The Shabbata Essay

Marjane Satrapi graphic comic “The Shabbat” gives a visual description of an adolescent girl growing up in the Iranian Revolution. Although, she does not comprehend what is going on around her. She gives us a teenager's-eye view of the story, from her routine violence is seen daily. She tries to live a normal teenage life by going out shopping in the company of friends, but is almost impossible because of the continual bombing. While, shopping she finds out via radio that her area had been hit by a bomb and Rushes home to see if her family is okay. Marjane expresses “ If someone had timed me, I think I would have beat the world speed record” (24). She rushed to find out about were the disaster took place without thinking in the motion of time.

In the graphic novel “Persepolis”, Marjane Satrapi tells an autobiographical coming-of-age story of growing up between revolutionary Iran and Austria. As in all coming-of-age stories, the protagonist is faced with challenges which force them to grow up all the while struggling to find their identity. Satrapi’s story however, is complicated by the drastically contrasting and changing cultures around her and thus her character’s search of identity is not only confined to the typical pains of adolescence, but also includes the confusion of

Iran. This novel is a graphic novel so you get to see what her reactions were to different things, which really helped create a sense of her personality. In this book there are many themes that are expressed throughout the whole storyline. Throughout the whole book she becomes older and older and watch how her life developed. One main theme that is clearly prevailed is memory and development. Marji's whole book is about her memories as a young girl and how she matures into the person she is today, so right away that theme can be pulled from the text. Another theme that is presented is equality. In the country of Iran, many people are treated different. As a women in Iran, you don’t have a lot of freedom or rights compared to men. As you read the novel it is shown on how women get treated compared to men. Comparing this graphic novel to the novel called “I am Malala”, many similarities are presented in their themes.

Marji's role in life changes drastically throughout the novel. In the beginning, as a young child, Marji believes that she is a prophet. As the story progresses and they the revolution continues, Marji begins to feel dismay towards the revolution and towards God. Later in the novel, Marji’s mother also feels sadness. Her former revolutionary spirit is gone and replaced with fear. When Marji’s principal calls the house to complain that Marji disrespected of the teachers, her mother in the past would have been proud, but this time around she fears for her daughter and goes on to explain the things that happen to girls in Iranian prison. Her mother had given up optimism and established that war

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis is an expressive memoir of her growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, the fall of the Shah’s regime and the Iran-Iraq War. Unlike conventional memoirs, she uses the black-and-white comic book form to find her identity through politics and her personal experiences in Iran and it has become effective and relevant in today’s society because she is a normal person that has had to live through extreme circumstances. Marjane has contributed to a whole new way of writing memoirs that may last for many generations to come. She effectively demonstrates how she is just like anybody else by expressing herself through rebellion, truth and being at the threshold of a changing nation. What further makes it her book relevant is that the revolution is still going on today. In the novel, Marjane, Marji for short, is living in Tehran, the capital of Iran, during the late 70’s and early 80’s. She is smart and outspoken for her age and for a long time she was very religious which is a bit skeptical due to her parents being Marxists. Persepolis illustrates a memorable story of Marji’s life in Iran.

The graphic novel portrays Marjane Satrapi as an opinionated, imaginative, and curious young girl. The plot details her as an average ten year-old girl in the midst of a revolution. Her reaction to the environment in which she lives in

The graphic novel is a book that tells the story about the childhood of an Iranian girl named Marji, while instantaneously attempting to display what the Iranian people are like in

One of these incidents occurs when Marjane is in art school. When the students were told that they needed to wear longer headscarves, Satrapi immediately responded that “as a student of art…I need to move freely to be able to draw.” She further questions “why is it that I, as a woman, am expected to feel nothing when watching these men with their clothes sculpted on but they, as men, can get excited by two-inches less of my head scarf?” here Marjane questions the restrictiveness of the veil and comments on the injustice in Muslim society and the gender inequality. The veil represent the repressions and the gender injustices in Iran. By revolting against the veil Marjane is able to protest the repressions. On hearing Marjanes complaint, the school administrators asked Satrapi to design her own veil. Marjane accepts this offer while still in the confines of the veil. Marjane designs the veil to suit the needs of the students and

Marji’s hatred towards the new Islamic government due to the oppression her loved ones have had to endure, causes her to act out and rebel against the law. There are many instances of Marji’s defiance against the government and religion. One example of her rebellious nature is exemplified when she and her maid, Mehri, decide that “tomorrow [they] are going to demonstrate” (Satrapi, 38). She makes this decision after discovering the truth on social hierarchy and the government in Iran. She wants to support the Iranian citizens in fighting against the rules and religion to make Iran a free country again. Another example

The book’s thesis was a young girl’s journey from place to place while a war is outraging in her country. She is forced to leave her country without her parents when she is still young. She grows up in many different places, meeting many different people, and becoming a very different girl. She learns to take care of herself and runs into many problems that she has to solve alone. The topic of the Islamic revolution during and after is discussed, along with the differences in the private and public lives in the middle of a political war. There were some conflicts and differences in families across the community. It also shows how people grow and change, how a war nearby can change a person. When the war started, Marjane was a young innocent girl. When the war developed and she grew, she changed and lied to her parents and started hiding stuff from them. The war forced her to change her personality a bit because of the changes going on in her life.

Throughout the graphic novel Persepolis, the author Marjane Satrapi makes the main character Marji a typical little girl. Marji and her family live in Iran, and they are figuring out how to live under the rules of the new Shah. At first, Marji is introduced as a girl who loves her live, and who loves her God. As the novel goes on, Marji changes a lot and starts figuring out who she can and cannot be.

In the graphic memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the main character Marji and her family are living through the Iranian Revolution, as well as the War. The people of Iran are revolting against the Shah and fighting for what they believe in. During this time, acts of violence occurred and injured many people, their nation was divided. When in time of war or disagreements against certain beliefs, people may use acts of violence to show their frustrations, instead of solving the problem and uniting, Satrapi develops this theme through graphic weight, motif and chapter titles.

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.

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.

In the graphic novel Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, the author tells her personal life story of growing up in Iran during the breakout of the Iraq and Iran War. Her use of black and white comic strips makes her story come to life in an entertaining and attention-grabbing way. Marjane growing up can be examined by using Erik Erikson’s theory of the eight stages of life. Persepolis shows how a young girl can overcome and turn into a woman that has self-love and finds who she is meant to be in life.