Nimona

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2015

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-5

Chapters 6-7

Chapters 8-9

Chapters 10-11 and Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Shapeshifting

As a narrative device, shapeshifting is often used to symbolize a character’s unfixed or fluid identity. Nimona more specifically explores Shifting Identity as Queer Symbolism through the motif of shapeshifting. Nimona is an effective example since her abilities hide and reveal her deeper nature in turn.

In the first part of the book, Nimona is characterized as a carefree, immature, enthusiastic young girl who can shift into different animals, and her transformations are often depicted in humorous ways. An example is when she turns into a shark to surprise Blackheart in the first chapter. At this point in the story, Nimona appears secure both in her abilities and in her identity.

Over the course of the story, her power is gradually revealed to be virtually limitless; she is even able to regenerate when killed. The narrative does not depict her limitless power positively because it attracts other people’s greed and leads them to fear and ostracize her. When that happens, Nimona grows increasingly defensive and therefore confirms their belief that she is dangerous. This social “othering” makes her even more unstable, as she implicitly starts doubting her identity. She initially rejects the label of “monster” but then regards herself as a monster.

At the end, she is shown splitting into two forms, a rageful, lethal dragon and a scared, vulnerable human. Symbolically, her identity is also split, as she is torn between getting revenge on those who have hurt her and accepting Blackheart’s help. She eventually chooses the latter and reappears to Blackheart under her original form. As she explained earlier, when she is split, only the strongest form can survive. Nimona’s identity is whole again, and she has found the most stable version of herself.

Nimona’s Hair

Nimona’s hair is a visual symbol of her character’s evolution. At first, she wears her hair in a kind of short bob with shaved sides, and it is red (the same color as her animal forms). After she panics when Dr. Blitzmeyer’s device temporarily short-circuits her shifting ability, she turns her hair purple. Finally, after she is apparently killed during a battle and has a fight with an unsettled Blackheart in the aftermath, her hair gets even shorter, almost fully shaved. In flashbacks about her childhood, Nimona is depicted as a young girl with very long red hair.

Nimona’s hair changes all happen after an event that scares her or makes her confront her own vulnerability. This physically marks some type of emotional loss, as she grows more defensive and less trusting each time. For example, she lost her innocence when she was locked up as a child, then is depicted with much shorter hair when she meets Blackheart. Significantly, when she appears to Blackheart after the explosion at the Institution, she is wearing her hair in a short red bob, as she was at the beginning of the story. This suggests that she has reverted back to an earlier state of her identity or regained something she felt she lost, namely Blackheart’s friendship. She now feels safer, as well as more secure in her relationship with Blackheart.

Fairy Tale Tropes

Throughout the story, characters explicitly and implicitly rely on genre-specific tropes that Stevenson uses to subvert narrative expectations. The world the characters inhabit is based on stereotypical fairy tales and includes several archetypes, dynamics, and narrative devices that are typical of the genre. The protagonists are explicitly defined by the archetypal roles they are meant to fulfill: Blackheart is the villain, Nimona is the sidekick, and Goldenloin is the hero. In the first part of the book, they embody the typical characteristics of those roles. Goldenloin, for instance, is portrayed as a handsome knight in golden armor, and he often adopts grandiose mannerisms to emphasize his supposedly heroic role.

In fact, Chapter 3 is a particularly telling example of Blackheart and Goldenloin’s reliance on fairy tale tropes. When Blackheart and Nimona sneak into the Institution’s lab, they are interrupted by Goldenloin’s dramatic entrance as he exclaims, with overly pompous language: “Halt, you villains! Unhand that science!” (7). Blackheart gives a stereotypical response: “Goldenloin: I should have known you’d show up!” (8). He then shushes Nimona when she remarks that he should not be surprised, implying that they are following a pre-established script. Shortly after, when Blackheart tries to get away, Goldenloin stops him: “Hold up there, villain! We’ve got to fight because that’s my job!” (12). Goldenloin confronts Blackheart not because he is morally compelled to but because it fulfills his expected duty. When their fight is interrupted by Nimona’s antics, Goldenloin remarks: “This isn’t how things are supposed to go” (13). Goldenloin signifies that Nimona is a disruptive element who does not fit the typical narrative. This also suggests that the characters have a meta-awareness of their archetypal roles.

Significantly, however, their roles are assigned by the Institution rather than the result of the characters’ own choices. The characters go through the motions of their expected dynamics, but they are clearly putting on a performance. However, they are unable to break from this performance until they start reclaiming their agency and going by their own rules, as Blackheart puts it (6). The characters’ artificial archetypal identities actually prevent them from understanding the underlying moral implications of their actions, which they eventually come to terms with at the end of the story.