...is going to happen when they get arrested, this scene helped Marji to create a sense of fear of the unknown ending for those people who get caught. “The Letter” is the fifth chapter in this graphic novel Persepolis. This chapter is really important for the story because it is about the differences between the social classes in Iran. Mehri's family was living in a really low social class and with fifteen children to feed, under the pressure of living they had to give away eight years old Mehri as a maid. After two years Marji was born, they almost did everything together and the social class was irrelevant to them. This chapter focuses mainly on the letters sent between Mehri and Hossein, the neighbour’s son. The case that Marji is writing letters for them relates to the idea of different social classes. Unlike Marji, the lower classes were unable to get well educated, they cannot even write a letter to express their feelings and they cannot fall in love with someone who is living in higher class because all people think that was wrong. Of course, Mehri and Hossein stopped contacting after Hossein knows that Mehri is not Marji’s sister, instead she is an actual maid. This fact brings up a confusion in Marji’s childhood, she could not understand why people must separate each classes specifically. In my opinion, I think the last panel in page (153) is the most important. It happens at the airport when Marji is going to depart from Iran to Australia, the reason of leaving...
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...families are separated and lost during and after wartime. For example, after North and South Korea engaged in war with one another, families remain physically separated forever due to the conflicts and issues that have not yet been resolved within the two countries. Another example is Marji’s uncle, Anoosh tells Marji of his flee to the U.S.S.R. after possibly being arrested and being hunted down by the government for such action, as well as for wanting Iran to be free and have a democracy. After a while of separation, Anoosh tells Marji that he “felt very lonely… I missed my country, my parents, my brothers… and dreamt of them often” (60). And so, Anoosh attempted to come back to Iran in disguise but was then caught by the government and was put into prison for nine years in which he was tortured during that time. After staying with Marji’s family for the time being, Anoosh was arrested again and was allowed only one visitor. Marji and Anoosh hugged goodbye and the next day he was executed by the government. Not only was Anoosh separated from his family by the Iranian government, but also Marji was separated from Anoosh as soon as she left his arms and was executed. Marji was forced to realize that she could not do anything but to feel pain and reject her friend, god...
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...compelling novel, Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, the protagonist, Marji has a personal relationship with God. Throughout the novel so far, God has left as well as come back to Marji as a result of certain actions on Marji’s side. After God returns to Marji on page 25 frame 8, he is not displayed in any frames for a great span of time. He takes no presence in the storyline and has no underlying significance, yet, what I find intriguing is the fact that God is again seen on page 53 frame 9, after this long absence. His sudden appearance made me ponder, why is God seen in this frame? Why did he return and what significance does that have to the storyline in that specific moment? Previously, God left Marji’s side has she began to accept the revolution and all it stood for. Marji is young and therefore has no complete understanding of what a revolution for political reform can incorporate; the hurt, the destruction and the emotional torment. Marji is still innocent. She has no background knowledge of war through experience or academic knowledge like other adults such as her parents have. Because Marji is innocent, she is also flexible. Her mind can easily be altered and tempered with. In other words, she is not yet old enough to have developed concrete opinions about such things as war which she has no first-hand experience with. However, God see all and knows all. He is aware of the things that Marji is accepting by supporting the revolution and by glorifying its morals and...
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...that shapes one’s identity and strengthens those aspects. This idea leads to ponder, how one identifies themselves in such a structured society. In the novel Persepolis the author Marjane Satrapi express her life in an autobiographical graphic novel. She describes her experience of being brought up in war-torn Iran. Though it is her struggle to grow an identity as a liberal self during the revolution, will be concentrated. Living in the heat of a revolution Marji (name of main character) and her family were subjectively forced to liberate themselves from radical change. Their admiration was to find liberty. Writer Raymond Williams describes the word liberty as having this initial sense of freedom. Also considered as open-minded, which some political officials classify as unorthodox. This definition it practically true when referring to Persepolis. The start of the Islamic revolution brought about many restraint. Such as, the Islamic regime forcing female citizens to wear a veil (traditional head scarf). As a young girl Marji was did not understand the reason for wearing the veil. She goes on to illustrating the image of herself and other girls removing the veils and playing with them. However, her mother protested the veil believed to be a torment to their freedom. But, her mother also felt the intensity of not wearing the veil. An incident took place were two guys threated the rape of women who did not. Fundamentalists that believed in the regimes efforts thought, that the hair...
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...violence used through the fundamentals of terrorism during the Iranian Revolution. By Marji being very young at this time, she was unable to understand what was happening in society, but her parents soon helped her make sense of how corrupt their government was becoming. Violence was a daily occurrence as protests filled the streets. Living in world of violence influences different actions taken by characters in various literatures. Children of the Revolution, by David Patrikarakos, Veiled Threat, by Francesco Bongiorni, and, British-Iranian Woman Jailed For a Year For Trying To Watch Volleyball Game, are distinctive works that relate how the influence of background and society change the perception of people living in Iran. Before 1980, growing up, Marji lived a carefree life and could wear or express herself anyway she wanted. But, soon later, a changing revolution would take place that would affect everyone in Iran. Before the Islamic Revolution, she was able to attend a French Non-Religious school where girls and boys were allowed to study and play together. Unfortunately, her relaxed world soon ended once the Islamic government decided to change their ways and forced others to conform to their religious beliefs of what they thought was right. When the Islamic Revolution began, it targeted women specifically by forcing them to wear veils over their heads. Many young girls such as Marji and her classmates were always confused about the veils and never took them seriously;...
