Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis: An Analysis

Have you ever experienced anything that made you grow up faster than you should have? Have you ever been forced to do something that changed the way you live and think? Or have you ever tried to hide something you strongly believed in because other people 's perspective about you might change? This happens a lot in today 's society, but it also happened to Marjane Satrapi. Marjane tells her story through her novel, Persepolis, and it helps show how things in the world can drastically change someone’s perspective. The imperialism that took place in Marjane’s country, the religion that Marjane strongly believed in, and Marjane’s loss of innocence while she was very young, all affected her perspective throughout the graphic novel, Persepolis.

In Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, The Stranger by Albert Camus, and the current college process that I am engulfed in, existentialism proves itself to be true. Existentialism is intimidating until an overarching lesson is learned through the choices and responsibilities, passions (or lack thereof), and the isolation of a person, such as Marjane, Meursault, or myself. On the surface, the three of us are extremely dissimilar, but we all experience relatively negative things that teach us more than we knew before. Marjane Satrapi is a real woman who grew up in Iran, Meursault is a character from North Africa, and I am a real teenage girl from a small seaside town. Nonetheless, when it comes to existentialism, the three of us stand as examples of the legitimacy of its philosophy.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir that reveals the life of a woman growing up in pre-revolution and post-revolution Iran, as well as her experiences in Western countries. In this book, Marjane recalls and highlights historical events that affect her life during her upbringing in Iran. These include the oppression of the Shah, along with the rise and effects of the regime. These events are integrated into Persepolis in order to showcase their effects on Marjane and the other citizens of her country. These events’ inclusion are important due to the context and understanding that they grant readers unfamiliar with the text.

Back during the Iranian revolution, there were two political parties that had separate factors leading to the revolution. The party that affected the revolution the most was the Shah dynasty, where Mohammad Shah inspired the white revolution which supported women 's rights and economical growth. While Mohammad Shah did lead his country away from Islamic idealism, he did allow for economical growth and social reform which still positively affects Iran today.

Throughout the entire book, we see Satrapi constantly rebelling against the rules put in place by the Islamic regime, starting out when she was only ten. We see Satrapi and many of the other girls are using the veil to jump rope with, use as a monster mask, and basically everything but its intended purpose (3 / 5). We see this motif of the fight against the veil further extrapolated upon later in the memoir, with Satrapi and her mother taking part in protests being held against the veil being portrayed (5/ 1) and (76 / 4-5), as well as the subtle ways that women fought against it, such as Satrapi’s wearing of a denim jacket and nikes(131/ 4) and the wearing the veil in more and more revealing ways, stating on (293 / 6) “Year by year women were winning and ⅛ of an inch of hair and losing an ⅛ of an inch of veil.” All of these combat the common Western assumption that absolutely everyone in the middle east can be

Reza Shah was the successor of his father, and may have been even less popular with the Iranian people. Having a leadership style too unique for the Iranian’s taste, he quickly became very unpopular. The Shah “increasingly involved himself in governmental

One way Satrapi challenges negative stereotypes about Iranians is through important characters who oppose the Islamic Regime because she shows individualism. In the chapter The Veil Marjane in the year 1980 shows she doesn’t believe in being forced to wear

At the times of the Iranian Revolution, those who deviated from the norm were perceived to be very controversial. Due to the different ideologies of social groups, conflicts and disputes arise among them. In Marjane Satrapi’s, Persepolis, the Iran Revolution triggers the controversy of morals and beliefs between the modernist and the government. The modernist are perceived as rebellious and westernized.

After many years of protest, the Shah's government was overthrown and no longer ruled. We see this on pages 40-42 of Persepolis, as people protest and demonstrate, and finally there is a change in the government. The Shah was overthrown only because people stood up for what they believed in. If the Iranian people had kept quiet about what they believed, then no change would have been made in the government. Similar to this, Jason Rezaian wrote out against political injustice in Iran. This caused him to be arrested, but not before his name became well known. Now, politicians and citizens alike

Right from the start, Marji introduces the Islamic Revolution of Iran which took place in 1979. In the opening page we have the theme of religion presented. This portrays the image that it will be a complex area of the book and this is perceived because it uses the image of several men and women protesting against something or someone which later on we will get to know will establish a cultural change as well as a religion clash because of the different beliefs to the regimen.

During the Islamic Revolution, religion was very important to the fundamentalist Islamic regime that took power over the secular state. In her graphic memoir, Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, a spiritual young girl, suffers a deep loss of faith due to the oppressive fundamentalist religion in Iran. This loss of faith causes Marji to experience disillusionment and a loss of identity, which greatly shapes her character. Through her experiences with God, Satrapi comments on the difference between spirituality and fundamentalist religion and displays the negative repercussions of an oppressive religious state.

Importance of religion in Iran and its society is a crucial point in this graphic novel, Persepolis: A Story of a Childhood. It was mentioned in the novel how the society was corrupted when the Shah took charge. When the Shah took over, this lead to the many rebellions and demonstrations Iran had in order to keep the peoples freedom. The significance of women and how they were treated was also affected when everything changed during the 1980’s. Women are treated not only like trophy wives but they also did not have any sort of freedom for themselves. I had a well-known understanding in the treatment of women is Iran but did not understand why they are treated in such a disgusting manner. Men of Iran are not allowed to interact with women when

The necessity of Iranian girls wearing veils indicates the regime taking over Iranian society further effect Marjane’s belief towards her identity. The first part of the book presents the background history of this graphic novel by saying, “In 1979 a revolution took over place. It was later called The Islamic Revolution” (Satrapi 3). The readers see right away that every students entered school was asked to wear veil due to the fact that “1980: The Year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school” (Satrapi 3). The veil symbolizes the restriction of social liberties for

To what extent is literary devices used as an instrument to show social, racial, and class differences in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi? The novelist, Marjane Satrapi, wrote, Persepolis, as a graphic novel to display other countries the progression of the Iranian Revolution through a bildungsroman perspective. The author uses literary devices several times as it narrates the sentiment of Marjane Satrapi as well as civilization in Iran. Marjane Satrapi segregates the western culture to the eastern culture by restating the Iranian Revolution into a graphic novel. The author’s panache affects how the audience interprets the scenario tremendously; Marjane Satrapi ensures this by using imagery. The purpose of this paper is to apprise the roles of

Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, is a memoir depicting the life of a young girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran during the late 1970’s. Before the Islamic Revolution the country of Iran was run by a westernized ruler called the Shah. After the Shah is overthrown the country’s new government places new religious rules making if obligatory for women, and sometimes men, to wear specific clothing in public. A key theme I picked up on in the book is the theme of rights, specifically women's rights.