Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

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Persepolis, a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, is not a run-of-the-mill comic book. It is written with purpose. Satrapi wrote and illustrated this book to show Americans that their perspective of her home country, Iran, is askew. She believes Americans are too focused on the “fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism” (Satrapi ii), of the nation and that they forget to notice the normality and humanness of it. Since these two perspectives have vast differences, Satrapi wants to change their minds. Thus, it is crucial that she effectively communicate this humanness of Iran to the literary audience in America. Since the literary devices in a work are needed to correctly convey a message, she found it necessary to include these and manipulate them in her favor. Satrapi uses the innocence of a child along with morals in her pictures and a relation of cultures to effectively communicate her message. It is necessary to examine how she manipulates such literary devices in order to gain a full understanding of the text.
To begin with, Satrapi writes Persepolis from a child’s point of view. Young Marjane Satrapi displays the characteristics that any child might have. She is simple, innocent, and easily influenced. For example, when her parents are demonstrating against the king, Marjane Satrapi says, “As for me, I love the king, he was chosen by God” (Satrapi 19). Her teacher tells her this, and she believes her teacher because Marjane Satrapi is a child and, in all innocence, will believe anything because her teacher, in her eyes, knows everything. Situations such as this show the influence of authority on her as a child because the teacher is an authority who tells Satrapi a misleading fact and Satrapi believes her, or is influenced by ...

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...entity, and that is the message that the people of Iran are not people of fanaticism. She attempts to relate to the United States citizens who hold this perspective and attempts to create a sense of sympathy for the people in Iran. The implementation of the innocence of a child plays well on the conscience of the American audience and is fantastic in even conveying the simplicity of her message. Satrapi needs to use the simple pictures and simple text to enable the common man and even the children of the United States to read her book and learn of the prejudice towards her homeland. She is doing her best and has done a marvelous job in writing the graphic novel Persepolis. With a properly executed book such as it, she may be able to spread her message even beyond America.

Works Cited

1. Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. Print.

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