Persepolis Essay

Symposium is a gathering hosted by Agaton to celebrate his first tragedy award for playwriting. Each of the guests gave a speech about love. The speech dealing with questions about what is love; interpersonal relationships through love; what types of love are worthy of praise; the purpose of love; and others. A series of speech about the love ended by the entry of Alcibiades, known as a wealthy aristocrat of Athens for his good-looking, and political career. He entered the discussion drunkenly supporting by a flute-girl, follow upon his speech about love. His unexpected entrance and speech dramatically changed the mood left from Diotima’s serious dialogue with Socrates about the ideal love. The first five speeches contradicted each other and were reconciled in Diotima’s speech, especially her speech about “Ladder if love” and “love of wisdom ”, which implies the delicate relationship between Alcibiades and Socrates.

bell hooks in “Love as the Practice of Freedom” explains thoroughly as to how love is the form to be liberated. Without any love society is blind and continues to practice systems of domination without being aware. However the community should look out for one another not just when a problem impacts an individual. Everyone must be aware of the systems of domination- imperialism,sexism,racism, and classism to create change. When radical love is comprehended it allows the destruction of oppression,exploitation and there is liberation

There exists no power as inexplicable as that of love. Love cannot be described in a traditional fashion; it is something that must be experienced in order for one to truly grasp its full enormity. It is the one emotion that can lead human beings to perform acts they are not usually capable of and to make sacrifices with no thought of the outcome or repercussions. Though love is full of unanswered questions and indescribable emotions, one of the most mystifying aspects of love is its timeless nature. Love is the one emotion, unlike superficial sentiments such as lust or jealousy, which can survive for years, or even generations. In the novel The Gargoyle, the author, Andrew Davidson, explores the idea of eternal love between two people,

Most of the major characters in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night experience some form of love or marriage. Whether it’s unrequited like with Antonio and Malvolio, or it is something seemingly unattainable like with Duke Orsino. Regardless, it is clear that love is prevalent as one of the central themes Shakespeare seems to emphasize in Twelfth Night. With that, we see him communicate different interpretations and feelings regarding the subject. He does this with the medium of melodramatic characters. In this essay, I will elaborate on the opinions of love that Shakespeare communicates through one of the leading characters:

How does love govern a family? It governs husbands to return to their wives, to go on a journey to home. We have all been on a journey. A journey, however, does not usually include coming home. The Odyssey is Odysseus’s journey home to his family. Home is where the family is. While the relationship in a healthy family is communication, there are some instances in the Odyssey where there is an unhealthy relationship. In the Odyssey, are the families that are portrayed ‘rooted and grounded in love?” The loving relationship of family had valuable impact on Odysseus, that he made the journey home, while other families became scattered.

After explaining the nature of love, Agathon explains to us the goodness and fairness of love. We can never have love and cruelty in the same vicinity. Agathon continues by saying that love is disciplined, as it can control our desires, and also exceptionally courageous for “[capturing] Ares” (Symposium 196d). Agathon concludes by praising the wisdom and intelligence of love, as knowledge is passed on to someone after he or she falls in

The myth that Aristophanes tells asserts the aim of love as having found your other half. He relates our human story to an instintictive belonging to our other half, however Diotima refutes this by saying that we will not search for our other half unless they are considered good. The objective of love is to find goodness and sustain it. While Aristophanes story asserts that only the andrygynous pair can reproduce, Love can still be reproduced into something beautiful not just in body but also in mind. When two men share and birth a new beautiful idea, that is of something which is good. Diotima also disproves Agathon’s conception of love as he merely describes its nature: loving that which is good and beautiful. During his account, it seems that Agathon is only describing himself as the beautiful, wise and good thing which is object of Love rather than describe Love himself. This is comparative to Socrates conception of love as Love is the lover of wisdom, which is considered to be in his own like as Socrates is a lover of wisdom as a philosopher. The philosopher seems to be the ideal Lover as they are always between ignorance and

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird states that “it’s a love story, plain and simple.” The love Harper Lee refers to is known as agape. Agape is unconditional love with no expectation of love in return; it is a love for everyone. Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Harper Lee manifests several themes through situations witnessed by the protagonist, Scout. One of the major themes portrayed in the novel is love. In To Kill a Mockingbird, love is manifested in several ways. Love is shown throughout the book through different actions by the characters.

