Marjane Satrapi 's ' Persepolis '

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir about her childhood moments up to her adolescent years in Iran, which occurs during and after the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi starts off her story by introducing Marji and her views of religion. In doing so, Satrapi reveals the importance of religion as it is the first thing mentioned about herself. However, as the story unfolds, religion acquires a negative connotation due to its impact on her life. In this novel, Satrapi allows the reader to use religion as a guide through her transition from youth to maturity- the process of finding her true identity.

Persepolis focuses on major themes like Feminism, Freedom, Religion, War, and Culture. Although this book is about Marjane Satrapi a young girl who lived her childhood in Iran from the 1980’s which was during the Iran revolution, where at a young age she’s already opened up to a warfare environment. This book can be interpreted differently based on the reader’s location, history background with Iran, and the differences in government. In this essay we would be comparing the readers from Iran vs. America.

In the novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, there are many different themes that you could look at and decide to analyze. I decided to look at four different themes that are brought up throughout the novel. In the novel there is a lot of talk about the contrasting regions of Iran and everywhere else in the world, politics and religion, and warfare.

The conflict in Persepolis is shown through the changes that are caused between families, women and children when fundamentalist Islamic state takes over Iran. The story progresses though the main character, Marjane’s point of view and experience.

The historical background of Iran is the most important idea that influences Marjane 's novel. Mohammad Reza Shah was the leader of Iran from 1941 to 1979. During his reign, Iran was living a westernized life. He initiated a revolution called the White Revolution, which included permitting women to vote, the abolition of illiteracy, land rehabilitation and distribution of oil. Basically, everyone in Iran, including Marjane’s family, was living a westernized live during Shah’s regime. As Satrapi’s mentioned, she used to go to a non-religious French school, in which boys and girls were mixed. On the other side, there was a

The book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the memoir about her life. In the book she goes by the informal name of Marji. The author, Satrapi uses the community to show conflicts in her life. Marji is living in Tehran during the part of her life when the book is written. Satrapi highlights Marji and her family opposition to the government’s views to demonstrate internal and external conflict between religion and secularism; she does this through the motif of westernization; mob mentality; god.

The graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a political and personal account of a young girl’s growth to maturity. The novel serves as an autobiography of the author’s childhood in Tehren, Iran. It describes what it was like to grow up during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the end of the Shah’s regime, and the war with Iraq. One of the most prominent themes in the novel is the clash between modernity and fundamentalism. The reader can observe this conflict through Iran's internal oppositions, the Satrapi’s modernity, and Marji’s western soci-political beliefs. This aspect of the novel is important because it shows the ideological diversity within Iran and the consequences faced by those in the opposition.

Soon after the revolution, Iran became one bundle of chaos as the country began experiencing internal difficulties with the new republic. Then with the war between Iran and Iraq, violence became Marji’s daily lifestyle. The Iranians were left to themselves to protect their friends and family from the bombings and other types of violence happening in plain sight. Many unfortunate individuals lost their belongings as well as close friends and family. For example, a close friend of Marji’s mother, Mali and her family, lost her and her family’s belongings in a bombing. The family found refuge in Marji’s home until they left Iran for good. They were one of the few families who understood the severity of the violence overwhelming Iran.

The Iranian author of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, narrates a Bildungsroman showing her growth and development in Iran, as well as a memoir, showing the historical events in Iran. She discusses historical events like the Islamic revolution in 1979, which made it compulsory for the Iranian females to wear veils. Satrapi’s life story is mainly set in Iran, where she shows readers the strict, controlling and oppressive government the Iranians live under as well as the importance of clothing and body ornamentation after the Islamic revolution. To show this, she makes use of characters like her mother, Taji Satrapi, who is strongly against the Islamic Revolution in Iran and herself, who disagrees with the Iranian regime and is more modern like

Another historical event that we see is the rise and effects of the Islamic regime in Marjane’s life. This event is arguably the central issue that affects Marjane during her upbringing in Iran. Marjane shows how the regime begins to control schools, and how this affects her life by separating her from her friends (4, 3-4). We also see how the regime decides to close universities as they “educate future imperialists.” (73, 1-3) This demonstrates the negative effects that the regime has on society, as they prioritize Islamic values over education. The Islamic leaders portrayal shows them as upset and bored, and are given much different facial expressions than those that Marjane sees as intellectual (such as Uncle Anoosh (54/3) or Marjane’s grandfather (23/8)). This imagery communicates the backwards-thinking of these leaders, and as such, also effectively communicate Marjane’s opinion of the leaders without needing to discuss it with text. Additionally, we see both of Marjane’s views: Marjane not understanding the veiling and separation (3/5) as well as Marjane’s depression over the closing of the universities (73/7). The text here illustrates her opinions on the situations that she experiences, and the imagery allows us to see a visual representation of her basic thoughts and emotions, which are well communicated. A final example of the regime’s changes is the difference between the fundamentalist and modern women

After the revolution that was sparked by a group of islamic fundamentalists, the people’s support for western ways of life had to be abandoned. That made Iran a more islamic country with a government that reinforces the word and doctrine of Allah. This affected Marjane because she is a westernized woman and grew up in a westernized environment. The context proves that Marjane felt alienated from her culture and society because it’s not where she belongs. This is proven in the chapter ‘’The Socks’’, where Marjane organizes private parties in which she has fun with other women without respecting the society and its restrictions. It also shows a juxtaposition between her behaviour in public and and her behaviour in private. This shows that even if the society obligates her to act less westernized, she continues to do whatever she likes but privately. This proves again the theme of rebellion, she is a rebellious person since her

Persepolis is a coming of age story for Marji living in the middle of the Iranian war and adapting to the changes to both her culture and her personal life. Inequality between genders is heavily discussed within the story, as well as the struggles between the fundamentalist ideas and customs compared to the less extreme morals of some families: it is shown through the simplistic, but effective images by Satrapi.

The film is a sappy recounting of Marjane Satrapis's early childhood, adolescence and young adulthood living in and out of Tehran in the years following Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Iranian Revolution. Marjane

Persepolis is a French/Iranian movie based on the author/director’s childhood during the Iranian Revolution during the late 1970s. The movie focused on Marjane Satrapi’s experience under the transition to Islamic rule in Iran, Iraq’ invasion of Iran, and living in Europe during her teenage years. Her upbringings were based from her family who some were part of the revolution to overthrow the Shah. Because of it, she grew fond at the idea of freedom and valuing a lot of Western culture even after Muslim fundamentalist took over. She also endured a lot of hardship in Iran and abroad due to political tension and judgement from the outside world.

Persepolis is a graphic novel written by Marjane Satrapi. The novel is Satrapi’s memoir about growing in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the second Iran and Iraq war. She tells us the struggles of being a female in Iran. Satrapi shows us her life within the pages of this novel to show us who she really is, where she really comes from, and what her country is really like. She corrects the misconceptions and stereotypes made about her culture from the western world.