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Essay about politics in persepolis
Essay about politics in persepolis
Religion's Role Throughout Persepolis Essay
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“I don’t think of myself as a rebel; I just say what I think” – Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, once said. Persepolis is an autobiography of the author as a young girl growing up throughout the Islamic Revolution, which is displayed as a graphic novel. Throughout the novel, Marjane goes through many trials which mold her to become more rebellious and independent. Marjane becomes more rebellious and independent through her classmates influence, the wars restrictions, and the adults around her.
In the nine years following the Iranian Revolution, over 30,000 people were executed by the Iranian government as a result of their values conflicting with the conservative Islamic ideals of the new regime (McTighe). The graphic novel Persepolis explores this change in government and the conflict-ridden road leading to it through the story of a young girl named Marjane and her family. It explores how the family’s Communist values cause them to being willing to risk their lives calling for a change and speaking out, first for the overthrow of the corrupt king, then against the Islamic regime. As Marjane struggles with the trials of growing up, she is also forced to live through a series of conflicts which force her to examine her values and
The graphic novel, Persepolis, is a much more complex book than a reader would assume. There is always a deeper meaning in the tales that the author tells for the duration of the story. Unrequited love is a minor part of Marji’s life, but the stories that she tells that are focused on love hold messages that everyone can learn from. Persepolis is an autobiography, which creates a personal aspect that a biography lacks. For example, miniscule changes occur throughout the novel that are subtle but revealing.
Without God as a guiding presence in her life, Marji began to rebel against the ever-encroaching fundamentalist institution as much as possible. Under the pretense of religion, Iran strictly enforced new laws against social gatherings and all items of decadence, “They found records and video-cassettes at their place. A deck of cards, a chess set, in other words, everything that’s banned… It earned him seventy-five lashes”(105). This sudden loss of mediums to enjoy one’s self and prevalence of excessive punishment enforcing the declared moral code (132) were invitations to rebel for Marji.
Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is a novel based in Iran during and post Islamic Revolution that follows the life of young Marjane Satrapi, or as know in the story, Marji while her and her family try to get through all the changes happening around them because of the Revolution. The novel begins with Marji telling the reader that the Revolution had just begun, and a year after all women, children, and adults had to wear a veil even though “[they] really didn’t like to wear the veil, especially since [they] didn’t understand why they had to” (Satrapi 1). Throughout the story Marji constantly questions things going on around her, one thing in particular being the government's total rejection of the westernization that was slowly occurring in
The graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi tells us a first-hand experience about the Iran-Iraq war and the changes Iran men, women, and children had to deal with throughout the time period. The author dealt with the war and society first handily. She tells the readers about her life story and experiences. She was born in Iran in 1969. The Iran-Iraq war began in 1980, so at the age of ten Satrapi was already dealing with changes and conflicts she didn’t quite understand.
With the use of her drawing techniques, Satrapi demonstrates her desire to eliminate the moral ambiguity in the western world. Moral ambiguity is when a lack of clarity is present while dealing with an issue that has moral elements within it. Satrapi uses the lines and color contrast in her graphics to clarify ethical decision making when the westerners are making their opinion on Iran and the middle east. Due to Satrapi’s clear and distinct separation of the oppressed and oppressors in the graphic novel, she was able to tell the world what Iran truly was. When the graphic novel ‘Persepolis’ was translated in 2002 it was after the attacks on 9/11, these attacks had all Americans shook and the dislike of such “islamic nations” was very common, Dislike and hatred was spread throughout the westernized world and it only got worse as presidents spoke out in frustration and anger about Iran, this anger turned into the perspective of many westerners as they were never exposed to the real truth of what Iran was.
Effects on the Memoir Persepolis Marjane Satrapi’s novel Persepolis describes experiences during the Islamic Regime that leave people suffering, dying, and fighting for a better government. Marjane Satrapi uses a comic layout to illustrate what is difficult to say in words. Her panel design depicts images of her, her family, and friends as well as how people in the community are reacting to the different events of the revolution. The use of panel design assists the memoir by making Satrapi’s purpose of portraying information more successful. Throughout the novel Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi uses panel design to advance the reader 's’ knowledge of the many situations occurring in Iran that cause distress to many individuals rebelling against the regime.
Both these novels show the constant struggles that people have had to go through to survive. In Persepolis the people of Iran began to protest the Shah by demonstrating. Eventually the Shah fought back by ordering the police to burn down the Rex Cinema, where there were 400 people. “The doors had been locked from the outside a few minutes before the fire and they forbade people to rescue those locked inside, and then they attacked them.” (page 14).
The theme of repression is an ever-present issue in Persepolis. The picture on the right shows a bearded Islamist explaining to children why the veil needs to be imposed to counter Westernization. However, Satrapi’s home was a place of liberal values and free expression. This is shown in the scene where Marji is split between
An impenetrable way through perseverance and resistance in the book “Persepolis” has sent a powerful message to audiences everywhere. This graphic novel is a story of small Marji, who had to face formidable obstacles through her childhood. Living in Iran surrounded by war and thousands of deaths, inspired the little girl to fight for her rights. On page 102 of the book, we can see a powerful juxtaposition, where both of the panels have a profound effect on the reader. Looking at the elements of a graphic novel, Satrapi uses caption, movement and mood in both of the panels in order to enhance the significance on the narrative.
The graphic novel, Persepolis that is written by Satrapi depicts the coming of age story of Marjane and her experiences during and after the Iranian war. Through Marjane’s experiences, the character frequently encounters the hardship and conflict of growing up. However, these hardships are major factors that shape Marjane as a character and establish the context of the novel. Within this novel, Satrapi uses graphic novel conventions and literary devices to convey the conflict of Marjane; with herself, with man (in the form of her teachers), and with the society that is revealed in Persepolis.
For the rest of her Iranian education, Marjane is separate from boys except for when she plays with them at home. Another way that gender roles play into Persepolis is the fact that all of the leaders mentioned were male. Marjane’s great Grandfather, Reza Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (“the Shah”), and Mohammed Mossadegh are just to name a few male Iranian leaders who ruled during or just before Marjane’s time. Another manner of gender roles in Persepolis is the way women are treated by men. For example, the incident where two men bombarded Marjane’s mother and told her that women like her should be raped against a wall and thrown in the garbage (Satrapi 74).
The graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an animated ‘identity crisis’ showing how she has trouble reconciling the Eastern and Western values that she has been influenced by. By ‘identity crisis’ I mean Marjane is uncertain about who she is and where she belongs to. The Eastern values would include hierarchy, restraint, collectivism and deference, whereas the Western values would include equality, freedom of expression, individualism and self-assertion. A graphic novel can be defined as a book containing a long story told mostly in pictures but with some writing. I intend to investigate why Satrapi has chosen to use the graphic novel instead of using other styles to present Marjane attempts to reconcile the different values and find
The story begins with the life of marjane and ends with her life. But in the background, the novel involves the war in Iran. Iran is always at war which includes the Iranian revolution and the struggle of people after the revolution. Though these are not implied does not affect their significance. They have a very important function of shaping the actions of the characters of novel which have long lasting effects.
