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. Many people that died for their cause sparked many more followers to join the revolution. However, there are people that falsely claim that they are a martyr to receive …show more content…
This is demonstrated through her glorification of Siamak, one who has endured torture in prison. When Laly tells her that her father is “on a trip”, Marji automatically deduces that he is dead. However, when she learns about Siamak’s story of his torture, she feels shame for her own father, who has never retributed for his rebellious actions. Ashamed by the lack of “glory”, she wishes for a hero in her family. This is exemplified in the chapter entitled, ‘Moscow’, where she meets Uncle Anoosh and learns that he was imprisoned for 9 years and tortured like Siamak, which delights Marji. This shows her naivety as a character because all she wants to do is boast to her friends about the “glory” in her family. When Anoosh is executed, her desire for “glory” dissipates because she has experienced the loss of someone who she really connected with in terms of ideals and understanding. On page 71, Marji is seen endlessly floating in space, which symbolizes her feelings of loss and
As American singer-song writer Duncan Sheik once said, “It’s inevitable your environment will influence what you do.” It is not a secret that the environment a person grows up in helps shape their views of the world and how he or she perceives different issues. The United State of America are known as the melting pot. We have many cultures and races all living within the same cities working together peacefully for the most part. To outsiders America is the place to come to achieve the “American Dream”, and it is the place where fresh starts, entrepreneurship, and individualism are highly encouraged. There are freedoms in American that many other people across the world are not as lucky to have.
Throughout the Iranian Revolution, many events and changes took place that largely affected the views of Iranians by other nations. The graphic novel, The Complete Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi (Satrapi, 2003), conveys many of these events and changes through the eyes of a child growing up in the 1980s in Iran. Satrapi’s main purpose for this book is to describe how the Iranian government was corrupt, causing foreign nations to have a tainted view of all Iranian citizens. The Complete Persepolis does so by presenting major events and changes in a manner that is directed towards audiences that are willing to have an open mind about ethnicity and false stereotypes, and an audience that is young and can relate to the “coming of age” aspect of this novel. By exhibiting a credible first hand account of how Satrapi and many others were affected by the events that took place during the Iranian Revolution, The Complete Persepolis can effectively persuade a reader to eliminate the “Islamic extremist” stereotype that the corrupt Islamic Republic gave all Iranian citizens.
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.
For those who can’t recognize the disadvantages blacks have, any movement that call for equal rights and black mobility may be seen as an extreme action trying to cause conflict. For leaders who advocated for change like Malcolm X or Jesse Jackson were labeled in negative terms, but they were trying to obtain the same rights that whites have. In the case of Malcolm X, he said “We assert the right of self-defence by whatever means necessary, and reserve the right of maximum retaliation against our racist oppressors, no matter what the odds against us are” (Malcolm X, 747). What Malcolm X is advocating for reminds me of Sylvester Carrier actions in the movie Rosewood. Sylvester was viewed as an out of control black man with a gun during the shootout at his house. In truth, he was trying to protect his family
The images within the chapter are all about how Marji is scared to tell her
Amazing, intriguing, and unimaginable are just a few words to describe how I felt about Persepolis while I read this true life story of Marjane Satrapi. This book has helped me to see all the life struggles, good times, and adversities that Marji faced between the ages of nine to thirteen. The Islamic Revolution had such a daunting effect in the Middle East, especially in the county of Iran where Marji and her family resided.
Satrapi’s graphic memoir, Persepolis focuses hugely on the loss of innocence of Marjane, which she illustrates by using several techniques such as the sizes of figures and the contrast of shades, as well as the of details, or lack thereof she includes in her drawings.
The title of the graphic novel I choose to read during the summer is called Persepolis. Persepolis follows the life of Marjane Satrapi as she lives in revolutionary Iran. The plot of the story is Marjane’s growth and development as a free minded woman in a close minded country that is trying to restrict her freedom to be proud as a woman. Marjane’s life is best portrayed through the use of splash panels and pages, captions, and open panels.
Pesepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel depicting the life of Marjane Satrapi during the Iranian Revolution. In the early pages, Marjane illustrates that she saw herself as a prophet. She wanted to change the world, and with the help of God, she thought that she could.
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
In the very beginning of the book, Marji’s rebellious side is slightly shown to the reader. “We demonstrated in the garden of our house” (10). This was the beginning of Marji’s own rebellion for religion. The thing that makes this illogical though is that she doesn't fully understand what she is rebelling against. All she knows is that the adults around her, including her parents, are rebelling and that she should follow suit. In order to fully understand why she’s doing what she is doing, she reads plenty of books. “To enlighten me they bought books” (12). Marji learned more and more of what she was fighting against, and for, but she then decides that she wants to go to an actual demonstration. “‘I want to come with you tomorrow!’ ‘Where?’ ‘To the demonstration on the street! I am sick and tired of doing it in the garden’” (16-17). This is yet again an illogical choice that Marji makes, however it can be justified due to the time and her own reason. The choices Marji makes for religion show just how much effort she puts into rebelling. Marji puts plenty of effort into rebelling in something that she does not fully understand, and it shows that shes has personality traits that reflect from what her parents do. Her parents rebel against the shah, and so does Marji. She does not understand why she does, but she decides to do it anyways. Her personality is reflected from her parents, and show how she is so rebellious.
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.
What is a hero? We all have our own ideas as to what makes a hero, whether they be a superhero, a war hero, or a personal idol. The one thing these heroes all have in common is that they are all respected and looked up to for something they have done. In Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, there are many heroes. The graphic novel is Satrapi’s autobiography of her childhood in Iran, during and after the Islamic revolution. Throughout her novel Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi utilizes powerful graphic and textual elements on pages 61 and 146 to show how Marji’s original optimistic and whimsical belief about heroes changes as she realizes that there is pain and suffering behind every hero.
Fahrenheit 451 and Persepolis both represent the concept of discovery through the perspectives of the main protagonists and their changed opinions throughout the storyline which separates them from the rest of society, therefore leading to greater awareness of situations. This is evident as Montag continues to defy the regime and as he is slowly isolated from the uniformity created in the society through his changed perspectives, with the use of dialogue from “Everyone up, everyone out! He couldn’t be missed, the only man proving his legs!” and reinforced through anaphora with the adoption of ‘everyone’ amplifies Montag’s alienated atmosphere as he is specifically excluded from society. Thus leading Montag to his outcome where he, as an individual
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.