Identity Crisis In Persepolis

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

After the Iranian Revolution, it became compulsory for women to wear the veil as the Islamic dress code and all women were removed from government positions, leading to increasing oppression and inequality in Iran. The use of black and white on the first page of the book creates a very clear image that a lot of people are unhappy with the new rules that are introduced by the government. The use of images shows us the oppression of freedom in a way that it would be hard to imagine with words. The first panel shows Marjane in a somber mood, crossing her arms to show her defensive thinking against the veil and the world. In the following panel, the girl’s expressions range from neutral to dislike or discomfort, which shows the general thoughts from people on how they think of the veil. Marjane cropped herself out of the class photo to show that she doesn’t want to be a part of the regime nor accept the principles of it. It would be hard for the reader to notice that Marjane isn’t in the class photo if the reader wasn’t informed and this is due to the lack of visual distinction between them, which emphasizes the oppression of women. The fashion statement in Iran creates a confusion for Marjane, who lives in a modern family but is restricted by the rules introduced by the government. She has the choice of wearing anything she wants in her home, but when she’s at school she is once again restricted by the veil and her religion. When Marjane is in Vienna, she changes from a conformist that she needs to be in Iran to an individual that she is allowed to be in Vienna. This shows the freedom that people are allowed to have rather than the restricted rules that are implemented in Iran to oppress women. Marjane thought the act would be liberating, however, it wasn’t as simple as that because her inner thoughts still continued to conflict with