Almost American Girl

Comics in general are a recurring motif that help develop the theme of The Power of Stories in Shaping Identity. The comic Queen’s Quest is a fictional comic loosely based on Robin’s favorite real-life Korean comics. Robin looks to its characters, setting, and plots of this comic as symbolism for her own life.

Part of the reason Robin feels isolated in America is because she is isolated from her comics. Without them, she tries to use the conventions of the comic genre to make sense of her new identity in America. When she is told she can choose an American name, Robin thinks, “things like this only happened in movie and comic books, and now it was happening to me” (52). An illustration shows Robin flying, equipped in a superhero suit with a “?” on the front. She sees adopting a new name as adopting an alternate identity, like how a superhero has their ordinary and their super persona.

Queen’s Quest is a particularly important comic that symbolizes how Robin feels in America: it is about a princess “cursed and cast out of her kingdom by an evil witch.