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...Essay 3, written by Emily Greentree DRAFT The main character in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, a comic book written and illustrated by Marjane Satrapi, is Marjane while she was growing up with her family during the Islamic Revolution. She is an educated young girl and is raised by a family who fights for freedom in the revolution. Her father, Ebi Satrapi, and her mother, Taji Satrapi, are protecting their daughter while also protecting human rights to defend their culture and land. Iraq bombs are dropping in their lands of Iran and Iran troops are fighting to defend. Her family has friends who are communists and her uncle was in prison for 9 years because he was communist too. Marji reflects on the events around her and shares with the reader about the difficulties of the war and growing up with a regime changing culture. The school demonstrations become violent and she has more reasons to not to be living in Iran any longer. Her parents decide she should live in Austria. The panel on bottom page 146 has Marjane lying in bed. The frame of the panel is a rectangle that stretches from the entire left side of the page to the right side of the page. The panel’s height is about a third of the page, and looks somewhat similar to the other frames on the page. Above the panel there is a star and the words ‘equivalent to $5.00’ written in the gutter. That phrase does not apply to this frame, it applies to the frame above this one indicating that 500 tumans is 5 dollars...
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...Section 1 (The Soup): Marji has just arrived in Vienna. She starts at a boarding house run by nuns and wondering what her roommate, Lucia, will be like. She then says why she was at the boarding house and not with her mother's friend, Zozo. She then tells what happened at Zozo's house. She didn't seem to like Marji much and there was a lot of fighting between Zozo and her husband. Plus, her daughter, Shirin, isn't like Marji remembers her and Marji doesn't like the new Shirin. When she arrives at the boarding house, a nun shows her around. She then experiences the freedom she now has by going shopping for her own food. When she returns, she meets her roommate. Lucia speaks German so Marji doesn't understand her until they were eating some soup and they found a way to communicate by writing out what they meant as pictures. The section ended by both girls watching a movie in the TV room and Marji leaves. Section 2 (Tyrol): Marji starts the section with complaining about Lucia waking her up every morning at 6:30 with her hair dryer. A little after that, Marji starts to make friends at school when she gets the highest grade on a math test. She also becomes very popular for her unflattering portraits of teachers. Later, she is introduced to people who become her friends. They talk about what they are going to do during their Christmas break, which makes Marji feel left out because she doesn't celebrate Christmas and the Iranian New Year isn't until March. She goes back to her room...
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...violence used through the fundamentals of terrorism during the Iranian Revolution. By Marji being very young at this time, she was unable to understand what was happening in society, but her parents soon helped her make sense of how corrupt their government was becoming. Violence was a daily occurrence as protests filled the streets. Living in world of violence influences different actions taken by characters in various literatures. Children of the Revolution, by David Patrikarakos, Veiled Threat, by Francesco Bongiorni, and, British-Iranian Woman Jailed For a Year For Trying To Watch Volleyball Game, are distinctive works that relate how the influence of background and society change the perception of people living in Iran. Before 1980, growing up, Marji lived a carefree life and could wear or express herself anyway she wanted. But, soon later, a changing revolution would take place that would affect everyone in Iran. Before the Islamic Revolution, she was able to attend a French Non-Religious school where girls and boys were allowed to study and play together. Unfortunately, her relaxed world soon ended once the Islamic government decided to change their ways and forced others to conform to their religious beliefs of what they thought was right. When the Islamic Revolution began, it targeted women specifically by forcing them to wear veils over their heads. Many young girls such as Marji and her classmates were always confused about the veils and never took them seriously;...
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...Abigail Jessieca Liesar English Composition 10 Mrs. Park November 4th, 2014 Persepolis – Iran’s Class Inequity At some point in your lives, you might have imagined or wished that there’s equality in our society, just like little Marji did. In Persepolis, The Story of A Childhood, Marji showed defiance against the existence of society classes. Marji stated that the reason of the revolution and the reason that she was ashamed for riding her father Cadillac is the same, which was because of the existence social classes in Iran. She realized that social classes made people in Iran could not receive an equal treatment in many things, like people with different social classes, can’t have relationship together and they could not receive education equally, especially people in lower social classes. I agreed with Marji, that social classes don’t need to exist, because social classes make a gap of unfairness in education and society treatment. As you look more closely, we can see that the class disparity in Iran is getting worse. Even further worse after the revolution. At the start of the Iran-Iraqi war, the government of Iran used male children from poor area as worthless pions that can be lured easily with the plastic “keys to heaven” rewards. Shahab, Marji’s cousin even said, “It’s nuts! They hypnotize them and just toss them into battle. Absolute carnage. The key to paradise was for poor people. Thousands of young kids, promised a better life, exploded on the minefields...
