The Outcome of Satrapi’s Speech There are about 96,803-105,553 civilians as of June 2010 that have died from violence during the Iraq war. Marjane Satrapi sympathizes with these people and their families. She is against the war and tries to spread the word to her readers. In 2005 Satrapi was invited to speak at West Point, a military base that was required to read her novel Persepolis. She describes what she thought the trip would be like before and after it occurred in a comic strip called My Speech at West Point. Satrapi perceptibly addresses the issues of war, death, and insularity in her essay with humor, and is affected greatly by the outcome of her trip. Although Satrapi is there to talk about Persepolis, she takes this …show more content…
The cadets were very open-minded and admired her perspective on the war. In the comic there are tears on her cheek. They are an exaggeration on how astounded she truly was. Their reaction left her confused about life and what she thought she knew about everything. As she is going home she states “I know that I don’t know anything; that makes life even more complicated…”(p.232, Satrapi). She believed that she knew everything and the way everyone was. The trip to West Point made her realize that she was ignorant about many things, which completely changed her beliefs. Now she knows that she cannot assume that she knows how everything will be and the way people will act. Since she assumed that the people at West Point will be vicious ignorant buffoons who did not care to see other’s views, and she was proven wrong by the cadets who were “lovely and intelligent and much more open-minded…” than her.(pg.232, Satrapi) To demonstrate what she learned at West Point she uses humor in the comic. She exaggerates on how the cadets and major will treat her to the point that she says that they will hang her and she will die, drawing her tongue stuck out of her mouth. She also mentions that they will not let her smoke and they will scream at her. When she describes what really happened she draws happier faces on all of the people and mentions that the pizza was worse than she imagined it would be. The added remark on the pizza shows us
All humans judge; however, to admit one is wrong about one’s perceptions is infrequent. In “My Speech at West Point” by Marjane Satrapi and “The Estrangement” by Jamaica Kincaid, the writers make comment on their life experiences. Each addresses their poor judgment
In the novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, there are many different themes that you could look at and decide to analyze. I decided to look at four different themes that are brought up throughout the novel. In the novel there is a lot of talk about the contrasting regions of Iran and everywhere else in the world, politics and religion, and warfare.
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.
Not only does Satrapi create environments similar to that in which we might have found ourselves in, she aides us in visualizing these scenes through the imagery of the actual events. She uses this strategy to accurately project her desired viewpoint of the Iranian society to her audiences. Marji recounts, “Thousands of kids, promised a better life, exploded on the minefields with their keys around their necks” (102). In the picture that follows, a clear picture is painted into the reader’s mind of the scenario as the children can be seen with their keys still around their necks as they are killed. Many of our society’s youth today are being sent overseas to do battle in war fronts in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Similar to the keys handed to the Iranian youths, our young soldiers are
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir that reveals the life of a woman growing up in pre and post Iran, as well as her experiences in Western countries. In this book, Marjane utilizes historical events that affect her life during her upbringing in Iran. These include the oppression of the Shah, as well as the rise and effects of the regime. These events’ integration into the story showcase how they affect Marjane and the other citizens of her country. Additionally, these events are important for the context and understanding that they grant readers unfamiliar with the text.
In a modern world of communication and media, misconceptions are plentiful. It is often that surroundings, culture, and rumors have the ability to skew the true image of a person or a situation. In the autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, readers are able to focus on the honesty and emotion of stories to capture their own opinion on Iranians rather than previous assumptions. During the time of the novel, Marjane weaves through childhood in an environment that is full of war and political conflict. Slowly Iran turns into a physical and mental prison, and, like many other Iranians, Marjane struggles between finding herself and absorbing the negative activity around her. With accounts of fearful warfare mixed with stories of growing up and coping in a destructive Iran, Marjane Satrapi is able to create a relatable perspective and demonstrate that despite the culture and history of Iran, Iranians are similar to those that live in other countries of the world.
Paul Keating’s speech ‘funeral service of the unknown Australian soldier’ and Noel Pearson’s speech ‘an Australian history for us all’ have developed and expressed ideas using language appropriate to their audience, purpose and form. Despite the fact, it is fundamentally the speaker’s skills in the construction of the speech that determine its decisive success.
War can have devastating consequences for anyone who is unfortunate enough to live through it, especially a child. The experiences that war forces a child to go through are often unspeakable and traumatizing. Things that they see, hear and feel during times of war mold these children into people that they never thought they would be. Marji, the main character in Persepolis goes through hell during the revolution and later, the war between Iran and Iraq. These experiences make her childhood like no other. Though these experiences are horrid and not appropriate for a child, they make her into a mature woman. Marji’s loss of innocence, caused by the things she experiences in her life, have a significant impact on her.
