...In 2000, Marjane Satrapi published an autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis, The Story of a Childhood, exhibiting her undergoing in Iran. In the novel she depicts the shift in her spiritual and mental development, as well as her views of society. The first major alteration is in her religious beliefs, from being close to religion to distancing herself from it. Marjane next shows growth in understanding what occurs in her country and society. In the beginning of the novel Marjane is depicted as very religious, but as the novel goes on she questions her religion until she eventually forgets about her beliefs. The novel opens up with her questioning the veil, and she justifies why she should wear it and why she can’t. Marjane states, “I really didn’t know what to think about the veil. Deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde.” (Frame 1, pg. 6) This shows...
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...How Valid is the Assertion that literature is a voice for the oppressed? Marjane Satrapi proves the assertion that literature is a voice for the oppressed by raising the awareness of the oppression on different Iranian social groups in Persepolis. These Iranian groups such as; children, democratic liberals, Persian nationalists and the lower class, are marginalized and silenced by the oppressive regime. Through the form of memoir, the author who belonged to an oppressed group (youth, woman, Iranian), conveys her personal experiences through a subversive and transgressive manner. One of the themes in Persepolis is ‘childhood’ as Satrapi explores the misfortune of growing up under oppression. Since the first page and panel of the book the reader is introduced to the protagonist, Marjane, and to the Islamic revolution through the symbol of the veil; “this is me when I was 10 years old”. On the next panel there’s a class photo on which we can see the oppressed youth in Iran and their innocence, as they are all aligned in the same posture wearing a veil which only lets their sadly expressive faces uncovered. Their depressed faces manifests that they are victims to the Islamic revolution. Through sequential art Satrapi, by combining pictures and words, allows a greater identification with the characters and their experiences and readers to go deeper into the meaning of the story. Pictures allow images to be subtler so readers infer on the meaning, mood and tone of the panels...
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...Graphic novel is often used as a medium to present a complex story of historical, religious, or political matter for many years. Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is one of the examples; it is about a young Iranian girl’s life, when the Islamic Revolution in 1979 occurred. The Islamic Revolution has taken a significant part in Satrapi’s life, especially as she was transitioning into a young woman. It was a time where wearing a veil was obligatory and bilingual schools had to close down because they were thought of as a symbol of capitalism. It was also a time where Iran was divided into two ideologies, fundamentalism and modernity. The streets were full of conflict between them and it was not a strange thing to see both of them clash on a day-to-day basis. Satrapi emphasizes the distinction between the two ideologies in Iran through her use of symbolism, graphics, and layout. Satrapi’s use of symbolism in the novel is one of the factors that distinguish the two ideologies apart, such as the wine. The wine symbolizes the act of rebellion that the modern Iranians did to defy the fundamentalist’s beliefs (p.108). Satrapi also symbolizes the veil as a form of restriction towards modernists (p.74). The women are obligated to wear a veil; this results to a diminishing of their freedom. This way, the wine and the veil have become a barrier between fundamentalists and modernists, and have become some of the factors that cause a conflict between them. Another significant factor is Satrapi’s...
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...Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is an autobiography graphic novel. The book is about a young girl named Marjane Satrapi growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In the book, many stories and struggles are presented, such as the Islamic revolution, issues with school, the war between Iran and Iraq, and Satrapi’s struggle with growing up. The strongest theme from all of these situations in the novel is rebellion. Rebellion is constantly seen, in many different shapes and forms, all throughout this book. In the beginning of the book (page 3) it became obligatory to wear the veil at school. The panel at the bottom of the page shows the children rebelling against the veil by using not wearing the veil properly. They make a mockery of the situation because they didn’t understand why they had to wear the veil. This rebellion against the rules and the veil repeats several times throughout the novel when it mentions and illustrates the women wearing veils with some of their hair showing, which is not how it is supposed to be worn. Marjane’s mother later gets insulted by fundamentalists because she wasn’t wearing the veil. However Marjane’s mother would continue wearing the veil in public like all the other woman but wouldn’t wear at home. The people in Iran obey and don’t rebel for example (on page 75) Marjane’s neighbors change by wearing a chador and mouth washing every time they utter the word “alcohol.” Another example of rebellion comes later in...
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...that both main characters Marjane Satrapi and Anne Frank lived similar yet different lives. Their lives, as told in their autobiographies, consisted of adversity, cultural conflicts, and political issues, while after their novels were published both Anne and Marjane rose to fame. Anne, born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt Germany, shares her personal experiences and first-hand encounters during World War II in her novel. Anne along with her upper-middle-class family; which included her mother Edith, father Otto and sister Margot, fled Nazi persecution of Jews and went into hiding for two years. Her...