The poetry of Ovid exemplified in The Art of Love is one of the only examples of the contemporary social behavior exhibited during the time of Rome. Ovid writes about social activities, proper style, women, and how to obtain them. Through Ovid’s perspective, there are three different ways to consider a woman. These three views include relating a woman to a game, a beautiful treasure, and as a means to assert social status. Comparatively, Andreas Capellanus writes in a way that makes women seem respected, worthy and as something to a man would willingly devote his life to. Both men have a clear fascination with women and their relationship to men. However, their distinct writing styles cause

In Plato’s work Symposium, Phaedrus, Pausania, Eryximachus, Aristophane and Agathon, each of them presents a speech to either praise or definite Love. Phaedrus first points out that Love is the primordial god; Pausanias brings the theme of “virtue” into the discussion and categorizes Love into “good” one or “bad” one; Eryximachus introduces the thought of “moderation’ and thinks that Love governs such fields as medicine and music; Aristophanes draws attention to the origin and purposes

The Phaedrus is a dialogue written by Plato about love and its effects on the soul. Briefly he writes about the mortality of written works explaining that they lose their immortality as soon as they are written. Through reading the Phaedrus and coming to my own conclusion and then comparing Plato’s conclusion and my own, I discovered that Plato is right, words are not immortal without their authors to explain them or support them and that we will always wonder at the meaning of their work without them to explain it.

In the Greek Era, many philosophers tried to define love, especially one that was timeless. Throughout literature, there have various perspectives on love. In The Iliad, which was during the Greek era, there was greater importance on honor than love. In The Confessions, which was written during the early Christian age, there was a great importance for love of God. In Gilead, which is a modern novel, there is great importance for love in general, especially that for family. Out of all the Socratic definitions of love in The Symposium, Diotima had the most universal definition of love, which was “the desire to possess the good forever” (206A). To possess the good forever, one must reproduce with their body or reproduce with their soul. Diotima’s idea of the desire to possess the good forever through reproduction of the body and of the soul is present in all three sections of literature including The Iliad, Confessions and Gilead.

Taking place in the late 1970’s, Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” exemplifies a profound illustration of the county of Iran, including aspects of its people and political structure. Unlike a conventional composed novel, the story of Persepolis is expressed through both textual and visual representation; otherwise known as a graphic novel. Through the experiences of the ten-year old character Marjane, the reader is exposed to historical events, movements, crises, and motives that occurred within Iran. Furthermore, the novel has gained much praise in its portrayal of emotions that occurred through the people of Iran. Although there has been tremendous support of the account of Marjane, there have been a few critics of the novel, attacking its overall literary value. For instance, New York’s Ithaca College student paper called The Ithacan, slammed the role Persepolis had on the literary society. In fact, they went as far to say that the novel “...is worth broaching but its literary value, in terms of building vocabulary and furthering comprehension, falls short.” An absurd statement, to say the least. Not only is Persepolis of literary value, it is a glimpse into the past. It allows the reader to understand the various conflicts that the people of Iran were facing. Through the account of Marjane, the audience is exposed to elements of Iranian history, gender roles, religion, and political fluctuation.

Philia, eros, and agape are three different Greek terms for the word. These three terms explain the different types of love a human being can acquire. Philia is a love of friendship, which is grounded in commonality. However, eros is a kind of love that seeks something from the other person or thing. Lastly, agape is the love that wills the good of the other and is completely self-giving. The meanings of these Greek terminologies, philia, eros, and agape, allow us to better understand and discuss our relationship with God and human fulfillment.

All women in their lifetime go through an experience that makes them feel proud and dignified to be a woman. Marjane Satrapi strives to find this feeling of self-worth and the satisfaction of being a woman in Iran as she grows up during her war torn childhood in her bildungsroman, Persepolis. Marjane experiences both positive and negative moments throughout the memoir such as growing up alone in Austria, speaking against women's dress codes, and her constant struggle to make her grandma proud, all which help her learn independence and help form her into a strong feminist woman.