Persepolis focuses on major themes like Feminism, Freedom, Religion, War, and Culture. Although this book is about Marjane Satrapi a young girl who lived her childhood in Iran from the 1980’s which was during the Iran revolution, where at a young age she’s already opened up to a warfare environment. This book can be interpreted differently based on the reader’s location, history background with Iran, and the differences in government. In this essay we would be comparing the readers from Iran vs. America.
The collection of poems “Theater”, “Water”, and “Safe House” by Solmaz Sharif shows the varied viewpoints of how war affects the speakers and how death is all too common in the midst of warfare. The author uses a spectrum of literary techniques to enhance the experience of the reader, so we can fully grasp the severity of each speaker’s plight. All of Sharif’s poems differ in form with the use of white space and indentations in “Theater”, colons in “Water”, and a style of abecedarian using the letter S in “Safe House”. While her diverse use of forms generate different emotions from the reader, they share the same notion of how violence is problematic. Each poem has a unique outlook to the sight of war: “Theater” being in the position of a victim and an assailant of war, “Water” explaining a war mission and fatalities in terse terms, and “Safe House” as an observer of an activist against war. Sharif’s strategy to exemplify the effects of how war affects the victim and the civilian is particularly critical because mass media tends to hide the collateral damage of war and only illustrates why we should attack the “enemy”. Another approach the author uses to critique the speakers central conflicts is by arranging words from the US Department of Defense 's Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, to concur with the message of the several ways war influences the lives of those who are unwillingly encompassed by it. Sharif uses poetry as an outlet to show the underlying tone
Marjane Satrapi’s memoir Persepolis is considered a “coming of age” story based on her experiences growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. This graphic novel explores the life she lead in Tehran which encompassed the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Undergoing life with such a chaotic environment, it took Satrapi courage to act and live as her “authentic self” and explore what it meant to her to be authentic. Similar to Aristotle, May and Medinas Persepolis examines the concept of courage, through the view of innocence; through Satrapi’s childhood.
Through satire and irony using her perspective as an Iraqi woman, Dunya Mikhail personifies war as a machine, rather than the traditional masculine perspective of heroism on the battlefield. In “The War Works Hard” war is never ending; it is relentless and without mercy as it destroys everything in its path, leaving an endless generational wake of scars among the civilian victims caught in the zone that the war has chosen. The war scars forever.
The novel “Persepolis” shows many life changes during the Islamic Revolution told through the eyes of a young girl. “Persepolis” was based on Satrapi’s childhood experience in Iran. Throughout the span of the 1970’s to the early 1980’s, Satrapi experiences many changes in her life, not only with the government, or her education, but also with herself. Although she witnessed many violent acts right in front of her eyes, these experiences helped Marji (Satrapi) grow as a young child.
Taking place in the late 1970’s, Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” exemplifies a profound illustration of the county of Iran, including aspects of its people and political structure. Unlike a conventional composed novel, the story of Persepolis is expressed through both textual and visual representation; otherwise known as a graphic novel. Through the experiences of the ten-year old character Marjane, the reader is exposed to historical events, movements, crises, and motives that occurred within Iran. Furthermore, the novel has gained much praise in its portrayal of emotions that occurred through the people of Iran. Although there has been tremendous support of the account of Marjane, there have been a few critics of the novel, attacking its overall literary value. For instance, New York’s Ithaca College student paper called The Ithacan, slammed the role Persepolis had on the literary society. In fact, they went as far to say that the novel “...is worth broaching but its literary value, in terms of building vocabulary and furthering comprehension, falls short.” An absurd statement, to say the least. Not only is Persepolis of literary value, it is a glimpse into the past. It allows the reader to understand the various conflicts that the people of Iran were facing. Through the account of Marjane, the audience is exposed to elements of Iranian history, gender roles, religion, and political fluctuation.
In the graphic memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the main character Marji and her family are living through the Iranian Revolution, as well as the War. The people of Iran are revolting against the Shah and fighting for what they believe in. During this time, acts of violence occurred and injured many people, their nation was divided. When in time of war or disagreements against certain beliefs, people may use acts of violence to show their frustrations, instead of solving the problem and uniting, Satrapi develops this theme through graphic weight, motif and chapter titles.