Night Vs Persepolis Research Paper

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Dasia Williams Mrs. Moore English II IntH B7 16 May 2024 Identity in Night vs. Persepolis A person’s identity is shaped by factors like their culture, interests, worldview, and religion. However, someone’s identity can be severely impacted by their environment and their experiences. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night discusses this as his faith in humanity, God, and himself changes as he faces the horrors of the Holocaust. His harsh environment causes him to have an internal battle with his religious identity. Marjane Satrapi also portrays this in her graphic memoir Persepolis. Her memoir follows her younger self learning the true atrocities of the Islamic Revolution. As she gains more knowledge of the Islamic kingdom, the oppression from the police, …show more content…

In Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis, she emphasizes the themes of identity and resilience. She opens her story by discussing her view during the time the Islamic Revolution took place. She explains how she “was born with religion,”(p.6) showing that before she gained knowledge on the Islamic Revolution and gained more influence from her environment, she was religious and had a good relationship with God. When Marjane gains more information on the true horrors of the political unrest around her, she gets an urge to stand up and rebel. She tries to join her parents in demonstrating, but they refuse. When she goes to sleep that night, God does not visit her like he has in the past nights, making her ask “God, where are you?” (p. 17). This is the start of Marjane having questions about her faith in God. As she grows and her environment changes, so does she. Her personality becomes more rebellious. When her older friends discuss skipping school to go out, she does it because she “had already broken the rules” (p. 111) in the past. As the conflict around her spiking, her internal battle with herself