Class society, is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models of social arrangements in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle, and lower classes. In the book “Persepolis”, Satrapi explains her life in the corrupt society of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Satrapi and her parents fight to maintain normalcy and stay safe in the dangers of the outside world. All around the country, citizens are being killed, raped, and beaten because of accusations of communism and threats against the Regime. The main message that Satrapi is trying to portray is the effects of social classes in a society, specifically Iran. The same influence of social …show more content…
People like to remain within the boundaries of their own social class. Social class can affect your relationships with other people based on the social hierarchy of society. In “Persepolis”, Marji’s maid, Mehri, becomes infatuated with the neighbor Hossein. When he finds out she is of lower class, he dumps her. “Ok, i'll get straight to the point: I know that Mehri pretends she is my daughter. In reality she is my maid” (36). This quote from Persepolis briefly explains that class will interfere with social aspects of life. In the “Class” article, it discusses the theory that social stratification has an effect on your relationships. “the kinds of friends they make" — in essence, the degree of status, power and perks people enjoy or lack in their daily lives.” This quote from the “Class” synopsis portrays that your level of class effects the friends and relationships you make. Unfortunately, we are a socialist society and people only care to be associated with people of their rank and level of success. People stay within their social class and create a divided society. Relationships are affected by social class because people don’t want to be associated with those of lower class, for the conception that they may be judged and lose power of their good reputation. This world we live in is a world of socialistic social climbers in fear of wrecking their image by being corresponded with less adulterated people. Instead of being with those that are loyal and positive toward you, individuals reside with those who have success, to maintain an image. In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times. People believe this theory to be true, but it's what makes you happy that really
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, is a story based on her own childhood in Iran. The story consists of the struggles her family and friends are forced to deal with, changing Marji’s view of Iranian life and its people. The book starts during a revolution, the Iranian people are trying to overthrow the emperor and when they finally do, war breaks out between Iraq and Iran. During the war thousands of people’s lives were taken, women, children and men of all ages. During this Marji’s parents forced her to leave Iran because they know it is too dangerous for a child of her age to live in the middle of a war so severe and life threatening. During the time Marji did live in Iran, she heard many tales about the umpteen conflicts and struggles that lower class people were faced with. Marji saw her maid whom she loved and cared for, not being able to date her love, their neighbor, because she was embedded in a different social class. She experienced the harsh realities of divergence between men and women. Women were compelled to wear a veil in order to not “distract” men with their hair. Younger boys in the lower end of the class system were given a “golden” key to take to war, which was actually plastic; this key meant that if they were killed fighting for what they believed in, it would guarantee their entrance to heaven. In Iran, there were a variety of ways in which the people of Iran can be distinguished between social classes. Your social class affected you in every way there was during this horrible time in Iran.
In the novel, this is extremely evident in the relationship between Okonkwo and his father, Unoka as mentioned before, never achieved success in his life which caused a rift between him and his child. Okonkwo destroyed the relationship between him and his father so that he could move up on the social ladder, and in the end was annoyed when Unoka tried to connect in his dying days. Another example is that of Ikemefuna, though Okonkwo had no ability to change what happened he did not need to participate. However, he wanted to be seen as strong, and unmoving so he killed a boy that he saw as a son. In the modern world this is another idea that fits perfectly into the High School social structure. When people get to high school or even middle school they have friends, but when they want to fit in somewhere else they decide their friends aren’t cool, and they leave them in the dust in favor of new superficial kinship with people they most likely don’t even like. When one's life is based entirely on where they fit into the social structure, they never form true relationships that bring them real happiness or
Traditions, through all of history have been what people hold onto through difficult times. Whether it is religion or just a tradition when people are truly in dire need of help, there is no such thing as an atheist. You can see this through all sorts of events in history and in modern life. During the holocaust, the Jews were targeted exclusively because of their religion, yet through the hardship they only grew stronger in their faith. Or the disciples of Jesus, they were threatened by nearly everyone they came into contact with, but they pushed on. Even in modern times, when people are faced with extreme adversity, they normally come out with some new tradition, often religion.
I will explore how social classes frankly appear and build up the story of the book by comparing and contrast with a modern social hierarchy. Today, we’re living in a society with social classes existing. We can be classified in different classes and so do I. I wish I could designate my social status, but unfortunately, our social classes are usually determined by wealth (income), occupation, education and prestige. Social class can be shown in a pyramid structure and it usually comprises with upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class and lower class.
In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s childhood experiences allow her to demonstrate the cultural changes that occurred in post-revolutionary Iran, as well as those perpetrated by western culture. In Persepolis, western culture plays a major role in the author’s attempt to dispel the
When writing any sort of narrative, be it novel or poem, fiction or non-fiction, scholarly or frivolous, an author must take into account the most effective manner in which to effectively convey the message to their audience. Choosing the wrong form, or method of speaking to the reader, could lead to a drastic misunderstanding of the meaning within an author’s content, or what precisely the author wants to say (Baldick 69). Even though there are quite a bit fewer words in a graphic novel than in the average novel, an author can convey just as much content and meaning through their images as they could through 60,000 words. In order to do that though, their usage of form must be thoughtfully considered and controlled. Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic memoir The Complete Persepolis, took great pains in the creation of her panels in order to reinforce and emphasize her narrative, much like a novelist utilizes punctuation and paragraph breaks. Through her portrayal of darkness and lightness, Satrapi demonstrates that literary content influences, and is primary to, the form.
