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Persepolis Symbolism

Decent Essays

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. “At one of the demonstrations, a German journalist took a photo” (Satrapi 5) of Marji’s mom and published it in a European newspaper. She “dyed her hair, and wore dark glasses for a long time” (Satrapi 5) to disguise herself …show more content…

My grandmother shares the same grief with Paradisse because the Korean War killed both her parents. The color scheme of the book Persepolis is black and white. This symbolizes the darkness and evil in Marji’s life during the revolution. “I too tried to think only of life. However, it wasn’t always easy: at school, they lined us up twice a day to mourn the war dead. They put on funeral marches. And we had to beat our breasts” (Satrapi 94). If my grandma’s life were written as a book, it would be the same since she shared the same tremendous hardship and suffering. Just like the movie Wizard of Oz, the dull life of Kansas is in black and white, but when Dorothy arrives in the amazing Land of Oz, the movie becomes full of colors. The color of this mystical land symbolizes pleasure and elation whereas; the black and white coloring of her home shows her dreary life. Marji and my grandma’s life are the same as the Wizard of Oz, but the only difference is they do not have the blissfulness that Dorothy experiences in the Land of Oz. Marji and my grandma experienced similar childhoods and both lived through extreme amount of

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