...Bishant Baral Professor Dunnigan May 7, 2014 Persepolis: Final Exam From the beginning of Persepolis, one can come to the conclusion that Marjane has a very bright future ahead of her. Her curious and patriotic demeanor as a child matures and allows her to become a strong-minded woman during a time of great female oppression in Iran. For Marjane, the ideas of nationalism and patriotism had been a major part of her upbringing. The novel begins with ten year old Marjane in 1980. Although not a teenager yet, Marjane is forced to conform to the oppression and the various laws that specifically target women. Marjane's mother was a very opinionated individual who believed in equal rights. Her rebellious nature becomes an influence to Marjane as she begins to grow older and mature. Taji, Marjane's mother, is a passionate woman who is extremely disappointed with the things in Iran. She actively protests with others who are not happy with the elimination of women's rights and violent attacks on innocent people It began with schools becoming segregated by sex. The French school that Marjane once attended was no longer allowed in Iran. The revolution had begun to ban all sorts of western and European influences. For example, women were obliged to wear veils in public now. If a female was to be caught by the authorities without a veil on, they would be verbally abused and possibly even severely chastised. Moreover, a man and a woman were not allowed to be seen in public unless they...
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...Oppression on Women in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is memoir of a little girl growing in Iran. She refers to a secular pre revolutionary time through contrast, the oppressive characteristics of the fundamentalist government upon women in particular. Her work is a lot similar to Margaret Atwood's, A Handmaid’s Tale, in which the protagonist Offred reflects upon her former life’s freedom, cherishing her former name and in doing so emphasizes the cloistered and enslaved life that she must now endure. Although both Margaret Atwood and Satrapi show how a totalitarian state oppresses women in different ways by taking away the freedom to think and decide for oneself, both accentuating on the ways a woman should dress, which stratified society in Handmaid’s tale and enforced religious modesty in Persepolis. Growing up in the western society, we often think clothing as a means of expressing our individuality, our style, defining who we are. Offred grew up in a similar environment but it was taken away once she became a Handmaid. That was the precise reason why she felt “ fascinated but also repelled” (28) at the same time when she saw the Japanese tourist. She says she “used to dress like that. That was freedom. Westernized they used to call it”(28). She says this because she no longer gets to dress like the tourists any more. In a very little amount of time, the society has forced every individual to change...
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...obey any law forcing individuals to change their way of living. In the book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi there were many changes in the way of living during the Revolution. Persepolis was written based on Satrapi’s childhood memories through her eyes as a child. Satrapi explains the difficulties she had changing her usual ways and getting in trouble for expressing herself with the things she liked. It was not just Satrapi who faced changes but other families as well and even the society as a whole. Although there were many changes in the lifestyles of many, there was a great impact on the military, women, education and in many adolescences. To begin, the military began recruiting teenage boys at age fourteen living in poverty which created a change in the military. This was a change within the military because at fourteen one is still considered immature and has not mentally or physically developed to the fullest. To join the military one should be mature and fully grown. Many of these fourteen year old boys were tricked into joining the military. They were given a key painted gold representing value. They were told if they were fortunate enough to die, the golden key would open the door into heaven. They were promised a better life than the one they were living in the lower class. As Mrs. Nasrine, Satrapi’s maid, explains, “‘They told him that in paradise there will be plenty of food, women and houses made of gold and diamonds’” (100). The lifestyles of these teenage...
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...Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s autobiography. It covers her childhood and teenage years in her hometown, Tehran; her experiences abroad while she studies at the French Lyceum in Austria; and her return to a country devastated by war and mistreated by the Regime. Therefore it is hardly surprising that the protagonist’s identity is formed at the crossroads of two cultures, the Western and the Eastern ones, without really belonging to either of them. Satrapi herself has stated that “[she is] a foreigner in Iran. . . Nowhere is [her] home any more” (Tully, 2004) and this feeling of alienation is materialised throughout the work. Thus, Persepolisrevels in the middle-grounds between opposite stances, with images which are able to show the complexity both of the situation in her country and of the author’s personal life. One of the richest and most representative images may be this one: Satrapi, Marjane (2006) Persepolis (London: Jonathan Cape, 283, 3) This image shows the picture that she had to draw to pass the exam for university, where she would study fine arts. She knew that, in the wake of Iran-Iraq war, when propaganda was overwhelming and 40 % of places were reserved for martyrs’and handicapped people’s children, one of the exam topics would be the martyrs’ representation. This image constitutes an interesting re-interpretation of both Christian and Muslim religious symbology. Thus, we can read, in the text box above, that: I practiced by copying a photo of Michelangelo’s...
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...Inequality Towards A Stronghold In today’s society you think of most everyone being treated equally. Of course there are always people that do not respect everyone. Twenty plus years ago is an example of the extremes of how women were treated. In the books Things Fall Apart and Persepolis there is a plethora of examples of how women were not treated as equally as the men. One of the major reasons that the women are being treated badly is because of religion. Marji was experiencing the start of people trying to enforce the veil when she was younger. It was hard for her to adapt because she didn’t understand how it fit in and why she had to wear it. “We didn’t really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had...
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...Liberal Views in the Ruins of War in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis To know one’s identity is to find the core aspects that make them who they are. This includes the positive and negative experiences 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...
