Maria Dahvana Headley Magonia Sparknotes

Maria Dahvana Headley’s fantasy novel, Magonia, follows the story of Aza Ray Boyle, a young girl who appears to be drowning in thin air, and Jason Kerwin, her best friend. When Aza was born, her lungs would not function properly and she began to suffer from a mysterious lung disease. Throughout Aza’s life, Jason, along with her family, watched her suffer from the unknown. As Aza was suffering, she claimed she saw ships in the sky, which made her family and the doctors think she was hallucinating. However, her family, Jason, and the doctors constantly tried to find cures and treatments for her disease, until one day, she passed away. When Aza passed away, everyone assumed she was dead. Little did her family and Jason know that Aza had not died, but had been taken to Magonia, a sea in the sky. Magonia was the place she hallucinated, the place that everyone had called non-existent. There, Aza realizes she was not sick, she just could not breath because land was not her home, Magonia was. Throughout the novel, Aza realizes her …show more content…
Additionally, Headley’s use of different perspectives helps link the two worlds, Magonia and Earth, which helps the readers remember Aza and Jason’s relationship. Even though Jason and Aza share everything with each other, the two different narrations help the readers separate their thoughts and opinions on one another. Headley also uses many different types of figurative language to further strengthen her writing and the novel’s story. For example, when Aza compares her disease to the Bermuda Triangle, unknown and lost, she helps the readers understand the mystery of her disease. The readers begin to empathize with her and her fate and realize that Aza’s disease is a mystery that has not yet been solved, and most likely never will