Persepolis Essay

Two major aspects are narrated from Marjane 's point of view in Persepolis. The overthrowing of Shah is the first phase and the second step consists of a radical Islamic establishment. It was evident from Marjane 's perspective that her family had two different reactions in regards to the two phases. Their response to the overthrowing of Shah was excitement and happiness. Marjane 's family was active in demonstrations and protests expressing their feelings towards the Shah. The day Shah left many were happy, and it even leads to one of the biggest celebrations of history. The Satrapi 's were overjoyed because the Shah made choices that personally affected their family. Marjane 's grandfather and uncle were both victims of the Shah 's wrath. Their reaction to the second phase of the revolution was rebellion. During this time of the revolution, many things the Satrapi 's enjoyed were prohibited. Even though things were banned, the Satrapi 's continued to do what they enjoyed even if it was against the rules. The second phase made Marjane 's parents realize that Iran no longer was the place for Marjane, so they arranged for her to finish school in Austria.

The school starts having funeral marches twice a day to mourn the Iranians who have died in the war. As a part of these ceremonies, the students must self-inflict pain by pounding their breast with their hand in order to experience the sufferings that the solders had to go through. Nevertheless, “after a little while, no one took the torture sessions seriously anymore” and Marjane herself “[starts] making fun of them”

all”, and “it was really our own who attacked us” (110). When Marjane and her friends find out

The graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a political and personal account of a young girl’s growth to maturity. The novel serves as an autobiography of the author’s childhood in Tehren, Iran. It describes what it was like to grow up during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the end of the Shah’s regime, and the war with Iraq. One of the most prominent themes in the novel is the clash between modernity and fundamentalism. The reader can observe this conflict through Iran's internal oppositions, the Satrapi’s modernity, and Marji’s western soci-political beliefs. This aspect of the novel is important because it shows the ideological diversity within Iran and the consequences faced by those in the opposition.

In the year of 1979 all that Marjane knew what it was like to not have to be forced into wearing a veil. Before the Islamic Revolution she was able to attend a a French Non-Religious school where girls and boys were allowed to study and play together. Unfortunately her world of carefree ness ended

Another historical event that we see is the rise and effects of the Islamic regime in Marjane’s life. This event is arguably the central issue that affects Marjane during her upbringing in Iran. Marjane shows how the regime begins to control schools, and how this affects her life by separating her from her friends (4, 3-4). We also see how the regime decides to close universities as they “educate future imperialists.” (73, 1-3) This demonstrates the negative effects that the regime has on society, as they prioritize Islamic values over education. The Islamic leaders portrayal shows them as upset and bored, and are given much different facial expressions than those that Marjane sees as intellectual (such as Uncle Anoosh (54/3) or Marjane’s grandfather (23/8)). This imagery communicates the backwards-thinking of these leaders, and as such, also effectively communicate Marjane’s opinion of the leaders without needing to discuss it with text. Additionally, we see both of Marjane’s views: Marjane not understanding the veiling and separation (3/5) as well as Marjane’s depression over the closing of the universities (73/7). The text here illustrates her opinions on the situations that she experiences, and the imagery allows us to see a visual representation of her basic thoughts and emotions, which are well communicated. A final example of the regime’s changes is the difference between the fundamentalist and modern women

In the novel they discuss many events that occurred during the revolution. The government shut down the U.S. embassy and the universities, all women were forced to wear the veil and Iraqi fighter jets bombed Tehran.iii When her parents travel to Turkey they break the law by smuggling posters in her father’s jacket. If the government knew what her family did, her parents would have been arrested. Marji's family also drinks and throws parties, which is illegal and continues with their dangerous conduct because they enjoy it. Just because the Shah has made it illegal does not stop her parent’s actions. Eventually, Marji’s mother’s pessimism won out over her father’s optimism. The Iraqis had missiles and the Tehran became the target.

