Literary Analysis Of Persepolis

Samuel P. Huntington once said, “In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous.” Two contrasting beliefs have a tendency to cause conflicts. When groups of people have opposing views, dangerous confrontations will occur to see which view is dominant. The Islamic Revolution was blood ridden, violent, and incessant; the conservative sect of the population, which viewed religion as the proper and only reasonable way for society to operate, and the more liberal side of the population, which had far more westernized views clashed with each other. In Marjane’s Strapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, the

Marjane’s escape to Vienna is not an escape at all, as the pressure to conform follows her, only this time not involving the increasingly radical Islamic government. Upon meeting both her roommates and the group that she later calls her friends, there was an instant indication of a future struggle for Marji. With these two groups, not only was there a language barrier between them, but also stark cultural differences between the West and traditionalist Iran. Amid her struggle with the Western culture she says, “The harder I tried to assimilate, the more I had the feeling that I was distancing myself from my culture, betraying my parents and my origins, that I was playing a game by somebody else’s rules” (193). Marji began to develop a sense of identity before she left Tehran, becoming more politically active and holding opinions on current issues other than the ones her teachers and classmates have; however,

The graphic novel Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, explores the Islamic life and cultures during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In this novel, Satrapi narrates her life as a young girl when this revolution took place. By narrating her life, Marjane Satrapi allows the reader to get an idea of what she went through. This story includes people fighting for freedom, for themselves individually and for their country. While some people do experience a small bit of freedom, there are people who do not have any freedom at all. This novel explores many forms of captivity and freedom that help enhance the theme and culture of the story.

The first part of Persepolis adventures into the life of Marjane Satrapi during pre and post-revolutionary Iran alongside the Iran/Iraq war, as well as the political and social changes that accompanied the war. Due to the intense content of the book it was surprising that Satrapi wrote in such a blunt and direct manner. Satrapi shows her direct and to-the-point style when she draws and talks about the torture of those people taken to prison during the revolution (54). The drawing is showing how graphic and brutal the tortures were, and that alone creates an emotional response for the reader without any additional sympathetic words. Regarding what the book includes about the revolution; many aspects were enlightening, but also gloomy. Most of

In Persepolis, Marjane’s culture identity is western culture but she is forced to change her appearance, changing the way they celebrate a party, and less of a social activist.             During the revolution of Iran, some Iranians did not like the idea of the Shah returning to the throne. This cause Marjane’s parents and other Iranians to protest because the Shah did not deserve to be in power again. I see this as a change for Marjane because she wanted to protest with her parents but her parents did not allow her due to how dangerous it is.

Marjane Satrapi’s choice to tell her story of life in Iran in the form of a graphic novel was significant to the way it was interpreted by readers. Some readers and critics have found fault in this format, but I believe that it is because of its layout that the information it contains is so easily understandable by readers. Because it is a graphic novel, The Complete Persepolis allows readers to visualize events the way the author saw them, giving them a grasp on Satrapi’s thoughts and point of view that they may not have been able to reach had her memoir been made up completely of text. This affected foreign readers in particular who may not have understood Iranian terms and customs.

As a kid I had always wanted to belong to something but I never really fit into any sort of category. There wasn’t even a name for the group I was a part of. I didn’t really know what I wanted to be a part of because I was never good at anything in particular. I had tried every sport and I was awful at all of them honestly. I was just a socially awkward kid that only existed. Satrapi in the book Persepolis, also struggled somewhat to fit in. On page 45, Satrapi shouts, about to punish someone “Ramin! Ramin! Come out of hiding! Don’t be a wimp!” with her friends in an attempt to fit in with them.

In a modern world of communication and media, misconceptions are plentiful. It is often that surroundings, culture, and rumors have the ability to skew the true image of a person or a situation. In the autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, readers are able to focus on the honesty and emotion of stories to capture their own opinion on Iranians rather than previous assumptions. During the time of the novel, Marjane weaves through childhood in an environment that is full of war and political conflict. Slowly Iran turns into a physical and mental prison, and, like many other Iranians, Marjane struggles between finding herself and absorbing the negative activity around her. With accounts of fearful warfare mixed with stories of growing up and coping in a destructive Iran, Marjane Satrapi is able to create a relatable perspective and demonstrate that despite the culture and history of Iran, Iranians are similar to those that live in other countries of the world.

