Narrative Essay on Ms. Marvel Draft

Kayla Rivas

Professor Polish

ENG 102

24 May 2018

It all started in the sixth grade. I was going through an identity crisis. I went to a Catholic school were the majority of the people going there were white and blonde. So, at one point I began to believe that looking like that was the perfect way to live. I would refuse to praise my heritage, I wouldn’t speak Spanish and I would hate when my father had to go to parent conferences. I would see the looks people gave him as we walked down the hallway. He clearly didn’t fit in to the white and blonde population of the school. It wasn’t until I reached my sophomore year in high school that I understood that diversity is not a bad thing and I was truly able embraced my nationality.

This is evident in the comic book Ms. Marvel as well. Kamala also had an identity crisis and thought that in order to fit in she had to look and act a certain way. In the beginning of the comic we can clearly see how she longs to be like the popular kids who happen to be white and blonde. After getting her powers she realized how she would psychically change into a white and blonde girl, Captain Marvel, and she didn’t seem very happy with this. This shows how sometimes things need to happen to us for us to fully understand why things are the way they are. It wasn’t until I got to a public high school that I was proud to be a Latina. Kamala also had to go through some adventures such as fighting the robots, breaking the gym locker in her school and sneaking out of her house, to fully understand the reality. Kamala later understood why her parents cared for her the way they did.

Reading Ms. Marvel was something new for me. As a child my father would bring me comic books and I would read them but that died down quickly after I discovered the Diary of a Wimpy Kid collection. This was my first marvel comic and I really enjoyed reading it. I thought it was a bit relatable especially with her parents. My mother is very strict, and I see how upset she gets when my sister doesn’t come home before curfew. I enjoyed being able to see how they made kamala a bit of a nerd because you can easily relate to her. Many kids aren’t “lucky” enough to be the popular ones in high school so having Kamala be a nerd and not too popular made me feel like the comic book was directed to me.

Being able to relate to a character in a book is something I really enjoy because I don’t feel alone especially when I am going through stuff. Reading about how many people have identity crisis is kind of comforting. Talking about stuff is also very useful like the way Kamala talked to Bruno. When I had my identity crisis I didn’t really tell anyone, but I know my mother figured out especially when I asked her if I can dye my hair blonde at the age of eleven. I feel like these new books and movies that are full of diversity are helping people. I am still waiting for some representation for the Latino community, but I don’t doubt that it is in its works.

Overall, I was able to see parts of my story in Ms. Marvel and this is great. I really think that including people of all nationalities in books and movies can really help unify people. In my sister’s graduation last week, NYU had a guest speaker who happened to be the prime minister of Canada. I didn’t know who was or why people were cheering so loudly for him until he started speaking. He talked about how everyone must be united even if we have opposing views with one another. He went on to say how we must at least give each other a chance to talk before we judge. At this point I was very interested in what he was saying. I feel like Ms. Marvel kind of did this. The creators of this comic really did what the prime minister said, they tried unifying people by making this comic about a Muslim girl in New Jersey.

Questions:

• What three things do you want to ask your peers about your work?

I want to know if my essay has a good flow. I also want to make sure that what I wrote makes sense and if I’m making enough comparisons between the comic and my story.

• What three things are your favorite about your fanfic?

My three favorite things about my essay are: that I was able to incorporate my story with the comic, that I wasn’t very vague with my examples and, I wrote about important things that are occurring in our world today.

• What three things are you unsure of?

Three things that I am unsure of are: the flow of my essay, if what I wrote makes sense to the reader and if I incorporate Ms. Marvel enough.