One thing I noticed from reading Persepolis was Satrapi’s confusion, acceptance, confidence, and naivete during her very discordant childhood. It was so interesting to read about the conflicting narratives that society was telling Satrapi, and her reaction to each of them. She noticed the differences between her home narrative and her educational narrative, but for the most part, she believed the story that her parents told her, rather than forming her own opinion. She didn’t know the entire story – all the facts – and yet, she was confident in her thoughts. She went and protested in the streets, even though she didn’t know the extent of the danger of protesting. That was interesting to me, because it seemed like she was pretty worried about her father’s safety on a couple of occasions, but she also seemed to feel extremely confident in her own safety.
Month: October 2023 Page 2 of 11
The way the author tells her story is reminiscent of actual childhood. As she tells the story of her childhood, the rather “simple” yet “deep” illustrations convey a denser tone. The art style might make one think of children’s books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, or other juvenile books. However, make no mistake, these books are by no means the same in any capacity except for the style of illustrations.
The actual content itself is much more mature and serious, albeit easier to comprehend with the author’s brief lines of content per panel. Extraordinary in terms of how with imagery and brief sentences she’s able to convey so much of her story. Part of it is that some of the panels aren’t so much of the “story” but more relevant to her “thoughts” allowing the reader to align more with the author. Examples of this include the scenes where she interacts with God.
One of the scenes that really stood out to me was the night where “God didn’t come” and she tries to convince her parents to let her go out to join the revolution. From her past exchanges of faith, conversing with God “every night” followed by a sudden break in the pattern stands out in different ways: Fear, Tension, an approaching Climax, and perhaps even the loss of innocence.
One thing I noticed about how the author tells her story is how she uses her illustrations to convey the story from her early life, but also the history of her country and how it was taught to her. Something that caught my attention was how she told her story, and made the historical aspect very personal to her own life. This not only helped to provide context but also to share her own experiences dealing with these heavy topics, especially at such a young age. I liked how the author used metaphors and narrates as if she is still 10 years old because it helps make her experience more personable. I thought that the illustrations conveyed the authors experience in a way so that the reader could understand her experience in that political and social climate, and how she as a 10 year old still played a roll.
Angelo’s Daily Class Notes can be found here: https://blog.richmond.edu/storytelling2023/2023/10/24/daily-class-notes-10-24/
- We started the class by sharing comments/concerns regarding this course in the Spring semester. It is going to be held on Fridays, and it will be worth half of a credit. There will also be opportunities for an alternative assignment/time for those who won’t be able to make the Friday afternoon classes work with their schedule.
- Talking about our field trip was great since we did not get an opportunity to after it was over since many people had classes to go to and were rushing. We went over prep notes and were able to discuss the complex feelings and ideas that were brought up while visiting the burial site. Many people mentioned how they noticed signs and areas of the burial ground in disrepair. We talked about the history of slavery in Virginia and how measures are being taken in order to acknowledge the atrocities committed. Everyone in the class had different experiences while learning about the darker parts of our nation’s past.
- Finally, we talked about our midterm and what is expected. There are two papers to write, and they should be about 2-3 pages long.
One thing I noticed about how the author tells the story is her inclusion of vivid metaphors. I think well-written metaphors add a lot to a story and help the reader better understand and imagine what they are reading. The metaphor that stuck out to me the most was the one about how “the revolution is like a bicycle when the wheels don’t turn it falls”. I thought this was extremely powerful due to the emotion it carries behind it. I thought it was a great way to connect the story to the narrator, a child who wants better for her country.
One thing I noticed while reading the first three chapters of Persepolis was the way Marjane Satrapi embodied the perspective of her ten year old self to deliver the story. The childlike innocence of the narrator comes across in the way she speaks and the conclusions she draws about her life and the things happening around her. Because the narrator isn’t old enough to grasp the full scale of the events in her life, she describes and reacts to events in a simplified way. This builds a sense of dramatic irony into the narrative. Every time the narrator stumbles upon something really emotional or profound, she says it in a very stark, unembellished way because she doesn’t know the gravity of what she is saying or thinking about. However, we as readers do understand how powerful, thought provoking, and heartbreaking some of these statements are. This makes those moments even more powerful because we feel not only the emotions and implications of the actual events of the story, but also the emotions and implications that come with the narrator not understanding situation fully. We are saddened by the events of the story, cheered by the narrator’s childlike happy-go-lucky demeanor, before being saddened again by the realization that the narrator can’t comprehend the tragic events surrounding her. It’s this second sadness, the tearing down of our emotional barriers so soon after they had been built back up, that really lends weight and impact to Marjane Satrapi’s storytelling.
One of the most distinguishing ways in which the author tells their story is through historical and social context. In the story, the author and the education system she’s in, portrays communists such as Marx and Fidel Castro as heroes. These viewpoints contrast very differently compared to the United States and the present day. For the U.S, communism has been viewed as evil while in Iran it is viewed positively. This example goes to show how different social climates and beliefs are in this part of the world and during that time period.
Something else that caught my attention was the publication of this comic book. It says that the book was written in 2002. This is just a few months after the 9/11 attacks. After 9/11 there was a huge generalization of terrorism with the Middle East, which most likely provoked a response out of the author to share their story and the perspectives of those who lives in that region.
One thing that I noticed about how she tells her story was that she tells her story as she is now, but her speech bubbles and the illustrations reflect her at age 10. I think the combination of these really helps to frame her story and make it easier to understand. I think that the fact that the drawings are all black and white is also helpful as it doesn’t distract from the story her story at all but there is still the assistance of pictures.
Reading the graphic novel Persepolis was very quick and easy to understand. I noticed that the easy language reflects the thinking of the narrator’s age at the time. This gives off a sort of innocence to their thoughts back then which I thought was extremely realistic. After all, who would expect a 10-year-old to have a complex internal monologue? I also appreciated how friendly the language was because it explained complicated historical concepts in a way that I could mostly understand. I usually have trouble comprehending the dynamics of history, so this language was nice to read. The pictures were helpful as well and also portrayed that childlike innocence because the scenes shown about the protests were not graphic. Reading this honestly made me want to read more graphic novels when I don’t feel like reading books.
Reading chapters 1-3 of persepolis was very enjoyable but also made me more aware of how ignorant I am about the history of Iran and the rest of the middle east. I loved the format of this story, and reading a comic book was very enjoyable but also went by quickly. The concept of kids having to be exposed to a political and social climate like this at such an early age is alarming, and I thought it was crazy that at that young of an age she asked to go to social demonstrations/protests where so many people were being killed and injured. I thought it was also interesting that her grandpa was the prince, and how he transitioned through his education and those being surrounded by him into a communist, and being in jail a large portion of his life away from his daughter.
Overall I really enjoyed this read, and would love to engage more with comic book content in the future. I love how a life story or such a serious topic can be presented through a comic, it makes stories very engaging and informative.