Over the following four years, Marji learned of how her grandparents were left poor because of the Shah, the leader of the Iranian government. Shah was well known for robing men and women of everything they had worked for and leaving them with nothing. Nevertheless, Marji was schooled on the different levels of society in Iran, which left her to consider her family as rich because her Dad drove a Cadillac. Despite being a child, Marji accused her dad of being anti-social towards a class that could not read and write. To clarify Marji helped out a friend with the writing of some love letters. Mehi was the family maid that could not read or write. Mehi fell in love with the boy

Becoming a U.S. citizen is a very difficult task for someone coming from another country. They must first see if they are eligible to apply for citizenship. In Order to be eligible you must be 18, have lived in the United States as a permanent resident for 5 years, are able to speak, read, and write basic English, can pass the civics test, and someone that can pledge to obey the U.S. Constitution.

Moving on, Marjane Satrapi shares how school children were very violent towards one another picking up the ideals of the revolution that they had seen and heard from their parents and adult figures. As children were learning about the war from their parents and school teacher’s they picked up on brutal tactics and began attacking one another. While playing in the streets one day, Marji and her two friends came to the conclusion that their classmate Ramin’s dad was in the Savak (a secret police group of the Shah’s regime) and killed millions of innocent people. Rather than truly knowing if what Ramen’s dad did was true, Marji proclaimed to her friends that they must attack Ramin with “nails between [their] fingers like American brass knuckles and [attack him]” (45). The school children believed that what Ramin’s dad allegedly did was cruel and unjust in the society around them, it was therefore also Ramin’s fault because he was a product of his father. Later on, days pass and Marji continues to pick up ideals when her mother invites two liberated political prisoners to their home. The men told the stories of their experience being tortured to confess what they did not know about the revolution. Marji took these stories she had heard the next day and in the street with her friends she decided they would play a torture game. The panels go on to describe

Soon after the revolution, Iran became one bundle of chaos as the country began experiencing internal difficulties with the new republic. Then with the war between Iran and Iraq, violence became Marji’s daily lifestyle. The Iranians were left to themselves to protect their friends and family from the bombings and other types of violence happening in plain sight. Many unfortunate individuals lost their belongings as well as close friends and family. For example, a close friend of Marji’s mother, Mali and her family, lost her and her family’s belongings in a bombing. The family found refuge in Marji’s home until they left Iran for good. They were one of the few families who understood the severity of the violence overwhelming Iran.

The film is a sappy recounting of Marjane Satrapis's early childhood, adolescence and young adulthood living in and out of Tehran in the years following Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Iranian Revolution. Marjane

When she sends Marjane away from Iran, she assures her: “I know how I brought you up. Above all, I trust your education” (147). Marjane’s mother doesn’t want her daughter to live in such an oppressive time. When the veils become mandatory, Marjane’s mother wishes to take her to an opposition demonstration: “She should start learning to defend her rights as a woman right now!” (76) In growing up with such strong female role models, Marjane learns to express her opinion and always stand by her beliefs. They taught her to stand up for herself as a woman, and in doing so, introduced her to a feminist perspective on life.

The story of Marjane opens during a fundamental time period of Iranian history, a period that consisted of the Islamic Revolution. As stated earlier on in the novel, this revolution was the force that caused the Shah to flee from Iran in the year of 1979. Like many others in Iran during this time, Marjane and her family found no interest in the Shah. During his reign, the Shah showed signs of diluting Iran's value of a constitutional monarch, and instead moved the country towards an absolute monarchy. Additionally, with the U.S peddling the Iranian oil supply, many Iranians felt betrayed by the Shah, as he became a so-called puppet for the U.S. Because of this, his popularity slowly plummeted, and an uprise began within the country. This uprise, is then shown through Marjane's perspective. Therefore, through

Siamak was a journalist who got arrested for writing subversive articles in the Keyhan (Iranian Newspaper) and Mohsen was a revolutionary who got arrested for being a revolutionary. This incident reveals how freedom of expression was seized in Iran at that time and also shows how shah was using his secret police to oppress revolutionaries. Siamak told Marjane how brutally they were tortured in there for a long time. When siavak told marajane how were they tortured in there that gave some her some evil torture games like moustache on fire, the twisted arm and many more. But Marjane felt overwhelmed because she felt like she was doing something wrong because when she looked in the mirror she saw horns coming out of her head like a devil. This shows how much an incident about tortures can impact a child’s brain.