Marjane Satrapi's ' Persepolis '

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.

Marjane Satrapi’s memoir Persepolis is considered a “coming of age” story based on her experiences growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. This graphic novel explores the life she lead in Tehran which encompassed the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Undergoing life with such a chaotic environment, it took Satrapi courage to act and live as her “authentic self” and explore what it meant to her to be authentic. Similar to Aristotle, May and Medinas Persepolis examines the concept of courage, through the view of innocence; through Satrapi’s childhood.

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.

Persepolis is a film in 2007 which is based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel. This story is about Marjane life from young to adult. Persepolis refers to a city’s name. it is a story of Marjane growing in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. Persepolis also is written based on Marjane experience because she grew up Tehran, in a family which involved in communist and socialist movements in Iran during revolution. She writes the story mostly from her opinions and values that she observe from child. This story contains political and historical value which is very useful to everyone.

The novel “Persepolis” shows many life changes during the Islamic Revolution told through the eyes of a young girl. “Persepolis” was based on Satrapi’s childhood experience in Iran. Throughout the span of the 1970’s to the early 1980’s, Satrapi experiences many changes in her life, not only with the government, or her education, but also with herself. Although she witnessed many violent acts right in front of her eyes, these experiences helped Marji (Satrapi) grow as a young child.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir that reveals the life of a woman growing up in pre and post Iran, as well as her experiences in Western countries. In this book, Marjane utilizes historical events that affect her life during her upbringing in Iran. These include the oppression of the Shah, as well as the rise and effects of the regime. These events’ integration into the story showcase how they affect Marjane and the other citizens of her country. Additionally, these events are important for the context and understanding that they grant readers unfamiliar with the text.

We mature from young girls or boys to women and men through enduring somewhat of a traumatizing experience, or just getting older (while our minds become wiser) in our lives that shapes said maturity levels. Marjane Satrapi, contemporary graphic novelist, writes about her own coming of age experience in the novel “Persepolis”. Satrapi sheds light on what it was like to live during the Islamic Revolution in 1979 as a young girl and some of the multitude of things she experienced. She displays a sense of what it was like to want to live life a certain way but having to abide by rules that put your life in danger when broken. The novel is that of a graphic novel and, while still fully and with great detail conveys the inhumane ways of the Islamic Revolution, it seems light hearted because of its comic book nature.

Marjane Satrapi “You cannot draw someone crying, and in one culture they think that he is happy” (Marjane Satrapi). Born in 1969, Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian graphic novelist who is known for her autobiographical comic, Persepolis. In the two-part story, Satrapi recalls moments from her childhood in revolutionary Iran to the struggles of her early adulthood. Being much more than to educate readers about the revolution and repression in Iran, Satrapi’s Persepolis tells a story of challenges faced by all cultures and nations in the face of injustice (Pendergast, “Satrapi, Marjane”).

In The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the genre choice of the graphic novel vividly portrays the life-experience that Satrapi herself gone through as a youth growing up in Iran back in the 1980s. Satrapi utilizes a unique drawing style to emphasize the influence that the Islamic Republic has brought to her. The recurring action of teachers implanting Islamic values in children throughout Marjane’s education in Iran is demonstrated through a set of related images, which implicitly reflect on the destruction of childhood that is caused by a totalitarian regime. For instance, the teachers force the girls to wear veils on page1 and tells the parents that “either [girls] obey the law, or [they are] expelled” (Satrapi, 98) later on. Also, the background of these images takes place where Iran is involved in both revolution and war; it contributes to children’ miserable situation even more.

The memoir of Marjane Satrapi growing up in Iran is written as a very personal account in the comic book Persepolis. This is a story that describes her life during the Islamic Revolution which includes her moral, physical, religious, and psychological struggles she endured. Being the setting of a bloody war with Iraq, Iran was not the ideal environment Marjane’s parents wanted her to grow up in. Persepolis represents a unique life of a child in Tehran, Iran and the actions she took in order to survive the political upheaval her country was facing. Marjane Satrapi is of great importance in teaching us the hardships of life during war as well as the history of her country.

A graphic novel consists of both a narrative and its accompanying illustrations, which are capable of providing insight through a collection of images. Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical novel, Persepolis (2003), is a collection of her comic-strip memoirs, written and illustrated by Satrapi herself. Persepolis tells the story of Marjane’s growing up and coming of age in Iran’s capital, Tehran, during the Islamic Revolution. It is a story filled with noticeable moments, all of which are supported by the artwork Satrapi has decided to include. Further analysis of Satrapi’s artistic decisions reveals her choice to include symbols that often represent Marjane’s emotions. Objects such as mirrors and the use of body language in certain characters,

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.

The world stereotypes different types of culture, but real identity can be only defined by a person who has experienced the specific way of life. In Persepolis The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi, the author creates a graphic memoir representing her childhood growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi evokes perfectly regarding her childhood, her reaction towards the Islamic Revolution. She is rebellious to the Islamic revolution’s new regulations and enforcement and decides to take a secular approach to defend her rights. In Persepolis, the narrator illustrates the opposition against the Islamic Revolution and Shah’s reign and as well as her pursuit in a secular culture. Her opposition and desire allow the readers to reconsider on past stereotypes about the Middle Eastern culture.

The Complete Persepolis paints a descriptive and complex picture of Iranian society and its transition from a progressive and Westernized state to a new fundamentalist regime following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The graphic novel cleverly uses a blend of images and text to tell her story from different perspectives throughout her life, exemplifying and questioning the ideologies accompanying the revolution. Specifically, Satrapi focuses on the role of the veil to challenge the new regime and its ideals of feminine oppression. Throughout the novel, Marjane Satrapi attempts to navigate through the abrupt shift of culture in her world, strategically utilizing different perspectives of the veil as both a young girl and an adult woman to do so. Readers follow Satrapi’s journey with her veil, from her initial conformation to her eventual rebellion and freedom.

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.