Social Class Issues in Persepolis

By -
Overall I think that Persepolis was a good book. It was nice to read an adolescent book that wasn’t filled with just words but pictures as well. I feel as though this book brought about many racial and political situations. I’m not into having to look at a picture to understand a story, but this book had really good illustrations. If you read and did not look at the pictures then you would miss a lot of important information. I think that Satrapi wanted to write this book to relate to adolescent readers in several ways. I think for one, she wanted to show how strong minded women are. I also think that she wanted to provide a different image to adolescents who view people of Iran based off stereotypes. In my opinion this book breaks a lot of those stereotypes. When it comes to the political issues that are talked about in the story, one of the most interesting parts to me was when Marjane’s father found out that the maid was in love with the neighbor.

Mehri was a maid that stayed with Marjane’s uncle and was like a sister to her. Mehri fell in love with a gentleman who lived next door and began to call him her fiancée (36). Mehri told her sister about this man, and out of jealousy, she went and told several of the family members who kept telling more and more people, and before they knew it, Mehri’s love for the neighbor had reached Marjane’s father. I found it very sad that because the maid was of a lower social class than the man she loved, he pondered whether or not he still wanted to see her after finding out who she really was. When Marjane’s father approached the gentleman, he had no clue that Mehri was a maid. When the neighbor showed the father all the letters that had been written between him and the maid, Marjane’s father immediately recognized that it was Marjane’s writing. I feel as though Satrapi wanted to show the powerfulness of women and how they stick together. Though the maid could not write, Marjane knew how much she loved the man and wrote the letters for her.

Comments

  1. Lucy McElroyNovember 18, 2016 at 9:08 AM

    I agree with you that Satrapi wanted to reach adolescent readers with Persepolis. Learning about historical events can be really boring sometimes, and I think the fact that this novel has pictures can motivate young adults to learn more about what happened. Like you said, she weaves themes into the paper, most prominently feminism, so it's definitely good for educating young adults.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 21, 2016 at 10:15 AM

    I agree with you, I think when her father discovers Mehri and their neighbors romance, is interesting and equally sad. It made me question that if he actually loved her why was social class important; did he not want to dissapoint his family for loving a maid or lower his own status by being with her?

    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