Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

“People say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Truth is, you knew what you had, you just never thought you’d lose it – Anonymous” (Quotes). Marjane Satrapi was born to a wealthy family and had parents who adored her. She seemed to have everything, and even as the war raged on, her family still managed to have something more than the next family. In spite of their good fortune, the war was taking a toll on the family and it was decided that Marjane would be sent to Austria. Thus leaving everything Marjane loved behind, leaving her to fend in the darkness of the unknown. In Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Marjane starts off as a rebel, though naïve at the same time, to an attentive but scared girl in order to show how the war has triggered Marjane's reality to crash down, clarifying the world around her.

Marjane Satrapi deliberately uses an interesting layout usually used in successful comic books that convey deep messages. The layout of the graphics in Persepolis include elements such as panels, gutters, and graphic weight. The panels, or distinct segments of a comic containing a combination of images and texts, provide transitions that are instantaneous and direct. For example, on page seven, Satrapi uses a panel to show an innocent conversation with her grandmother about the rules she will assign once she becomes a prophet. The author also uses gutters - the space between framed panels- to clearly show where time happens. For instance, on page three, a gutter is used between two images to show the Islamic Revolution taking place in 1979

The book, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, was written by Marjane Satrapi; it is the story of her life in Iran from birth to fourteen years old. The perspective of Marjane, in her novel, affects the overall presentation of revolution, religion, and social classes. Consequently, with no background knowledge, we only have her perspective which affects our own opinion about the events of the book.

The graphic novel Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, explores the Islamic life and cultures during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In this novel, Satrapi narrates her life as a young girl when this revolution took place. By narrating her life, Marjane Satrapi allows the reader to get an idea of what she went through. This story includes people fighting for freedom, for themselves individually and for their country. While some people do experience a small bit of freedom, there are people who do not have any freedom at all. This novel explores many forms of captivity and freedom that help enhance the theme and culture of the story.

It is Class based, traditional and patriarchal.The veil is one of the most prominent objects that represents the Iranian culture. In the 1980s, the leaders of the Islamic revolution made it mandatory for all women to wear a veil. Then came 1980: the year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school. (1.4)One thing that's important to note is that only women wear the veil. The boys' clothes change, but they're never as restrictive as a veil. "It's against the law to kill a virgin, so a guardian of the revolution marries her and takes her virginity before executing her. Do you understand what that means??" The implications of this are Americans complain about the smallest things while others are dying at age 14 only because they aren’t in the upper social class. Persepolis shows the defects about social class and the struggles Iran had to deal with. through religion is a very important contribution to everything that happens in t. Religion isn't as judgmental now as it is shown in the book but that's because we had people fight for the rights to be whoever an whatever you wanted to

The time in which Satrapi was born is critical to the events in her life due to the political turmoil that was occurring in her country. In 1979, at the age of 10, Satrapi witness firsthand the persecution and horrific consequences of the Islamic Revolution. The Islamic Revolution occurred due to the growing opposition lead by Ayatollah Khomeini against Mohammad Reza Shah and his secret police known as the Savak. The radical regime of shah gained support during this time, and hundreds of people were executed as a result. Soon after, Khomeini was able to declare an Islamic republic that reflected his ideals after an incredibly biased national referendum. He also became Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, soon instituting new rules and regulations in the country like the women’s clothing described in Persepolis.

There is always more than one side to a story. For example, if someone’s sibling got them in trouble, they would defend themselves without thinking twice because they have a different view on what happened. Different factors such as age, beliefs, morals, culture, and intelligence can affect a person’s perspective. Marjane Satrapi is led to discover this through the many experiences that occur in her childhood during the revolution in Iran, which are showcased in the book Persepolis. Social class, religion, and gender roles influence Marjane Satrapi’s perspective in Persepolis.

In Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, Marji, the main character loves Iran. Although Marji appreciates her country, she disagrees with some of the ideas and actions that occur in Iran. The themes of love, wrath, and justice tie into the controversy of loving something without completely agreeing with all of it.

