WEEK 9: PERSEPOLIS

Persepolis

A tragic reality conveyed through a simple art style with a complex story. Marjane Satrapi recreates her experience growing up in Iran. In a similar manner, it felt like March where I was reading about the author’s life and seeing the history unfold. I kind of felt overwhelmed as I was reading. It might’ve been because of all the emotional, political, ethical events taking place in her life. To have experienced these things at a young age, not fully understanding what was going on and trying to deal with what people were telling her, her reactions were dark and construed in response. For example, when she learns about the prisoners being tortured she uses that in her games with the other kids. In the end, she’s overwhelmed by “the diabolical feeling of power.”

 

Marjane experiences a lot of contradictions that stem from her family's reactions and the state of the country like when the father tells the story about the cadaver held by people calling him a hero, a martyr when he just died of cancer. Then they all start chanting “the king is a killer.” Her family laughs which her 10-year-old mind correlates “Cadaver, cancer, death, murder” equals funny. Another example occurs during the war. Fundamentalists started to mandate the veil to protect women from rapists. In the panels on the right, her mother criticizes the neighbors for being hypocrites when they used to dress and act the opposite, yet in the end, she tells Marjane to lie how many times she prays.

Throughout Persepolis, her parents portray a different ideology than the fundamentalists. Bring Marjane American products, clothes, music and exposing her to the capitalist lifestyle. In the end, her life in Iran is spent short as she’s forced to leave for Europe at age 14. To have been able to illustrate and convey all these memories and experiences during a time of chaos, fear, and growth is inspiring.