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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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...Persepolis Essay Pesepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel depicting the life of Marjane Satrapi during the Iranian Revolution. In the early pages, Marjane illustrates that she saw herself as a prophet. She wanted to change the world, and with the help of God, she thought that she could. During Satrapi’s early childhood, the traditions and history of Iran had been going through drastic changes. The Iranian Revolution was when Iran’s monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who led the revolution. ii Persepolis is framed during 1979 and after the Iranian Revolution. The Shah of Persia was overthrown and eventually replaced by an Islamist government during this time. Satrapi narrates her experience of the Revolution, which includes bombings, violent deaths of family and friends, and inequality. Women of Iran had many restrictions, and the leaders of Iran had disrespected them in many ways and belittled them as citizens. I The Islam religion forces women to wear veils for many reasons. Satrapi shows us how men saw themselves superior to woman and how most women did not enjoy the attitudes of men and also following certain obligations like wearing the veil. Following the Revolution, intense social changes took place in what had previously been a liberal country, became a religious republic. Her family lived through many events. She discusses how her mother told her that the regime burned...
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...Persepolis Essay There were many similarities and differences that are correlated with the movie Persepolis and the book Quicksand. There were many factors that the book made more clear and evident about the issues in Iran compared to the movie. The movie brought some topics to a more simpler and relatable view rather than just stating facts. Even with these many differences there were also many similarities like when it described the countries reactions to the situations, the book generally went along with the movie in that sense. With the issue of the modernization of Iran by the Shah, the movie gave a more clear understanding on how the people were during this time and how they acted. For example, when they showed Marji after learning about the Shah view on communism, go with her group of her friends and they tried to attack the young boy because his dad was with SAVAK and killed communists. Whereas in the book it gives you a more clear background and understanding of what exactly SAVAK and why the Shah supported it. In the book it really emphasized America’s involvement unlike the movie which didn’t really mention them. Another major difference that the movie portrayed in a better way than the book was the Islamic revolution. As I was reading the book I understood why the Islamic revolution was happening but I didn’t realize how strict and severe it was until in the movie I saw the many things that the Iranians were supposed to do like when Marji and her family were forced...
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...Name: Quoc Le Class: Seminar 125 2nd draft in class writing. The Complete Persepolis is a story about how to fight for freedom in Iran. As a young generation and growing up in the modern family, Marjane Strapi shares her experience about her childhood with the time of revolution for freedom. Marjane grew up in French language school in Tehran and her family has high education and modern in its outlook when the Iran revolution happened. In this book, she points out how people were suffering in the society without freedom. She recognized the different social classes exist and suffering in her country. In the “the Complete Persepolis”, Strapi mentions a lot of kind of freedom such as religion, gender, education or political. In my point of view, she makes a good point that the gender and religion problem which is the big problem in society. At the beginning, in the first chapter “The Veil”, Strapi mentions about gender problem by sharing her story about the veil and school. The girls have to wear the veil at school but she does not know the reason. The veil and school become segregated by gender. She said that “we found ourselves veiled and separate from our friend” (Satrapi, 4). They must be separate in different classes if they do not wear the veils. It is kind of discrimination with students. The students are lack of freedom to do in school. They have to follow the rules that women have to cover their head and men cover arm. It is strict and makes student cannot comfortable...
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...storytelling and the irony in reinforcing themes in an appealing manner found in Persepolis and Mango Street had determined that both these books are literary. One of the characteristics of book Persepolis have is that it use hyperbole to help tell a story....
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...Persepolis is a movie about girl, Marjane and her struggle to identify her true identity within the confines of eastern and western views. Marjane and her family’s lifestyle in this film are seen to be challenging the dynamics of orientalism. Their progressive, educated and liberal outlook builds the foundation of breaking down Western’s pre conceived notions about the people of Iran. It is evidently proven by the perception, style and actions of Marjane and her family’s that the orientalist view of Iran being backwards, restricted and dogmatic is not entirely true. This film presents a convincing challenge to the concept of orientalism and it showed how the stereotypical images set by the western of the orient are not entirely correct. This is evident through the scene when Marjane is about to marry, her mother is found crying the bathroom because she is upset over the fact that her daughter is giving her life away when she wanted her to be liberated, literate and independent. This shows that even though Marjane was in an Iranian society and was forced to veil herself and follow the set of Islamic rules, the film challenges the orientalist impression of Marjane being completely suppressed or controlled in the society, which would be expected by the western audience. In fact, Marjane is seen to have a liberal and supportive family, her mother and grandmother at several instances are seen to encourage her to stand up for herself and make a future for herself by being...
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...Rebellion In many countries, it is tough and hard for many to live due to the country having many problems and giving hardships and unfairness to the people. This tends to make the people of the country very angry at what they go through and then this starts to causes a rebellion because the people of the country try to make changes and make it easier for them. But in some countries, the idea of a rebellion wasn’t taken so lightly. Some rebellions were treated with gun fire and others were treated by being put in jail. In the text Lolita in Tehran, Persepolis 2 and Cairo: my city, my revolution it helps us to get more information on how the author felt the idea of a rebellion was treated. In the text of Cairo: my city, our revolution...
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...In the reading Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi depicts the harsh laws and 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...
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...The idea of a rebellion was treated by the authors by explaining how Muslim women were treated, how they felt and what action they took. A rebellion is the action or process in resisting authority, control, or convention. The authors of “Cairo: my city, my revolution”, “Reading Lolita in Tehran”, and “Persepolis 2” they create tension in each story because they talk about how the women must follow the rules and if they don’t then they get punished for not following the rules. They showed how they rebelled in their own way and what happened to them. Also, it told them of the consequences and showed where they were after the rebellion. Most importantly, in the story “from Reading Lolita in Tehran” it talks about the idea of a rebellion when...
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