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 …show more content…
Since she is a young child, Marji believes almost every word she hears. She does not question what is being asked of her, but only goes along with what is being told. Marji’s view on the government is positive at this point, she has no reason to believe otherwise as opposed to what her parents think. With time and research, Marji’s view does change.
For example, Marji realizes how atrocious the Iranian government is. She reads up on the Revolution to understand more of it. Marji grasps how prevalent the revolution is when she figures out the differences between social classes affects her and her maid. She is mad at the fact her maid cannot have the same opportunities as her family because she was born in a different social class. Marjane expresses, “Is it her fault that she was born where she was born” (Satrapi 37). Social classes can divide communities. Traditional ideals forbid marriage between classes, so it is particularly difficult for anyone to advance to a different social class. When the lower class begins to make an attempt to climb the rigid social pyramid, conflicts begin. Western values are not as strict on social classes, movement is allowed and encouraged. Their principals make it easier for people to progress in class, lessening the divide in communities. The Islamic Revolution causes the differences in social classes to increase far beyond an acceptable amount. Marji was particularly close with her maid in the comfort and privacy of her
Adolescence is an age where children began to find themselves or, in some cases, lose themselves, an idea clearly developed by Satrapi in her graphic novel “Persepolis”. Satrapi explores the challenges and difficulties experienced by a sheltered and naive girl during the tumultuous and uncertain years of the Iranian revolution and attempts to solve the oppression she witnesses by the Islamicist government. This is important to the whole text as it identifies the religious conservatism and Islamisation of the state causes distress and confusion in Marjane who consequently had to redefine herself, given that her freedom and personal liberties were denied them in schools, public places, and even her own home.
Are you living the dream? From your perspective the life you are living may be average, but from the perspective of someone with less than you, you are living the dream. The perspective of Marjane alters her presentation of themes in Persepolis. Persepolis touches on many themes, but it focuses on the difference of social classes, imperialism and the role of religion. Marjane’s perspective of these themes is a very dynamic and an uncommon one. From the perspective of a wealthy Iranian girl, we will see how perspective alters the presentation of themes.
The Satrapi family were really good people who always did what they supposed to do if they knew that it was the right thing to do. They believed that you should have the liberty to make your own decisions, which is why Marjane was so independent, brave, rebellious, generous, understanding. Marjane believed that you should always do what is right because every one is considered equal. Well even though Marji was taught that by her parents she soon learned that not everyone is considered equal according to what socio-economic class that they were a part of. When Marjane's family maid fell in love with the teenage boy next door, she did not see anything wrong with them both wanting to be together and get married. It's only when Marjane's parents found out about the maid's relationship that it was soon ended because her father told the young man that she was their
When you are born into a class you are stuck there for life and all your kids are too. This is an unfair way of judging people because they're given it at birth. This makes the countries and religions that follow this class system look bad just like Islam does in Persepolis. In Persepolis they show how unfair and hated the lower class people are by telling the love story of their maid and how the second the man found out she was a maid he left her, for no other reason than she was a maid. This is extremely realistic and close to how it is today in Iran and other Islamic
In the book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Marji is a ten-year-old girl living in Iran in the year, 1980. During this time, the Islamic Revolution is just beginning and Marji experiences major changes in her life. For example, she has to wear the veil at school and the boys and girls are not allowed to interact. The students of the school find themselves “veiled and separated from our [their] friends” (Satrapi 4). Also, there are protests and demonstrations where people voice their beliefs and feelings towards the government.
Marjane’s feelings start to be influenced by communism. She believes in equal social class. Marjane wants to be able to sit at the dining table with Mheri, and not have to ride in her dad’s Cadillac. Furthermore, she is disgusted by her father’s hypocritical belief in unequal social classes ever since he ruined Mehri's relationship with their neighbor, and he tries to tell Marjane that
Agape love is the highest form of love, charity. It is also love for a greater community. Agape is considered the highest form of love because if a person has strong love for their community then there is nothing that they would not do for them. This is the type of love that sends soldier off to war. There is on age limit to how young a soldier has to be when they have a love like Agape. Marjane Satrapi realized this when she was writing her autobiography, Persepolis, about the events that took place in Iran during the 1980s. When she was a child she developed a love for her country and community that came from her parents. She would often make jokes about the new rules they were having to follow. When talking about the beatings they used to perform she claimed that, “After a little while no one took the torture sessions seriously anymore. As for me, I immediately started making fun of them” (Satrapi 97). Marjane saw the laws that were created as demeaning and wrong. So as a child with love for her community she was fighting back in a childlike was by making light of the rules. When Marjane was in her teen years she was sent to Europe to ensure her safety. While there she tried to separate herself from her past. She tried to partake in the actions of the European teens, but the more she did the less she felt like herself. She felt a pain and emptiness inside her, “The harder I tried to assimilate the more I had the feeling that I was distracting myself from my culture,
Persepolis | Marjane Satrapi In the novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the journey of Marji’s understanding of martyrdom matures from the naive concept of glorification to horrid reality through several instances such as the death of the old widow’s husband which makes Marji realize that people will falsely mark people as martyrs to strengthen their cause, the loss of Uncle Anoosh makes Marji experience what it is like to lose someone close to her, the deaths of young boy soldiers and Niloufar’s execution help make Marji realize that martyrs can be of any age. In the revolution within the novel, martyrs were often used as “fuel” added to the fire.