The Iran-Iraq war changes Marjane’s family dynamics in a dramatic manner. This causes her family to begin rely on each other in a ways that are previously unobservable in the text. As the daily comforts of their wealthy lifestyle disappear and are replaced with perpetual terror, one begins to see Marjane’s family bonding on an entirely new level. Early in the war, Marjane’s family begins spending more time as a unit. This can be seen in the increase in frames ,in the text, depicting her family conversing in rooms around the house. Her family begins to spend large amount of

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi depicts the childhood of a precocious young girl, Marji, during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Satrapi vividly portrays the story of Marji’s life from ages six to fourteen by using symbols of Western popular culture, which recur several times. In doing so, Satrapi forces the reader to question the impact of the West on the development of Marji’s character. Motif of Western popular culture illustrates Marji’s transition from childhood to adolescence, declaring that popular culture is a source of liberation amidst political repression.

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi uses simple images and words together to convey complex insight on characters. In the story, Marji, a young girl and her family are in the Iranian war and witness or hear of everything tragic and joyful that happens to their people. Due to the child perspective of the war, Marji allows readers to have insight on a naive girl’s outlook on a war. She shows the confusion of being a child and in this situation by using her expressions, thoughts, and position in comparison to other characters to convey how the war is affecting her than the more experienced people surrounding her.

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis is an expressive memoir of her growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, the fall of the Shah’s regime and the Iran-Iraq War. Unlike conventional memoirs, she uses the black-and-white comic book form to find her identity through politics and her personal experiences in Iran and it has become effective and relevant in today’s society because she is a normal person that has had to live through extreme circumstances. Marjane has contributed to a whole new way of writing memoirs that may last for many generations to come. She effectively demonstrates how she is just like anybody else by expressing herself through rebellion, truth and being at the threshold of a changing nation. What further makes it her book relevant is that the revolution is still going on today. In the novel, Marjane, Marji for short, is living in Tehran, the capital of Iran, during the late 70’s and early 80’s. She is smart and outspoken for her age and for a long time she was very religious which is a bit skeptical due to her parents being Marxists. Persepolis illustrates a memorable story of Marji’s life in Iran.

The literal definition of “genre” is “a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content” (Merriam-Webster). Through the different genres of books, some may help to express the message plainly, others may help to build a dramatic atmosphere with the plot, and some may help to ease or magnify the emotion. The book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a physical novel which is also a Satrapi’s memoir and part history book. The story is set in Iran during 1979 Iranian Revolution. From Satrapi’s perspective, the book discovers the conflict between the Islamic fundamentalist regime and the communist, the limitation on freedom, the cruelty on policies, and the desperation on the younger generation. In addition, Satrapi examines her childhood in a new way in which she provides the readers black and white comics with minimal text. Similarly, Battle Royale parallels Persepolis in many instances. Koushin Takami creates a dystopia where the government holds a competition which forces a class of students to battle to the death until the last one remains. They are both having a totalitarian government and facing the injustice and the social inequality. However, Takami wrote Battle Royale as a teen’s novel while Persepolis is a graphic novel. With the contrary genres, Satrapi and Takami present the similar ideologies and themes in their own style, but with their own pros and cons. Seeing

In Persepolis 2, Marjane is set on a journey of self discovery while living away from her home in Iran to escape the war. She experiences many obstacles varying from finding her self identity heartbreak and isolation. All of these obstacles would eventually lead to a very confident Marjane. MArjane lives in Vienna for most of her adolescence and so it is at this time that she is truly on a journey of finding who she is as a person and developing herself. Upon living in Vienna, Marjane discovered that Vienna is very different from her home of Iran and because of this, she assimilated herself into this new society while distancing herself from her Iranian culture. In her final days of living in Vienna she becomes homeless and it wasn't until this moment that she is notified that she is welcome to come back home to Iran. When she returns home to Iran she discovers that not only has she herself changed, but also how much her home of Iran has changed as well. Modern Iran is similar to Marjane, regarding their similar journey of self discovery and the many challenges that they have both faced.

Persepolis is structured as a graphic novel because Marjane Satrapi was able to use graphic weight, emanata and the organization of panels, to benefit her story. On the page that I chose to take a deeper analysis of Marji’s uncle Anoosh is allowed his last visit with Marji before he is sent to execution. Marji goes to visit him, and they both know that he is being put to death but Anoosh is the only one who speaks and tries to tell Marji that it's going to be okay because he was fighting for something that he really believed in. Satrapi’s choice to write this book as a graphic novel proves to be very beneficial especially on this page.