LaGuardia Reflection

 Tyra Alexander

26 November 2023 

EN*376

Dr. Ellis

Laguardia Reflection


Reading Laguardia really solidified the purpose of dystopia to me. A few days ago I saw a post on social media that said “Dystopian Fiction doesn’t predict the future, it critiques the present” in response to the Hunger Games series. It’s safe to say that I definitely see it manifest in this graphic novel by Okorafor. I definitely saw parallels between the novel and the travel ban that was placed during  Trump’s presidency. I also saw parallels with discrimination and microaggressions against immigrants. But after reading the afterword by the author, it was very interesting to see how one event that happened to Nnedi in Laguardia Airport transformed into a piece as such.

Other aspects I wanted to touch on were the names of the characters and Future’s hair. The name’s of the characters being niche reminded me of “Pet” by Emezi. I didn’t really look into what some of them may mean but the name that stood out to me the most was Future Citizen. With that being the name of the newborn baby it almost symbolizes the nature and purpose of the story, to make New York a better place for future citizens. With Future’s hair however, I did find similarities between this and Zélie’s hair transformation in “Children of Blood and Bone”. My research paper unpacks what Zélie’s hair may symbolize but I think Future’s hair turning green is also an excellent example of how hair has a rich history and is a victim of colonialism.


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