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.
One thing I noticed about how the author tells her story is the language she uses. It’s simple and understandable which, in turn, makes her story more digestible. A complex story such as the author’s could be difficult to convey entirely to readers but through the language she used, it’s easy to follow. The language in combination with the pictures tells such a rich story in a simplistic way.
I really enjoy reading comics in general especially the one of Persepolis. I really like the way the author introduces ideas that can be approached by any audience from teenagers to old people. Their language is simplistic, yet powerful, the black-and-white use of colors highlights the contrast and creates a dynamic image throughout the whole book. I find the language really strong and emotional because it is simplistic and innocent and that’s what a reader is expecting from a 10-year-old girl to write. However, within this simplicity really powerful and complex ideas like War religion identity and innocence are conveyed throughout the first four chapters there is a combination of a first and third person which is a really nice balance between giving context and informing the reader to have a better understanding but then use of the first person to give different inside from every Iranian family and specifically from a 10-year-old girl that is experiencing everything in Iran overall it is a really unique and powerful way of communicating ideas that I would like to see being used in more media.
After talking about the importance of scheduling an advising meeting and talking about the logistics of the next semester, we started conversations regarding the trip we had on Thursday. Then we took some time to read each others’ prep notes and analyzed the writings on the exhibits. According to eugenics’ beliefs, the white race was considered supreme leading to severe discrimination against the black race or other minorities. An interesting notice was rewriting Africa with different characters a microaggression that connects even to modern societies within Richmond. Looking forward to making change, the memorial is a symbol incentivizing locals and or even people who drive by to know about Richmond’s Unhealed history. More specifically, the planting of new trees next to the memorials is a way of reclaiming history and giving hope for change and healing. Except for these, we analyzed how the concept of slavery is approached in Texas and other states, where many topics are avoided or perceived through really superficially not trying to face reality and acknowledge history. That brings us to the general conclusion regarding storytelling; the ways many stories are being not heard or not even spoken even though they carry significance. An example of that would be the location of the tavern being next to the place where slaves would be tortured highlighting the views of white superiority. How were kids grown up in such an environment and what are the effects of such an abusive environment on the next generations? We continued analyzing eugenics by pointing out examples of measuring scalps or analyzing food consumption statistics to prove the superiority and inferiority of races based on pseudoscientific beliefs and false claims.
In the final part of the class, we went through the assignment of the mid-term portfolio, emphasizing the purpose of the assignment and the way students should approach it by analyzing the rubric.
Do these two learning moments have to happen in the assigned writings in this class?
For the specific personal story, does it have to come from class materials?
Is there any requirements of how formal the essay should be?