Alan Ruff - Persepolis

By -
“Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that tells the semi-autobiographical tale of a young girl growing in the midst of political revolution in Iran.  Satrapi felt the need to share her story after moving away from Iran and hearing stories that didn’t reflect the truth of her homeland.  Satrapi uses her novel to share her story of how religious activists overtook the Iranian government and imposed changes that restricted many of the freedoms that Iranians had previously enjoyed.  She shows how the voices of the opposition were silenced through violence and how girls were treated differently that boys in this male-centered society.

                As in most graphic novels, the images in the story are just as important as the words in conveying the depth of the story being told.  The use of only black and white helps to create the starkness of story.  The vocabulary choice is simple as it is being told by a young girl but that helps to make the story more accessible to younger readers.  Simple doesn’t imply that there aren’t weighty issues being discussed; there are.  Simple is used here to state that the levity of the topic isn’t overwhelmed in language but is presented in a way that makes it easy to understand the changes that are taking place.  It is the images that work to reinforce the seriousness of what is going on around our main character.  I enjoyed how all of the oppressors in the story are portrayed with the same clothes and same face.  It presents them as nameless and faceless killers who are separated from any empathy or emotions toward those being oppressed.  

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 18, 2016 at 12:32 PM

    You're right, all of the elements of this graphic novel work together to tell the story. Without the images, a certain depth would be lost to the readers. The text tells the story, but the images create the tone and seriousness.

    "...all of the oppressors in the story are portrayed with the same clothes and same face. It presents them as nameless and faceless killers who are separated from any empathy or emotions toward those being oppressed." Wow, that is a powerful and true statement. I had to copy all of it to comment here because it is so important. For these people, the enemy blended into a silent crowd. They look like everyone else, but it is what was in the mind that created the conflict. The constant fear of the person beside you being the enemy is not something I could imagine living with.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C
Read more