Persepolis Existentialism Essay

Over the course of constructing a literary work authors often use various cultures to contribute to their literary work. Cultures can also demonstrate deviations about everything such as social classes, religion, and education. In several different societies, they tend to reveal different beliefs to the world. However, some civilizations have similar concepts. religious aspects of different cultures around the world. An author known as Marjane Satrapi involves cultural aspects that she has encountered throughout her lifespan in her literary work. The book, Persepolis: A Story of a Childhood is a book that is deeply rooted with contexts of contributions that Marjane Satrapi included from her childhood memories. This then allows a reader to

What if life contributed to no meaning and the only point which matters is the existence happening during the present? To make things worse, as humans live, they breath, but as they die a salvation is received to their soul, and their existence is over. The Stranger by Albert Camus illustrates that the human soul exists in the world physically, therefore the presence or absence does not contribute to any particular event in life. Through, this thought the novel introduces Meursault, who alienates himself from society. He lacks concern for social conventions and is deprived of the physical bounding from people around him.

People are like cameras and their personal experiences can be their lenses that change and modify the actual picture. This evident in Marjane Satrapi’s book Persepolis because the whole book is about a girl growing up, and forming her own opinions. Furthermore, Marjane has to mature in the turmoil of an Iranian-Iraqi war, she also has to survive the brutal Islamic regime governing her. This creates a very particular point of view considering that the parents raising Marjane are against the new form of government, and actively protest, risking their lives. As a result, this rubs off on her creating a very rebellious and dauntless little girl, who isn’t afraid of the new oppressors.

The Meaning of Satrapi’s Suicide Attempts in Persepolis Marjane grew up in a place where her ideas did not conform to the laws practices, or society as a whole. After a short amount of time in her youth, she realized that she couldn’t find or even be who she was born to be, giving her several struggles growing up and many identity problems. In Iran, the Islamic fundamentalist were in power, and their rule was extremely strict; the last thing they wanted was women and minorities to rise against the power, so her feelings had to be suppressed in order to survive. After years of being shamed and hidden by the law, she fell in to deep depression, realizing that she did not want to live this way. Her suicide attempts come into play at this point, and you realize how badly oppression and identity struggles can affect a person.

She starts to realize that her role as a woman is based on what her government decides. She soon starts to do little acts of defiance. She wears Nike shoes when she is not supposed to, she wears jeans and a michael Jackson pin, she shows her hair through her veil, and she defies the teachers to the point of where she is expelled. Marjane says “ I learned that you should always be louder than your aggressor” (pg. 143). She has a lot of trouble fitting in to the expectations of her school, mainly because she has suffered so much from the rule of the Islamic Revolution.

It also illustrates a belief in personal freedom because she is wearing clothes that are frowned upon. In this panel, Satrapi is challenging the negative stereotypes about Iranians by showing that people do still want to be free and not part of the Islamic regime. In the book Persepolis the author shows many reason as to how everyone in Iran didn’t want the Islamic regime. Satrapi challenges stereotypes about Iranians by showing people still want a better life and also by showing Individualism in Marjane.

When Marjane is a child, she was very obedient. She followed the rules of Islam and the rules that her parents had established. As Marjane grows older, she begins to lose her innocence. She grows into this girl who is rotten. She does not obey Islam, she begins to not obey her parents, and she causes trouble in her school.

The argument Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, presents on existentialism helps to prove the foundation which is “existence precedes essence”. Existentialism is normally understood as an ideology that involves evaluating existence itself and the way humans find themselves existing currently in the world. For the phrase existence precedes essence, existence’s etymology is exsistere or to stand out while the term Essence means “being” or “to be” therefore the fundamental of existentialism, literally means to stand out comes before being. This can be taken into many different ideas such as individuals having to take responsibility for their own actions and that in Sartre’s case the individual is the sole judge of his or her own actions. According to him, “men is condemned to be free,” therefore “the destiny of man is placed within himself.”

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

The graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an animated ‘identity crisis’ showing how she has trouble reconciling the Eastern and Western values that she has been influenced by. By ‘identity crisis’ I mean Marjane is uncertain about who she is and where she belongs to. The Eastern values would include hierarchy, restraint, collectivism and deference, whereas the Western values would include equality, freedom of expression, individualism and self-assertion. A graphic novel can be defined as a book containing a long story told mostly in pictures but with some writing. I intend to investigate why Satrapi has chosen to use the graphic novel instead of using other styles to present Marjane attempts to reconcile the different values and find

It’s written on the first page of our schoolbook’ [said Marjane]” (Satrapi 19). Marjane’s perspective before imperialism is shown in this quote, and here the reader can see how Marjane is not yet ready to speak out against what she is told to believe.

Similar to Marjane’s family, most modernists are secular. However the fundamentalist feel obligated to conform to Iran religious ideologies. Marjane is very furious with this deecre as shown through her facial expressions. She shows confidence in her beliefs that oppose to those of the Shah. To add on, Marjane is instantly judged for her forbidden apparel by the Guardians of the Revolution.

Religion has been the cause of different outbreaks such as ‘The Crusades’ and several terrorist attacks which date not very far away from today and more relevant to this topic the Iranian Revolution, but how can this “collection of beliefs” be the reason for someone to change their way of thinking, especially in such a religious country like Iran. The story of Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi tells us the story of her life in Iran before and after the revolution showing us the different ‘personalities’ she goes through, from innocent girl to a disaffected teenager. In this story Satrapi exploits different themes such as the heterogeneity in regions with Iran and the rest of the world, warfare and politics but one that stands out and is presented through the whole book is religion. Religion is portrayed as an excuse to start a conflict and it shows the personal development of characters, in this case the protagonist Marji.

Have you ever read a graphic novel with a variety of worldwide problems? From: racial issues, economic issues, women’s rights, political repression, social issues etcetera. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the authors memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Marjane Satrapi tells her story through black and white comic strips of her life in Tehran from her childhood ages six to fourteen. Persepolis portrays a memorable portrait of daily life in Iran, as well the perplexing contradictions between home life and public life. The graphic novel shows how we carry on, with laughter and waterworks, in the face of absurdity. Satrapi clarifies the complications she had altering her typical ways and getting in trouble for articulating herself with the things she enjoyed. Although we see Iran’s way from young Marjane’s eyes; as we learn about Marjane, we also learn about: her mother, father, grandmother, uncle Anoosh, and more. There were many changes for the people of Iran during the Revolution. Marjane just wants to grow up as a normal teenager, listening to rock music and doing what she wants. Yet she cannot live like this under the Shah’s rule, although her faith is in god. In Persepolis, there is a substantial impact on social classes, education, women, and military.

It is later that Marjane and her family watch a man decree on television that “Women’s hair emanates rays that excite men. That’s why women should cover their hair” (Satrapi 74). Women of Iran and around the