Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

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Think back to when you were younger — what do you see? Many people would consider their childhood to be a happy, stress-free period, spending time with friends and learning new things. This, however, is not the case for Marjane Satrapi, author and illustrator of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. The autobiography depicts the author’s personal journey of growing up in Iran in the midst of revolution. Theis graphic novel deals with religion, protests, family, and identity. Satrapi’s use of graphic weight, artificial depth, and as well as both real and abstract imagery, portrays the growth ofin Marji’s character.

There have been multiple occasions in Marji’s childhood which have involved violence. For instance, when she was Aat a young age, Marji laid inside of a bathtub “filled with water” in order to mimic her grandfather's demise (25.8). Satrapi illustrated this naive thought of hers by strategically placing a black rubber duckducky in the white bathtub. This contrast in color draws attention to the toy, emphasizing her young state of mind, contradicting the action within the panel. Another moment in young Marji’s life that shows her innocence is when she talks …show more content…

Satrapi used action-to-action panels in order to show each detail in that short moment. At the end, Marji stated that “now [she] was a grown-up”. Something else rebellious that Marji did was when she purchased tapes from American artists (132.3). Time was sped up here because instead of being two panels to show Marji looking both left and right, it was combined into a single panel. This represents her looking both ways before doing something she’s not supposed to. There is also a divide in both sides of her, literally and figuratively: her oppressed and free sides are breaking away from each other. Teens from all over the world can relate to these rebellious acts, which is why they were

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