...Hi babe In the graphic novel, “Persepolis”, Marjane Satrapi brings to light the devastations in her life in Tehran during the Iranian revolution of 1973 as well as the eight year war with Iraq. She was forced upon a life surrounded by Middle Eastern conflicts and policies that became unavoidable. After Satrapi and her parents came back from their vacation one day, they later find out from her grandma that Iraq and Iran were at war with one another, having the country’s strict government policies, military forces, and eliminating all those who protested against it. Because we can see what is happening from an innocent point of view during Satrapi’s life, the pain and violence that was expressed throughout the novel is based upon the real suffering...
Words: 2041 - Pages: 9
...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...
Words: 1452 - Pages: 6
...as one key lesson in Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis. This unique graphic novel is an autobiographical memoir of Satrapi’s life during a rough period of time that lasted many years in twentieth century Iran. Her story is set during the Iranian Revolution, where the reader can see Marjane grow up before their eyes and go through all the turbulent stages in her life. Marjane, the main character is a strong, rebellious and passionate girl that has a strong faith in god and fights for what she believes in; liberty. The novel features and is mainly centered on her whole family and what they go through as well. Marjane comes from a very brave and strong family, her ancestors have fought for their freedom and she and her family continue...
Words: 1272 - Pages: 6
...Marjane Satrapi, who is now a teenager talks about her experience in Iran under the influence of the Iranian Revolution. It was the nineteenth century and Iran was undergoing changes under the leadership of Reza Shah to modernize and westernize Iran. However, they discovered oil and the west invaded Iran when Reza Shah said that Iran would stay neutral in WWII. After his exile, Mohammad Reza Shah took over but they just called him the Shah. It was during his reign that the prime minister of Iran nationalized the oil industry. Thus, Great Britain placed an embargo on oil exports from Iran. Consequently, the prime minister was overthrown and with support from the United States, the Shah returned to his throne only to run away again in 1979 at the height of the revolution. Since the revolution it had become mandatory for females to wear the veil. When asked about her feelings regarding the veil Marjane replied, “We didn’t really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to.” The people were forced to wear it without explanation which was why the veil wasn’t taken seriously. Following the veil was what Iran called the Cultural Revolution. This happened in 1980 and it was an act to rid Iran of capitalism and decadence. Marjane discussed that this was a time where the entire world she...
Words: 922 - Pages: 4
...Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, published in New York City in 2003. This book is about the life of a little girl growing up in Iran. She wrote about her struggles and the oppressive government. I chose the slide on page 71, where Anoosh has just died and Marjane feels like her life has been uprooted. She was very close with her uncle and she was very distraught when he died. This slide portrays her disappointment that Marjane felt. Tragic events like losing a loved one can dramatically change anyone’s view of religion, or even life as a whole. There are many comic book techniques used in Option 2 (Satrapi, 71) that help show dramatic effect. There is some Open paneling used in this panel that really helps show dramatic effect. It shows the reader that Marjane was extremely sad and shocked to hear about Anoosh’s death. There is also a narratory block on the top and bottom of this page. The top block tells us how she was “lost, without and bearings... what could be worse than that.”(Satrapi, 71) This shows us how without god, who she had recently said she never wanted to see again, she was helpless and lost in life. The other narratory block at the bottom said...
Words: 496 - Pages: 2
...lives were taken which made it difficult for Marjane to ignore. Once the revolution came to an end, Marjane and her friends discovered that Ramins father was in a secret police group under the Shah that had supported and killed those many innocent people. She gave herself a responsibility to do something about the chaos occurring, but her mother saw it wrong to do so. Marjane’s mother advised her that creating more problems is just going to make the situation worse, rather than better. Marjanes anger represents her caring nature and her mentality toward identifying the right from the wrong. When coming to do the point that she had the urging belief that she needs to get revenge by holding nails...
Words: 832 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 1289 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 1091 - Pages: 5
...Persepolis is an autobiography written by Marjane Satrapi that takes place during the Islamic revolution. The main character of Persepolis, is a very bold character. Marjane is rebellious in a time where there is no freedom. Her acts of rebellion may not seem very rebellious to people today, but during the Islamic revolution, people had next to no freedom. Marjane also despises being controlled. Marjane is also able to get herself out of trouble in many situations. Marjane wants to show the world who she is, which is hard for her during the Islamic revolution. Marjane Satrapi is most prominently a resourceful orange temperament in view of the fact that she is resourceful, rebellious, and needs freedom. People who are of the resourceful orange temperament tend do not like to be restricted.1 In this graphic novel Marjane is very restricted because she is growing up during the Islamic revolution. Marjane disagrees with many of the rules she must follow. This leads her to start breaking...
Words: 640 - Pages: 3
...autobiographies Persepolis and The Dairy of a Young Girl, the reader is shown 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...
Words: 1936 - Pages: 8
...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...
Words: 617 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 1111 - Pages: 5
...What struck me most in Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis was the idea of childhood innocence being lost and the emotional change that occurs when becoming an adult. I will analyse the emotional transformation of Marji during the time of rebellion in Iran. Specifically, there is a pivotal moment in the book when Marji finds one of her uncle’s cigarettes and smokes it as an act of rebellion against her mother and this is the scene I will be focusing on. The whole story leading up to this moment has been Marji hearing societal views from her family and her peers rather than developing them on her own. Through the rebellion against her mother, she is paving a path for her independence and individual views towards conflict. This shows the pivotal transition from a once innocent and clueless child a much more mature and grown independent woman forming opinions and views for herself. The first image of the scene shows Marji with a lit cigarette in her mouth. She says, “As for me, I sealed my act of rebellion against my mother’s dictatorship by smoking the cigarette.” (117) This image marks the beginning of her innocence being lost as she turns into a woman who is able to form her own views and commits acts of resistance against values she does not agree with. This small act of rebellion with the cigarette is a direct correlation with Marji’s desire to grow up in society and become independent. The expression on her face shows not only her rebellion towards a dictator that...
Words: 1010 - Pages: 5
...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...
Words: 640 - Pages: 3