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...and my traditional sense of deference to one’s seniors, found myself wondering by what quirk of human history my companions – many of whom I would have regarded as upstarts in my own country, so devoid of refinement were they – were in a position to conduct themselves in the world as though they were its ruling class (Hamid 5).” Marji describes that when she went to Austria she found herself in positions that made her feel like she is betraying her culture. When Marji begins living with her friend Julie she notes that she is disrespectful towards her mother. Julie also talks openly to Marji about sex. She is shocked because in her culture, people do not openly talk about...
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...“Don’t forget who you are and where you come from” (Satrapi 152). It doesn’t really matter if you like your family or not; they will always have some sort of effect on the way you think about life, the way you act within situations and the morals you eventually believe in. It doesn’t necessarily have to be good things that affect you either. Sometimes it’s the difficult situations that make you stronger. In the book Persepolis: The story of A Childhood, Marji describes the events in her life that stick out to her, and just about all of them involve her family. Throughout the book you start to see that her family instilled in her the importance of education and staying true to oneself; which ultimately made her the independent and strong willed...
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...the people in the country were just against other countries and I pretty much only saw them as terrorists. After reading the book, I realized that Iran’s society is much deeper than what it appears to be on the outside. In Iran there are kids who are my age and younger who are still trying to live and make something out of their lives, though it seems to have become much more difficult because of all of the revolutions that have been occurring in the country. When Marji was younger, it seemed that she had a very religious view and a close relationship to God. In the beginning of the book we saw how Marji would face her problems with God instead of by herself. Towards the middle of the book I saw that she began to turn away from God as her problems began to become bigger. I think that the reason for Marji’s change in her relationship to God was due to how young she was. I don’t think that she felt that he was actually doing anything to help make her life, family, and country better. I think how I connected with Marji was just how she wanted to be a kid and to try to be bold and try new things. Many times in the story I saw her try to be like her parents and go to the protest rallies, and I thought for a kid that was just something that is really bold and different, because I feel that most kids would normally try to stay as far away from those types of situations. I personally liked that the style that Satrapi used to tell her story. I felt that it was more than just a simple...
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...What struck me most in Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis was the idea of childhood innocence being lost and the emotional change that occurs when becoming an adult. I will analyse the emotional transformation of Marji during the time of rebellion in Iran. Specifically, there is a pivotal moment in the book when Marji finds one of her uncle’s cigarettes and smokes it as an act of rebellion against her mother and this is the scene I will be focusing on. The whole story leading up to this moment has been Marji hearing societal views from her family and her peers rather than developing them on her own. Through the rebellion against her mother, she is paving a path for her independence and individual views towards conflict. This shows the pivotal transition from a once innocent and clueless child a much more mature and grown independent woman forming opinions and views for herself. The first image of the scene shows Marji with a lit cigarette in her mouth. She says, “As for me, I sealed my act of rebellion against my mother’s dictatorship by smoking the cigarette.” (117) This image marks the beginning of her innocence being lost as she turns into a woman who is able to form her own views and commits acts of resistance against values she does not agree with. This small act of rebellion with the cigarette is a direct correlation with Marji’s desire to grow up in society and become independent. The expression on her face shows not only her rebellion towards a dictator that...
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...The teacher is a mere puppet of the government, so Marji and every other child is made to follow and believe only what the government approves of, ensuring that the revolutionaries stay in power. In order to protect herself, the teacher only fills the students’ minds with the information provided by the government. Without expressing her own beliefs and opinions, the students are not given the potential to realize the dangerous aspects of the current government. According to Satrapi, during the Islamic Revolution, women are unable to keep their civilised, well-paying jobs because the leaders of the regime view females as inferior beings. While conversing with Marji’s mother, her friend mentions, “‘My neighbour even heard that their women are prostituting themselves” (93). Women who were once important...
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...of the symbols because the symbols more often than not inform the reader about culture or context that provides a deeper meaning to the graphic novel. For example the chapter called “the bicycle” presents the reader with revolutionaries jumbled up on a bike. It is essential the reader to identify the symbolic meaning of the bicycle. The bicycle portrays how the revolutionaries are interdependent upon each other, and all of them have to work together to acquire their freedom from the Shah. Satrapi also uses symbols to illustrate the culture clash between Marji’s household and the outside world, but symbols can be little things such as facial expression. Marji is more involved in the western culture, which is revealed by the clothes that Marji desires to wear. The fundamentalist wears a veil that covers her whole body, but Marji likes to wear denim and let her hair be shown. Although Marji’s parents do not mind her style, society scrutinizes her in a negative way. I also did not know that the title of the book had any type of symbolic meaning. The title illustrates the theme of conflict between the past and the present. The purpose of the novel is partly to contrast this previous great culture with a culture of intolerance and fundamentalism found in modern day Iran. The title also portrays to the fact that within its fundamentalist exterior, a great Iranian culture and people still exist, one that the Western world does not...
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