The novel itself is a tribute to how Marji’s life as a woman if affected by the Revolution in Iran. Everything from laws, to social norms are disturbed by the new thought that women are lesser than men and do not deserve to be treated in the same way. Marji is an incredibly determined young girl and much of that determination is because of her role as a female in her society. She is aware
Marji is a young girl who wants to become a prophet because she wanted to be justice, love and the wrath of god all in one. Marji stops talking to god and stop thinking about becoming prophet when her uncle Anoosh was killed saying he was a Russian spy. This has also caused Marji to lose faith in god. “Shut up, you! get our of my life!!! I never want to see you again” (Satrapi 70) This show the reader that Majri doesn’t want nothing to do with God and she just have to move on and deal with what going on in Iran.
Over the following four years, Marji learned of how her grandparents were left poor because of the Shah, the leader of the Iranian government. Shah was well known for robing men and women of everything they had worked for and leaving them with nothing. Nevertheless, Marji was schooled on the different levels of society in Iran, which left her to consider her family as rich because her Dad drove a Cadillac. Despite being a child, Marji accused her dad of being anti-social towards a class that could not read and write. To clarify Marji helped out a friend with the writing of some love letters. Mehi was the family maid that could not read or write. Mehi fell in love with the boy
Even though when Marjane is sent to Austria she attends a religious school, where education is used to train prejudice and propaganda, it is important because of what it demonstrates to Marjane. Mainly because she had previously attended a nonreligious school beforehand, Marjane was presented with the opportunity to be taught from both perspectives of education and given the ability to question what she had learned in both places. Marjane gains a specific observational skill that lets her notice hypocrisy when those who surround her are too biased by their religion or politics. Once again, her father was a big influencer in the rebellious attitude that was implemented through education. He explained to Marjane that the Shah was not chosen by God and that this was just a ploy to overthrow the government. He hated the Shah because he wasn’t educated or literate and he wanted his daughter to be the opposite. He resented the Shah and anyone who used religion to legitimize their power, which could have played into Marjane’s disdain for authority at her religious school later on. The school that Marjane attends in Austria was intended to be different for her, assumingly by her parents who wanted her to be safer, but it was still led by authoritarians who used religion as power. She could not stand that
Over the course of this semester, we have been provided countless resources, shedding light on the various historical events that have affected the world. The use of different texts and accounts of history not commonly seen, made the course stand out. Often in World History courses, the curriculum focuses mainly around historical events from the views of those that succeeded and held power. By including texts like Persepolis and African Voices of the Global Past, we are presented with a more comprehensive and inclusive view of historical events and their effects on the people. With that, the focus of globalization has been achieved by providing accounts from nations all around the globe, allowing us to more easily see the true effects of globalization. With this greater understanding of the world, we are able to act as better global citizens in the future.
As Islam becomes more prominent in her life, it also influences her decisions as well as lifestyle that her family is put through. For example, as her Uncle Anoosh passes away from a heart attack after not being given a passport in time because it was difficult to leave the country at the time, Marjane loses faith in God as he has taken away what was once close to her. Therefore, as her parents travel to Turkey, she asks them to buy her items like a Michael Jackson button and Kim Wilde CD, she decides it is okay to break the law of her the Islam religion, which under the Iranian rule forbid western items, and instead chooses her freedom. Before the overpowering of Islam of her life, Marjane would have convicted that doing these acts of rebellion is not right because we are not following the rules of justice, but her views have altered to that her freedom is justice. The last string that was broken for Marjane with her adhering to her religious life style and thinking was when her neighbors were bombed as she was out shopping for jeans, which was also illegal. As she rushed home to see if her family was, she states that she is lost in a world of emptiness and is unsure what to do anymore. Possibly, Marjane thinks that all her acts of her freedom in place of her religion has caused these terrible events, and that there is nothing
There are many different influences in the world today; a big one that most people in the world face is religion. Religion is an influence that people first encounter during their childhood. They grow and learn to have faith or it can be the complete opposite. In the memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, is the story of a young girl growing up in Iran, during the Islamic Revolution, and the war with Iraq. Marji (Marjane), the little girl is trying to live a normal childhood, but with certain events throughout history and her childhood it is not likely that she gets to live a normal childhood. Throughout the entire story religion has been mixed in, both in a good and bad way. In the story Marji losses her faith and it changes who she is, religion also changed her lifestyle by the government putting religion into the law