Kamala struggles to accept who she is because she is surrounded by people who she wants to like her. An example of this is Zoe and the scene they had in the deil where Bruno works. Everyone seemed annoyed with Zoe and how she comes off with her short digs; Kamala finds her fascinating, adorable and nice. We also see this when she sneaks out and goes to the party and is given “orange juice” by Josh while being outed by Zoe for smelling like curry. Also with her father not giving her freedom to live a normal teenage life, and her mother for not defending her and seeing her view on things because she is so concerned about Aamir. These series of events leads to her really thinking negatively of who she as a person and the culture/religion she’s from.
All this thinking leads to being paid a visit form Captain Marvel and the instant negativity she had about her religion tranfers to her features. She wants to look beautiful and tall with blond hair and have the confidence that Captain Marvel has; she thinks it is way better than the person she is. Captain Marvel grants her the ability to look like her but everything that she does like managing her superpowers Kamala would have to figure it out by herself. This is the contrast that comes up because on the right we have Kamala a 16 year old Muslim girl from a family that sets up such boundaries because of her being a female. The left we have a superhero, a woman one at that who fights crime and saves people from harm who is beautiful.
Captain Marvel sees something in her that she doesn’t see in herself yet and grants her what she wants. However it leaves her feeling confused and conflicted, I will say more than how she felt about herself already. She already struggles not knowing who she wants to be. The comparison that comes up between the two is that the help people even though Zoe isn’t the nicest person Kamala still saved her from drowning. She used her powers for the greater good.
(This is all I have so far, more to added soon)
Cassidy,
I’m so excited to see you continue this — you’re using great, specific examples so far, and I’m excited to see where it continues. I love the attention you’re calling to white supremacist constructions and assumptions of beauty and how that impacts Kamala. How does she start to shed that? What helps her? How do the author and artist set this up?
I’d love for you to slow down and introduce the points you bring up and explore them more thoroughly: for example, you run through lots of great examples of what you’re saying in your first paragraph. I wonder what would happen if you slowed things down and took your time really saying more, meditating longer, on each point? I think you could really get even deeper, here, and since you’re such a strong writer, I’m excited to see you do it!!
1) You can improve by saying a little bit more about how Kamala felt and what was going through her mind during the transition.
2) There is a few grammar mistakes in the first paragraph.
3) You should add the scene where she was trying to save Bruno’s brother from the house and her emotions she felt during that moment.
4) I understand the topic, it was just all over the place and there was a lot of key information you added.