The literary device I found to be most prevalent and just as equally effective in Ms. Marvel was foreshadowing. Throughout the text, there were multiple instances were foreshadowing was employed. I found this to be especially true towards the end of each issue, with the second issue, in particular, ending with a panel that explicitly utilizes foreshadowing (pictured above). In this panel, Kamala is looking at a poster of Captain Marvel after being reprimanded by her parents for sneaking out to a party— little did they know that Kamala had just saved a drowning Zoe after transforming into a superhero with the likeness of Captain Marvel. She is pondering at the poster almost as if it is a mirror reflecting both who she was momentarily while saving Zoe and who she wishes to continue to be. With her hand over the poster, she says, “I saved one life. Does it stop there? Or do I go on?” (Wilson 48). She pulls her hand off the poster and looks at it, as if she is questioning her own power and agency. Clenching her hand in a raised fist, she declares, “Maybe this is what I’ve been waiting for. Maybe I’m finally part of something... BIGGER” (Wilson 48). These last lines foreshadow Kamala’s greater purpose in congruence with her superhero abilities continuing to develop. The image of her pulling her hand away from the Captain Marvel poster foreshadow the possibility of Kamala breaking away from the shadow of Captain Marvel and creating her own identity as a superhero.
In relation to the
entire text, foreshadowing is a extremely useful literary device, as it keeps
readers interested in what may happen next by providing them with hints on what
to expect. Essentially, writer G. Willow Wilson is creating suspense for the
unknown future of the text and the uncertain possibilities of what may come
next for Kamala. Foreshadowing also allows the abnormal to seem more normal to
readers as they can anticipate these usually strange and peculiar events to
occur due to prior knowledge of the events that has been indicated through the use of foreshadowing.
I definitely the uses of foreshadowing definitely add an extra element of reader engagement because once we start to pick out the patterns, we are incentivized to guess about the trajectory of the plot and the foreshadowing promises that the answer will be revealed. I felt this device especially when Bruno is developing his "super snot" project in class. I immediately thought, "I bet this is going to help Kamala eventually" and it was then incorporated into her new costume.
ReplyDelete*I definitely think - oops
DeleteThis was a great analysis! The illustrator did a great job accentuating the foreshadow.
ReplyDeleteHi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteThis moment that you chose to dissect is certainly an example of foreshadowing, but you also do a nice job of breaking down the visual rhetoric in this panel and the symbolic meaning of the images. I like the assessment that her pulling her hand away suggests that she is going to develop separately from the Miss Marvel she has been idolizing.