While I will pull from other sources, the main focus of this paper will be The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Throughout this graphic novel, Satrapi tells her life story and what it was like growing up in Iran. In the opening illustrations, she describes her childhood and her transition from a secular school to one that was religious and separated by gender. At this time it had become law for a woman to wear the veil, or head scarf when in public. Iran transitioned from a government who was forcing them to westernize, to one that legally enforced Islamic practices. Her main concentrations are the social restrictions she faced and the events that occurred around her, which included wars and revolutions. These events caused her parents to push her to flee Iran at the age of fourteen, in hopes of a better life in a European nation. She quickly developed a sense of statelessness (Satrapi). While in Europe, she was seen as “an Iranian in the West” and did not fit in, so she decided to return to Iran with hopes of once again feeling at home, but quickly realized she was now “a Westerner in Iran” (Satrapi 272). This feeling is not uncommon for the people of Iran, for their nation was being torn between Islamic traditions and invading Western ideas.

Persepolis is a memoir about Marjane Satrapi growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the effects it had on her and her family. At the start of the Islamic Revolution Marjane was 10 years old and like any other normal 10 year old child, this stage of her life was full of uncertainty and misunderstanding. However, due to Marjane living in Iran during the revolution, the constant changing of personal opinions in not only her family but in the people around her, largely attributed to the confusion that she experienced. Prior to the revolution, the Iranian government oppressed the public in religious and political aspects and the public blindly accepted the treatment they received due to the large amount of people who were naive and closed minded.

Setting is the time and place where the story took place. In the book Persepolis The story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, setting heavily influenced the cause and the course of the story. Thus making setting the most significant element in the story compared to the conflict, character and other elements. In the very beginning of the book, Satrapi stated that she wanted and is the ‘Last Prophet” (Persepolis, 6).

Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis is an expressive memoir of her growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, the fall of the Shah’s regime and the Iran-Iraq War. The dictionary definition of a memoir is, the description of one’s personal life and experiences, and most writers use the conventional text format to write theirs but Satrapi has contributed to a whole new way of writing memoirs that may last for many generations to come. Unlike conventional memoirs, she uses the black-and-white comic book form to find her identity through politics and her personal experiences in Iran and it has become effective and relevant in today’s society because she is a normal person that has had to live through extreme circumstances. She gives you insight into her own mind with pictures instead of you trying to make sense of just words. In the novel, Marjane, Marji for short, is living in Tehran, the capital of Iran, during the late 70’s and early 80’s. She is smart and outspoken for her age and for a long time she was very religious which is a bit skeptical due to her parents being Marxists. Persepolis illustrates a memorable story of Marji’s life in Iran.

For WT1, I have created a series of news reports documenting the journey and education of Marjane Satrapi’s uncle Anoosh based on details provided by her graphic novel, Persepolis. These newspapers were all written by Soviet newspapers, which leads to heavy bias and focusing a lot on the University itself, as it is not plausible that a newspaper would spend their front page interviewing immigrants. This adds a flair of realism, especially coupled with the the adherence to the writing style of a newspaper article. This writing style includes using words the average person would understand, the answering of the 5 W’s in a basic sense in the first few lines, and the further elaboration of the story with many integrated quotes and short sentences.

Persepolis is a graphic novel written by Marji Satrapi that encompasses within it the journey of Iran through different rulers, and conditions. Through the presentations, it became evident that the positive opportunities that the Iranians have experienced were the cause of the revolution and the reason it has failed.

When overthrown in favor of an Islamic republic, the new government became increasingly religious and oppressive towards women which is demonstrated within the graphic novel of Persepolis. Not only were Muslim women constantly judged by what they wore but they were also told how to act, what to think and how to raise their families. First of all by telling a woman what to wear is limiting their few rights they owned. It seems as if it destroys the individuality of a women. However the Muslim regime thinks differently and believes, it should be mandatory for women to wear the veil in order to follow their religion.