Night, By Marjane Satrapi

The graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is about a young girl, Marjane, and her life experiencing the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the Islamic Revolution, and the ruinous effects of war with Iraq. The novel Night by Elie Weisel is a 1960 memoir based on Weisel’s Holocaust experiences with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Both Weisel and Satrapi explore the effects human atrocities have on children and even though it contributes to their identity, it eventually ends up affecting their relationships and their faith. Weisel goes through experiences that lead him to have less faith in his religion and God. Before he was put in the concentration camps, his faith was a significant part of his

Having these thoughts makes him feel guilty. When his father dies, he feels relief, but Weisel doesn’t write anything else about his experience in the camps, almost as if they don’t matter anymore. In conclusion, Elie’s exposure to the harsh realities of concentration camps, being separated from his family, and being surrounded by death, affected his connection with his faith and his relationship with his father in a negative way. As a ten year old girl, Marjane Satrapi had to go through the Iranian war and watch as women and men became oppressed in the new regime. The introduction of the hijab and full covering of the body was confusing for young people, especially the revolutionary Marjane. She was ready to protest for what she believed in and that God was on her side as she did it. Her connection with God was so powerful, she convinced herself she was the last prophet. She even spoke to God, not in prayers, but in normal conversation. This creates tension in her personal life with her peers not accepting her claims. Her teacher goes out of her way to call her parents and tell them Marjane is

She was fully convinced and prepared to be a prophet, but the thought of others not accepting and even judging her was too much for her to be honest. The determination of young Marjane to stand up and protest against the war was strong because of her faith, but as she experienced the death that came with revolution, like the burning of the Rex Cinema (15), she starts to doubt God. In Babak Elahi’s criticism of the novel, he points out that on page 17, she “looks at the reader but addresses an absent God.” (Elahi) She used to see God in her bedroom and have conversations with him, but in a time of need and sorrow, he was nowhere to be found. Similar to Elie’s experience with the Holocaust, Marjane finds God is less and less present in her life as the war continues and she relies on her family’s love and protection to keep her from getting hurt. Because of that, her parents moved her to Austria when she was just 14 to have a chance at a better life, and she lost her home. In conclusion, both books go into detail of how traumatic experiences can highlight the importance of