It seems to be beneficial for the elite or dominant group to exercise their power over the less fortunate by putting obstacles in social mobility. Fussell puts in perspective that Americans need to realize that we all have a membership in a certain class. The author made me realize that I am a part of the mid proletarian class, the class that works everyday living off a day to day check (my mom was a hairstylist). Given the type of work my mother did, shaped how I was identified as a person I could say it most definitely impacted my view and status. I agree that humans reveal their class just by the way they behave for instance, Studs Terkel interviewed a woman and in this midst of the interview he poses the question, “What are your thoughts about social classes in the country” (Fussell, pg. 16) you can tell she was hesitant with slight enraged about the topic being brought up because she mentions that they should dismiss the term “social class”. I define class as the way you appear to others meaning your posture, your voice and the way you articulate words these characteristics places you in a certain
There are many different influences in the world today; a big one that most people in the world face is religion. Religion is an influence that people first encounter during their childhood. They grow and learn to have faith. People’s perspective on religion is affected by their culture, their family and the events they witness during childhood. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the story of a young girl growing up in Iran, during the Islamic Revolution, and the war with Iraq. Throughout the novel religion develops along with the plot, in good and bad ways. In the story Marji loses her faith and it changes who she is, religion also changed her lifestyle by the government putting religion into the law. Religion is a topic that people label as
In America, many people are divided by what we comprehend as a class system. Within our society, a multitude of people finds themselves not interacting often with those outside of their class and can rarely find similarities with people with a different financial status. In Andre Dubus’ writing “The Land of No: Love in A Class-Riven America”, he speaks about his experience with his girlfriend who comes from an affluent background opposed to his less advantaged upbringing. Dubus shows that the experiences people face from different classes can differ entirely and therefore it makes it difficult to identify with someone outside of your class. In Andre Dubus’ writing, “The Land of No: A Class-Riven America” he is showing
As Andrew Jackson once said, “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purpose.” This proves to be true in Ancient Sumer and Ancient Greece because the similarities continue to overlap in both cultures. The ancient civilizations of Greece and Sumer shared many similarities in the area of social classes.
Social class has always been influential in America even though many people put forth that someone’s social class is insignificant when building friendships or any other relationship. But the reality is that those thoughts are mistaken because the truth is social class has become a larger concept than what it’s thought to be. Due to the class difference all the social classes have been drifting apart from each other and avoid interacting with each other (Bartlett 1).
As time has passed by, class inequality has lost its utmost importance (Scase, 1992). Even though it may not seem vital it is still prominent in today’s society and everyone’s lives. The term Class if taken as a form of identity which is stuck onto every individual as a signpost, there is no way of getting rid of it nor escaping it. The class is not as vital anymore because there are more opportunities available so it’s much easier for social mobility to happen in the 21st century. In the past people were victims of circumstances and stood no chance to move up the class ladder; they were born into a class they would die in. Now social mobility has become easier so moving up the class system is not as difficult as it was before, which is why the importance of class is diminishing. A recent example that can be seen of Sadiq Khan, his father was a bus driver in Pakistan and now he is the Mayor of London. The concept of Class has no ‘correct’ definition but it’s known as an inequality
Nowadays, there are many religions that one can choose from. Religion, to some, is a guide line, but to others it’s more like falling in love. In 1979, Iran was in the midst of the Islamic Revolution. During this time, some people held tight to religion while others let it go. Marjane Satrapi wrote Persepolis about her life at that time. At the beginning, Satrapi grasps religion tightly; however, by the end of the book, she seems to let it go. Throughout Persepolis, religion acts like a security blanket and enhances the understanding of the graphic novel’s theme, which is “stay true to yourself.”
Social class, as defined by the film, is something that affects who you are as a person. In the film, the people saw class as the defining factor of a person. They saw class as a barrier between people. If one person is in a different class than another person, then obviously, they are not supposed to associate. They allowed their social class to dictate their action each day. It was amazing to me just how much the people in the film allowed their class to truly define them and really serve as a boundary in their life. The people in the film lived their daily life with their social class as the most influential factor. Their worth and value as individuals was not determined by anything else except the amount of money they had. It was really interesting to see how the amount of money a person had somehow equated with their worth in society. The same is true within our society today, but in the film, this aspect was especially evident. The film really shed a light on just how impactful social class is and just how much we allow it to
In traditional societies, people were highly divided in social class. For instance, individuals that were born in rich families were classified as top class citizens. This made it possible for these individuals to enjoy privileges that other lower class citizens could enjoy. For instance, the schools these children born in rich families attended defined the kind of friends they would keep. There were strict doctrines in behavior mode and training to behave in line with a child’s social class was strongly upheld. The middle class and the rich would interact in rare occasions. On the other hand, the middle class and the lower class citizens would also interact in rare occasions. Current societal setting still lingers in this challenge.