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Examples Of Juxtaposition In Persepolis

1133 Words5 Pages

Caroline Brooks

Mrs. Geiken

English 111

23 March 2023

Persepolis: A Masterclass in Juxtaposition

Persepolis is a groundbreaking graphic novel and memoir written by Marjane Satrapi about her childhood in Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Satrapi focuses on topics of war, heartbreak, and primarily her own coming of age story. Throughout the entire novel, Satrapi’s expertise in juxtaposition–the contrasting of two different images or topics–is clear, not just in her imagery, but the topics she covers. Marjane Satrapi uses imagery and word choice to emphasize a juxtaposition of how adult topics can both positively and negatively affect children.

Throughout the novel, the negativity of Satrapi’s situation may seem to dominate the story, …show more content…

Throughout this section of the novel, it is communicated to the audience that poor young Iranian boys are being given plastic keys and told that these are the keys that they would use for getting into heaven. The purpose of the gift of the keys was to distract the young boys from the horrors of fighting in the war. Despite how obviously devastating this experience would ultimately be for the boys and their peers, it seems to take an even larger toll on one Mrs. Nasrine, the mother of a young boy who receives one of these keys (Satrapi, 99). This section of the graphic novel is a microcosm of just how extreme the culture of the school was for these Iranian children. The school that Satrapi attended supported the extremist concept of social classes, highlighted in this case by the fact that only the poor boys were given these keys to heaven. The unlucky recipients of the keys were then dropped onto battle fields, practically hypnotized by Islamic hymns, pushed into battle, and forced to pay the ultimate price. Most of the boys who lost their lives at the hands of this social construct were around the age of thirteen (Satrapi, pp. …show more content…

Throughout Satrapi's childhood, she experienced a wider array of adult topics than most children could ever expect to encounter. It is all but impossible to find examples of positive influences from Satrapi’s war torn childhood. However, after digging through all the negative examples presented, there remain a few shining gems that were responsible for making Satrapi who she is today. Marjane Satrapi is truly one of the most talented authors of our time. With her book Persepolis, Satrapi demonstrates this talent by juxtaposing positive and negative topics, sometimes even on the same page or within the same panel. By expressing her story in this manner Satrapi displays her message clearly; despite the devastation and horrors of war, a child can prosper and

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