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...Persepolis and Maus: Two Survivors and Their Stories. Of the many items that help enhance the horror of the Nazi Holocaust, one of the most notable is what it had of systematic and bureaucratic. Not only killing people, which would have had already been enough, but precisely being made in a quiet and civilized way. It is not strange the image of the Nazi leader quoting his favorite poet while sending to death hundreds of people, belying the myth that culture and education make people better. The Holocaust was primarily an act performed with such rationality that could only become insane. It almost seems that it could have been avoided by appealing to the same reason as well served to run it. As indicated by the subtitle, Maus is the story of a survivor, as told to his son, who in turn transcribed into images and led to comic books. The father and son Vladek Spiegelman is Art Spiegelman. The story, like all of its kind, is bitter and full of cruelties. The work is structured in two levels. In one, the son tells the complex relationship with his father, a survivor of the Nazi camps, while collecting notes for the completion of a comic book that will have the experiences of the war. In the other, we see the story itself, that of a young newlywed couple immersed in the Nazi tumult. In contrast, contemporary events show an apparent visual poverty that hides repressed emotions in really classic and neat little vignettes, in which the author struggles with quiet desperation to...
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...Liberal Views in the Ruins of War in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis To know one’s identity is to find the core aspects that make them who they are. This includes the positive and negative experiences that shapes one’s identity and strengthens those aspects. This idea leads to ponder, how one identifies themselves in such a structured society. In the novel Persepolis the author Marjane Satrapi express her life in an autobiographical graphic novel. She describes her experience of being brought up in war-torn Iran. Though it is her struggle to grow an identity as a liberal self during the revolution, will be concentrated. Living in the heat of a revolution Marji (name of main character) and her family were subjectively forced to liberate themselves from radical change. Their admiration was to find liberty. Writer Raymond Williams describes the word liberty as having this initial sense of freedom. Also considered as open-minded, which some political officials classify as unorthodox. This definition it practically true when referring to Persepolis. The start of the Islamic revolution brought about many restraint. Such as, the Islamic regime forcing female citizens to wear a veil (traditional head scarf). As a young girl Marji was did not understand the reason for wearing the veil. She goes on to illustrating the image of herself and other girls removing the veils and playing with them. However, her mother protested the veil believed to be a torment to their freedom. But, her mother...
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...Marjane Satrapi has lived through war. She is still growing up in the ongoing Iran and Iraq war. The image on the page 6 shows the two different perspectives. These two images conflict each other. In the left side of the image, it shows Marjane’s future living in freedom without any restrictions to follow. She can go to school and learn whatever she wants to. On the right side of the image it shows Marjane wearing a veil to cover her hair. Because of the extremist people in power. Girls are not allowed to be free. They are always supposed to be guided by a man every time and should be covered from head to toe. They are restricted to do anything that they used to do before. These images show how today too girls are living in the fear without any freedom at all. If they do not follow these rules they have to lose their life. The society is compressed by these extremist governments. They force the people to follow these rules in the name of religion. Marjane’s mom and dad were against these rules, they were modern and they did not accept women wearing the veil all the time. However they had to follow those rules whenever they had to leave the house. And when they were inside their house they would not wear them where no one can see. They used to party secretly; this helped them to forget what was happening around for a while. They figured out the way to have fun with some of the close friends and family. These two images are very contradicting to each other. In one image shows...
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...Harsh Realities of Life In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi explores the realities of her native land. She begins the story as a intelligent young pre-teen with a promising future. As she grows older she sees how cold the world is outside of her homeland as she lives through a near self-destructing phase of her life. She is capable of catching herself in this free fall with the help and guidance of her family a little while after returning home. In the story, her country continuously is fighting from freedom all the while she’s searching for her own identity. Throughout the book there are various things going on that can alter an individual’s point of view in search of their identity. To understand clearly, I break down my research on topics concerning the government, religion, social classes, the history concerning the country and the educational requirements that need to be met in the Iranian society. My research consist of material from Marjane Satrapi’s book, Persepolis. “2500 years of tyranny and submission” as my father said. First our own emperors. Then the Arab invasion from the west. Followed by the Mongolian invasion from the east. And finally modern imperialism (Satrapi 11). In the views of her father, their country has always been fighting for freedom. Trying to escape oppression there is always a revolution on the rise as the position of power changes hands. Never the less written in a passage titled The Bicycle, Marjane Satrapi said “The revolution is like a bicycle...
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...solemn statement which has been violated in the past until now. As a contrast to the statement, there are many kinds of prejudice and discrimination ongoing around the world. One of the countries where this declaration is not considered as truth is Iran. Up until now, especially throughout the times of the Iranian Revolution, there were various intolerances in society based on gender, education, political opinion, and economical status and this has been practiced in several ways; however, there is Marjane Satrapi, a girl from a wealthy family who had become the living witness of these inequalities during the Iranian Revolution, who later wrote a book entitled Persepolis. In her book, she comments that these types of inequities should be improved. Marjane Satrapi let us know that In Iran, women and men were treated differently throughout the Iranian Revolution. During the times around the Iranian Revolution and after the revolution, women were treated unfairly compared to men. Marjane Satrapi states in her book about the dowry system in Iran as an example of the discrimination of women. “So a guardian of the revolution marries her and takes her virginity before executing her…Traditionally when a girl gets married the husband is supposed to pay her a dowry. If the girl dies, the...
