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Analysis Of Persepolis And In This Dead-End Road

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For many, the Iranian revolution was a time of anguish and suffering caused by the maltreatment and adversity that surrounded their lives. Satrapi and Shamlu are not exempt from this as shown in their written works Persepolis and “In this Dead-End Road.” While Satrapi uses images rather than words to depict her childhood during the revolution and the times that followed, both works clearly vocalize similar tones. The overall feel to both pieces is oppression and the slow, though terrifying, taking away of people's rights. In their writing, Satrapi and Shamlu have many aspects that effectively connect the two, allowing a glimpse into the perceptions of Iranians during a strenuous time. Both Persepolis and “In this Dead-End Road” are written around the Iranian Revolution, mainly the destruction of the Shah’s regime, and the success of the revolutionary fundamentalists. Similarly, the author of “In this Dead-End Road,” Ahmad Shamlu, and Marjane Satrapi’s family were critics of the Shah. However, as time progressed, quality of life began to decline instead of increasing as so many had hoped. The poem by Shamlu does a fantastic job at illustrating, through colorful words, the feelings of angst and helplessness that took over many of the citizens of Iran. He uses strong vocabulary such as “whip,” “barricades,” “endanger,” and “butchers” to portray how he, as a poet, felt during this time of oppression. Likewise, Persepolis gradually begins to illuminate a similar feeling of

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