Persepolis Socioeconomic Class Essay

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.

The Complete Persepolis, an autobiographical novel by Marjane Satrapi, tells the tale of Marjane’s childhood in Iran. In this story, Marjane (Marji) is brought up by communistic parents. Evidence of this Marxist upbringing is displayed several times throughout the book, like early on in the story when young Marji exclaims that “it was funny to see how much Marx and God looked like each other” (13). The audience can analyze Persepolis through a Marxist lens to see how particular ideas, specifically the ideology of consumerism, oppress Marjane, her family, and Iranian civilians overall. The main principle behind Marxism is that

Writer Gregory Mantsios in his article “Class in America”, talks about these things, and how wide the gap is between the rich and the poor and also discusses how the rich continue to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. Mantsios gives his readers the profiles and backgrounds of three hard-working Americans, two of them are white males, whose family background as well as education played a role in their success, while the other person is a black woman who is just above the poverty line despite her work as a nurse’s aide. Through these profiles, Mantsios article shows exactly how sex, race and shows how your parental and educational background of a person can play a role in the things that you achieve. Mantsios also talks about one’s performance in school and the level of school completed can suggest whether or not class that person may belong in.

Social class has been always been in our society since its establishment. Back then, white,

The axis of inequality that will be focused throughout this paper is the social class. Social class is defined as a group of individuals who are categorized according to class (i.e. poor, middle, and upper) due to their income, wealth, power, and occupation. Social class is socially constructed by the way we view how much income and wealth a person possess (Ore, 20011a, 10). In reality it is much more than that. According to the text, poverty is not only the shortage of income, but it is the rejection of opportunities and choices that leads a person to a standard way of living (Ore, 2011a, 10). Stereotyping also contributes to it being socially constructed. These stereotypes influence us by defining who is who based on their principles in each class category. This can cause some to feel worthless.

Social inequality stems from many facets of life and mindsets reproduced continuously in America. The main backbone of systematic inequality is formed off of race, gender and class, which all contain crucial aspects that further oppress those subjected to inequality in various aspects of life. The resources-schools, occupations, invested parents- around one fuels the opportunity in their lives, a concept highlighted by Malcom Gladwell, in his book, Outliers. Situations one are brought up in or uncontrollable genetic aspects can very easily restrain their opportunities. Racial discrimination, gender roles and inferiority and the lack of fluidity in the low and working class push inequality, which simultaneously influencing the rich and privileged.

might the resulting contrasts suggest about the role of class in shaping social experience in The

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.

The idea of social inequality dates back since the time of our founding fathers. The mistreatment and unlawful equality and opportunity that these foreigners received became embedded into our history—this endless list includes, just to name a few, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, and most notably the African Americans (Blacks), who became slaves to the American people. Here in the United States, the current social class system is known as the class system, where families are distributed and placed into three different existing class—the upper class (wealthy), middle class (working), and lower class (poor). Since then, improvisations have been worked on into the class system, establishing now roughly six social classes: upper class, new money, middle class, working class, working poor, and poverty level. Social stratification is a widely common topic of debate because there have since been many arguments and debates on this controversial situation of social inequality and how it relates to social class and social mobility. According to Economist Robert Reich, he states that "The probability that a poor child in America will become a poor adult is higher now than it was 30 years ago..." (Reich, par. 5), meaning the given amount of equality, opportunity, and support that these struggle families obtain have gone mainly unnoticed by the government that it has gotten worst. The constant uproar of social inequality and injustice that these middle and lower working class families stem

Confinement, Oppression and Rebellious Nature in Persepolis. by Joonyoon Tan In the book Persepolis authored by Marjane Satrapi, she writes about her life experiences growing up in the midst of a revolution in Iran which involves war and oppression not only to the Iranian’s lifestyle choices but also to the religious beliefs of the people. Marjane lives in a society where freedom is taken away and one certain religion is forced upon them, what she wears, where she goes and what she does is tightly restricted and constrained. Being a rebellious, independent, determined and strong-willed person she is, she finds it difficult to live by the strict rules and obligations that were forced on her, particularly involving a woman’s rights which was affected largely by the Islamic regulation

Throughout Persepolis, Marjane must come to recognize the divide between modernity and fundamentalism in Iran as well as in the Satrapi household. From early on, Marjane sees this conflict arise in herself as well, stating “deep down I was very religious, but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde” (6). Marji comes from a family that values Western social values as well as the materialism of the West, appreciating rock posters, jean jackets and nice cars as well as liberal education and human rights. Her avant-garde family, however, exists amid a country that values fundamentalist culture. Satrapi expresses that after she was forced to wear a veil at school and separated from the boys in her class, she was unsure of how to feel about the veil, as it was a symbol of her traditional sense of self, but also covered up the modern values instilled in her by her parents. Marjane has a difficult time throughout Persepolis finding herself amid the differing views within herself. From a young age, her parents stress that religious and ideological fundament-alism takes away from people’s identity and self-respect. Marjane—who is devoted to God and becoming the last prophet—feels as though she must hide her own traditional opinions from her parents, telling them she wants to become a doctor and later telling God “I will be a prophet, but they mustn’t know” (9). As Marjane tries to hide her fundamentalist views, she ultimately begins to lose them, and in this loss, she also begins to lose her naïve self. With her symbolic first cigarette and desperateness to attend demonstrations and interrupt class with expressions of her parents’ modern views, Marjane matures quickly in an attempt to unify her identity. By the end of her memoir, Satrapi must separate herself from

Persepolis was created by Marjane Satrapi to explain the details of her life. She had many events that occurred over time throughout the younger years of her life which she wrote in the form of a graphic novel. One of the most important things that took place in her life was her experience and how it helped her to grow faster mentally. Many events contributed to her mental growth as most of them she describes come from the war.Out of the many contributions one has a larger explanation. How does the symbolism in persepolis lead to Marjane Satrapi's coming of age.

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.

During the IOC I realized that remarkably people have their own idea or belief on

In chapter sixteen, “Social Class and Inequality” the essays show different cases in which being rich, poor, smart or middle class can affect a person. In the writings of Angela Locke in “Born Poor and Smart” (338-339) Angela summarizes her life of what it was like growing up with a poor, yet smart mother. However, in “When Shelter Feels like a Prison” (374-376) Charmion Browne writes about being poor, and living in homeless shelters. Somethings in life, are no more than learning experiences, and only you can change it.