels and finding out what the scenes are all about. The emotional impact that I was going for is probably the impact Kamala’s mother  was going through when finding out that her daughter is Ms. Marvel. My scene will basically show that Kamala’s mother is shocked and concerned that her daughter is Ms. Marvel who basically risks her life to save others at a very young age. The specific panels in Ms. Marvel that inspired my panels are the scenes in which Kamala transforms as well as the scene that shows her family. What I learned about my project in which I created was that I had to get creative and figure out what I wanted to do. Since I wanted to give the last scene a bit of a twist of my own, I had to figure out how I was going to do that by drawing and writing. I had to imagine and develop ideas as if I was the author of Ms. Marvel. My perspective was unique in the way I thought about the way I changed the final scene with my own ideas. I decided to have Kamala reveal her self as Ms. Marvel, which I’m curious to know if she actually does in the future. I learned about the creative process of writing and drawing from this project. It’s very important when it comes down to analyzing this piece of literature as a reader. I would like to learn more about the little details and messages that can be find throughout the entire comic, Such as the small words hidden throughout the drawings as well as the background and setting which I did not include in my scenes. If I had another week to work on my project I would definitely work on my drawings and add a lot of details and colors and the background drawings. I would also add more panels and scenes. I will take the creative process of this project into future projects to help me improve and develop my ideas more.

Artist Statement #3

Pre- draft assignment:

http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/25/pre-draft-assignment-for-3/

Rough Draft: http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/05/31/rough-draft-3-2/

Expectations for assignment 3: I have emailed it to you

I peer reviewed Saeed

What inspired me to create a video is that I feel that making a video would be pretty easy rather than drawing. Because I suck at drawing but with a video, I get to talk more about my topic.My audience is for the people who have read Ms. marvel and for those who haven’t read Ms. marvel. It would be hard for the people who haven’t read Ms. marvel, however, I tried my best explaining who she is at the beginning of the video. I want you to learn Ms. Marvel is a role model to anyone who is dealing with their own problems. Therefore, I believe Kamala Khan can inspire anyone. It’s like the comic book is saying anyone can be a superhero. In the beginning, I was undecided whether I should make a poster or make a video. So i chose the one that will be talking more about this comic book. The comic book inspired me by Kamala showing how confidence is very important. Especially if someone is an introvert like I am. When I started creating my second video for class, It made me realize that I enjoy making and editing videos. For me, I find it so much fun. Throughout the comic book, I’ve learned to have a lot of confidence with yourself and you shouldn’t put a mask on, to hide your true colors. The panel that inspired me the most was when Kamala and her dad were having a father and daughter conversation. And her dad was telling her that Kamala shouldn’t pretend to be someone else. That she should be proud and comfortable for who she is. If I were to change anything in this video, would be nothing. I am very proud of my video. I hope you enjoy watching my video! 🙂

PS: My video wouldn’t upload through the blog. And I’ve tried emailing to professor, Polish but it says the video was too long. So I decided to post it on my Youtube account. The video is public so anyone can see. Here’s the link, Thank you 🙂

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N4kOqxb1r4

So what if I’m Different?

ARTIST STATEMENT

As soon as we got assigned this assignment, I knew that I wanted to do something different. I always did an essay for this class so this time, I want to step out of my comfort zone so I decided to do a comic. At first, I was contemplating between a poem and a comic but I leaned more towards the comic because I was having difficulties putting my thoughts together for the poem. My audience for this project are people who like reading comics. Before diving into my work, they should know that I worked really hard on this comic and I know I can’t draw but I tried my best.I want my audience to learn how important it is to stay true to yourself. It’s okay to be different and you should never feel the need to be like anybody else. It’s hard to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to change you.

Yes, I think my audience will be able to learn because that’s the whole message I’m trying to portray in my comic. It’s okay to be different, it’s okay to stand out, it’s okay to NOT be like everybody else.I know this will emotionally impact my audience because this is something everyone can connect to. It is a problem in today’s society because most people feel pressured to fit in. They feel like they HAVE to be like other people or else they feel like an outcast.

The panels when Kamala said “being someone else is exhausting -I always thought that if I had amazing hair, if I could pull off great boots, if I could fly–that would make me feel strong. That I would feel happy, ” inspired me to create this comic. I wanted my readers to understand that you shouldn’t try to be anything one else, STAY TRUE TO WHO YOU ARE. I learned that I need time to organize my thoughts. I can’t just jump into an assignment and I don’t think anyone should. I took a while to process my thoughts and to put it down on paper.

When reading Ms. Marvel you have to really pay attention to the drawings.  Sometimes the drawing will tell you something that you wouldn’t know if you only read the words. This perspective has great value because taking your time to analyze the drawings can give impact the way you understand the comic. Through this project, I got the chance to learn about myself as a writer. I now know that I need time to organize my thoughts and I shouldn’t just jump into an assignment. I also learned that a lot of time. You must know how to

I would like to learn how to DRAW! I actually suck at drawing so I would like a learn how to draw a few little things so I won’t have to struggle the next time I decide to make a comic.My peers and the class discussion helped me tremendously during this assignment. I love the fact that we would discuss the comic in class because it gave me a better understanding of it. My peers always help me to organize my thoughts when creating my own comic. They told me to focus on a theme and just stick to that.If I had another week with this project, I would do my comic all over. I wouldn’t change the dialogue, I would just put more time into my drawings.

 

SO WHAT IF I’M DIFFERENT?

I decided to make this comic, even though the characters don’t relate to Ms. Marvel. The message I am trying to portray is that everyone is different and you should never feel the need to fit in. In the comic Ms. Marvel, Kamala felt out of place. Therefore, she tries to grasp idea of an “ideal American Superhero”. After a while, Kamala realizes she doesn’t have to fit into this ideal image and it influenced her to express her Pakistani-American identity through her costume. She doesn’t fit the ideal superhero image because she’s nerdy, awkward, Muslim and let’s not forget she’s a FEMALE. If you read the comic, you would understand how bad Kamala wanted to fit in but had a hard time.  In her eyes, everyone else is normal and she’s not.  In the scene with Kamala standing with her fists filled with power, she started to question who she really was. “Who am I?” she asked herself. I think this is when she really started to develop her confidence. This relates to my puzzle because the puzzle piece felt left out because he didn’t fit in. He wasn’t from the same family as the other pieces. He then later realizes that it’s okay to be different with the help of his friend Boxie. Boxie was also afraid he wouldn’t fit in so he kept himself locked inside a box for years. At the end, they both realized how important it was to be yourself and Boxie finally came out his box.

Kamala says,

Being someone else isn’t liberating. It’s exhausting.

I always thought that if I had amazing hair, if I could pull off great boots, if I could fly—that would make me happy.  But the hair gets in my face, the boots pinch … and the leotard is giving me an epic wedgie.

Basically, Kamala is saying that this ideal superhero image doesn’t fit. She thought it would make her happy but that’s like pretending to be someone else and that’s exhausting.

To conclude, you should never feel the need to fit in. It’s really hard to be yourself in a world that’s constantly trying to change you. I expressed that in my comic which is influencing my audience to stay true to themselves. Kamala also shows this in the comic Ms.Marvel.