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...Changes of Lifestyle It is hard to understand and obey any law forcing individuals to change their way of living. In the book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi there were many changes in the way of living during the Revolution. Persepolis was written based on Satrapi’s childhood memories through her eyes as a child. Satrapi explains the difficulties she had changing her usual ways and getting in trouble for expressing herself with the things she liked. It was not just Satrapi who faced changes but other families as well and even the society as a whole. Although there were many changes in the lifestyles of many, there was a great impact on the military, women, education and in many adolescences. To begin, the military began recruiting teenage boys at age fourteen living in poverty which created a change in the military. This was a change within the military because at fourteen one is still considered immature and has not mentally or physically developed to the fullest. To join the military one should be mature and fully grown. Many of these fourteen year old boys were tricked into joining the military. They were given a key painted gold representing value. They were told if they were fortunate enough to die, the golden key would open the door into heaven. They were promised a better life than the one they were living in the lower class. As Mrs. Nasrine, Satrapi’s maid, explains, “‘They told him that in paradise there will be plenty of food, women and houses...
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...Bishant Baral Professor Dunnigan May 7, 2014 Persepolis: Final Exam From the beginning of Persepolis, one can come to the conclusion that Marjane has a very bright future ahead of her. Her curious and patriotic demeanor as a child matures and allows her to become a strong-minded woman during a time of great female oppression in Iran. For Marjane, the ideas of nationalism and patriotism had been a major part of her upbringing. The novel begins with ten year old Marjane in 1980. Although not a teenager yet, Marjane is forced to conform to the oppression and the various laws that specifically target women. Marjane's mother was a very opinionated individual who believed in equal rights. Her rebellious nature becomes an influence to Marjane as she begins to grow older and mature. Taji, Marjane's mother, is a passionate woman who is extremely disappointed with the things in Iran. She actively protests with others who are not happy with the elimination of women's rights and violent attacks on innocent people It began with schools becoming segregated by sex. The French school that Marjane once attended was no longer allowed in Iran. The revolution had begun to ban all sorts of western and European influences. For example, women were obliged to wear veils in public now. If a female was to be caught by the authorities without a veil on, they would be verbally abused and possibly even severely chastised. Moreover, a man and a woman were not allowed to be seen in public unless they...
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...Students Name Instructors Name Course Date Rhetorical Analysis on Marjane Satrapi's “The complete Persepolis” “The Complete Persepolis” is a memoir and story based on Marjane Satrapi, who is also the author of the memoir. This is a rhetorical analysis on Marjane Satrapi’s story and we’ll see how the writer attempts to change the perception people have on the middle-east countries. The writer tries to prove that those countries are not as bad as depicted and there is still hope for the people living in those countries. She believes that people in the middle-east countries have the power to revolutionize their culture and fight for what they believe in. The writer is able to express the struggles and sufferings of the victims in the middle-east. Marjane Satrapi is shaped by the events in her life to become a rebel and through this, she is able to make the audience understand why people start and join revolutions in the middle-east. The writer is of the opinion that their culture is deeply flawed and in the beginning of the story, she is displeased that she has to wear a veil to school as it is mandatory for girls to wear veils, “Then came 1980: the year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school” (Satrapi, page 4), and the fact that boys and girls are still separated in school and can’t learn together. The writer mentions about her French school which was shut down because it was non-religious. The writer seeks to display the extent of cultural inequity and the social injustices...
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...Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s autobiography. It covers her childhood and teenage years in her hometown, Tehran; her experiences abroad while she studies at the French Lyceum in Austria; and her return to a country devastated by war and mistreated by the Regime. Therefore it is hardly surprising that the protagonist’s identity is formed at the crossroads of two cultures, the Western and the Eastern ones, without really belonging to either of them. Satrapi herself has stated that “[she is] a foreigner in Iran. . . Nowhere is [her] home any more” (Tully, 2004) and this feeling of alienation is materialised throughout the work. Thus, Persepolisrevels in the middle-grounds between opposite stances, with images which are able to show the complexity both of the situation in her country and of the author’s personal life. One of the richest and most representative images may be this one: Satrapi, Marjane (2006) Persepolis (London: Jonathan Cape, 283, 3) This image shows the picture that she had to draw to pass the exam for university, where she would study fine arts. She knew that, in the wake of Iran-Iraq war, when propaganda was overwhelming and 40 % of places were reserved for martyrs’and handicapped people’s children, one of the exam topics would be the martyrs’ representation. This image constitutes an interesting re-interpretation of both Christian and Muslim religious symbology. Thus, we can read, in the text box above, that: I practiced by copying a photo of Michelangelo’s...
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...For years, literature has tried to prove the seemingly natural and inevitable separation between man and women. In her graphic novel, Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi tells the story of her childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution in which various social groups, particularly women, are oppressed by the leaders of the regime. Satrapi depicts the marginalization of women in Iran to emphasize the effects an oppressive government can have on a repressed social group. Satrapi is able to use a variety of female characters’ developments to portray how Iranian women are marginalized throughout the revolution. Despite what Marji’s teacher personally believes, she only ever teaches content that is provided by the government. When Marji’s parents...
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