Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

Do you ever wonder what its like to grow up in tragic, heartbreaking, war-like conditions? What it would feel like? How it would affect your family? In the novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi, expresses her take on growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution, through an autobiographical memoir presented through simplistic yet complex comic strips. This book develops the readers understanding on the revolution itself as well as how it affected individuals experiencing the situation. The main character, Marji, expresses and relays the sense of “lostness” she was going through throughout the novel. The author decided to use artwork to exemplify her story which appealed to me personally. It kept me interested in the not only

the historical facts of the revolution but also Marji’s own personal opinions.

I would give this book a rating of 2/2 stars and would highly recommend the funny yet solemn memoir because of the author’s captivating technique in keeping the reader hooked on the story wondering what’s going to happen next along with the story itself and Marji’s progression as a character.
Persepolis: A Story of a Childhood is an absolutely wonderful book infused with feeling of happiness, grief and sacrifice. There were times in her childhood where Marji was forced to mature before she was ready to. In the book, all Marji wanted to do was join the demonstration along with her parents and was extremely passionate about making the world a better place and striving to become a prophet. Satrapi, uses the voice of her childhood-self to exhibit how scary the whole situation really was to an innocent girl. I would definitely recommend this book to young adult readers because although it does deal with a mature topic, the author finds ways to relate to kids in a more modern age like today. Although the illustrations are very basic, they still convey a deep interpretation of what is going on in the scene. This first hand account sheds light upon the Islamic Revolution and the overthrow of Shah in an

interesting way that I think appeals to many kids my age. The novel also shows how Marji is struggling to find who she is. Both as a student, and just a young girl for that matter, and she is going through a sense of “lostness” which typically relates to many kids. Throughout the book, Marji is portrayed as a dynamic character which is almost always interesting to observe the character as they change and develop within themselves. This book was published in the US by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc in 2003. It is the First American Paperback Edition and consists of 153 pages each with lively and well- drawn illustrations on them that conveys the tone that correlates with the dialogue and captions that go with them. This book is on the market for $14.95 USD and has an ISBN of 978-0-375-71457-3. The main message that the author conveys is morality. In the book many innocent people are killed or put in prison for fighting for whats right however, those who died were honored as martyrs. This theme is most accurately portrayed in the quote that states, “At school, they lined us up twice a day to mourn the war dead. They put on funeral marches and we had to beat our breasts”. Although honoring these people is a good thing, that’s practically advertising for death. It’s brainwashing both kids and adults to think that dying is good thing. This is circulated throughout the whole book and is definitely the most significant theme that clearly sends the message the author is trying to convey.
As one can see, this novel is a great read and is definitely both enjoyable and informative. You will learn things about Iran and the Islamic revolution that you may not have known otherwise and actually enjoy learning it. I recommend this to anyone looking for a book that is unique and memorable however also teaches many lessons. I most certainly couldn't put this book down and I'm sure other readers will feel the same way.