Mustang and Persepolis are two remarkable narratives that explore the lives of young women facing oppressive societal structures. Mustang takes the point of view of five sisters, Lale, Nur, Ece, Selma, and Sonay, who live in a small village in Turkey with their grandmother and uncle after the death of their parents. The girl's lives take a huge turn when they are caught innocently playing in the water with boys. Which leads to the sisters being subjected to strict gender roles and arranged marriages. Persepolis is both a graphic memoir and a movie that recounts a girl, Marji’s, childhood and early adulthood in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. The book starts when Marji grows up in a family supportive of the revolution but critical …show more content…
For instance, at 00:35:52 in the movie, when Sonay is being forced to marry a boy, she takes matters into her own hands. She pulls her grandmother aside and says “I love Ekin”. If you try to marry me off to anyone else, I’ll scream.” (Erguven). Sonay explicitly rejected the arranged marriage. Her dialogue reflects her fierce independence and refusal to succumb to societal pressures At the end of the movie, only two of the sisters are left, they are driven by independence, and they escape their oppressive family and run off. Marji's quest for independence in Persepolis mirrors the struggles of the sisters in Mustang. Fueled by her desire for self-determination, Marji defies societal norms and pursues her dreams of personal and intellectual freedom. She decided to leave Iran and leave for Austria. To seek education abroad signifies her unwavering commitment to charting her destiny beyond the confines of her homeland. Despite being only fourteen years old at the time, Marjane shows immense independence by agreeing to leave her family and homeland behind to pursue her education and seek a better
Persepolis is a inspirational story written by Marjane Satrapi in the perspective of a young girl’s life during a powerful, historical moment in Iran. The Islamic Revolution was a life-changing moment that impacted her view on the world around her and her innocence shaping her into the woman she is today. Not many people understand what it feels like to feel pain, hurt and abandonment as a child from major and minor things. The author writes this story and decides for it to be a graphic novel to allow the not only young readers, but also for those who do not understand what happens everyday in the world they live in. Satrapi uses all rhetorical stances, ethos, pathos, and logos to show problems, purpose and emotions.
“Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return” by Marjane Satrapi is a memoir that depicts the troubled life of Marjane Satrapi. Marjane Satrapi, the author, was born in Rasht, Iran in the year 1969. She was born to a rich family in Iran and grew up in Tehran during the revolution and revolt against the Shah, the ruler at the time. She lived during the era where Islam was emerging in Iran and becoming the predominant religion. Marjane lacked academics for two years in Iran and suffered indeed from the bombings of Iraq. These horrific events impacted her and her parents, so as a result was sent to Austria for a better life. Her juxtaposed life in Austria and emergence of maturity is described in Marjane’s second installment of Persepolis.
“Persepolis” is a memoir written by Marjane Satrapi in the form of a graphic novel. The book is about her childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution which took place during the 1980’s. These were particularly turbulent times in the history of the country and had a major impact on the day to day life of its citizens. During this time period in Iran, a theocratic form of government came into power after the Shah was overthrown. At first, Marjane like her compatriots rejoiced over the new government, as they felt that it represented the real representatives of the people of Iran instead of a royal ruler propped up by western powers. Through the novel, Marjane comes across as a curious and independent child, who is confused by the political upheaval and the mixed messages a child would get from what she saw around her. She describes the horrific incidents in the day to day life of her family, neighbors, and friends with childlike innocence but
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that depicts the life of Marjane Satrapri during the Iranian Revolution. Satrapi tells her story as a child growing up during the time of the many drastic changes forced upon women and the effects of the new laws made by the Shah. During this time people in Iran were banned from reading, or listening to music that was not approved by the regime. Schools were separated by gender and women were forced to wear veils to protect themselves from being molested or raped by men. The middle class women in Persepolis are prescribed the most important roles such as rearing their children and the duties in the home. But most importantly because they are in the home they are unable to attain legal rights for women in Iran. “In no country do women have on have political status, access, or influence equal to man” (Kazemi, 2000). The divorce of a man and woman lies solely in the hands of men. Though the women in the Satrapi family were oppressed outside of the home they continued to live two separate lives, one inside the household and one on the outside. They often had gatherings and drank alcohol even though it was not allowed. The roles that were prescribed to the women were not effective because they had no opinion, and because there were no laws in favor of women who sooner or later begin to give up and inherent the man’s thoughts.
The Islamic revolution in Iran changed the lives of many of their citizens. Along with this religious revolution came the deaths of many of the past ruler’s supporters, the revision of history books, and the Iranian women faced intense oppression while being forced to wear chadors.Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian female that lived in revolution ridden Iran. During the 1980s she was ten years old, who had little knowledge of her tyrannized society. In Persepolis written by Satrapi as an older women, she portrays her childhood as a coming of age autobiography with a strong theme of growing maturity. The process of maturity is shown throughout Persepolis with the concepts of hope and fear. Marjane Satrapi and I followed a similar pattern of maturity growth through personal experiences, responses to fear, and the effect of hope.
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.
Growing up in Iran is hard enough as it is, take a smart, brave, independent young girl, put her in Iran and one gets Marjane Satrapi. The autobiography Persepolis written by Marjane Satrapi tells the story of her kid to early teen years growing up in Iran. The story mainly focuses on the political aspect of Iran of the 1980s along with some more personals tales about her relationship with her family. Marji’s personality alters a great deal during the story of persepolis. It is safe to say that Marji is a brave, smart, independent young girl with a very interesting story.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi shows the reader about the events that took place in the country of Iran in 1980. The protagonist of the story tells us the story of the veil that was mandatory for the women to wear after the Islamic revolution in 1979. She shows us how the people living in Iran reacted to this law through various different perspectives and retorts. The story outlines Marjane’s story from when she was a small child to when she was a young adult. Marjane opposes the notion of command and the various encounters of the Iranian revolution. The book showcases Marjane as a rebellious and outspoken woman through her numerous responses to the situations of her daily life, however, she has other facets to her personality which intrigue me. Through the description of her vivid experiences, she successfully creates a unique identity for herself in my mind.
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
Class, politics, and gender were all very influential in terms of shaping Marjane Satrapi’s point of view in Persepolis and her recount of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Obviously the revolution in Iran impacted the lives of millions, and Marjane’s account only provides one point of view, a point of view with its own biases. It is important to that Persepolis is a subjective
In Persepolis, Marjane uses European education as her way to a life of freedom outside of sexist Iran. Marjane Satrapi’s dream of becoming an “educated, liberated woman”(Satrapi 74) is impossible in her home country due to
When it comes to culture, different views can cause major conflicts, and these said conflicts occur in the novel Persepolis. The book is a memoir about Marjane Satrapi, also known as Marji, growing up in Iran under the Shah’s rule and the Islamic rule. Even with the many different cultures in Iran, she stuck up for what she believed in and rebelled against the things she thought were wrong. In Persepolis, Marjane’s growth is affected by various aspects of culture including religion, government, and social organization.
Marjane Satrapi in her memoir, “The Complete Persepolis” enlightens readers with the reality of living in Iran, as she tells her journey through her life of becoming a woman during the Islamic Revolution. Iran similar to other countries has made different prescribed roles for their women and men based on their cultures religious and traditional set of laws. Society to them was a depiction of what their people were expected to look, and act like when in public. When trying to understand the importance of gender along with their roles in society, it’s crucial to acknowledge outside factors, for instance things like culture and social class. The characters throughout her memoir illustrate how their
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, makes important strides toward altering how Western audiences perceive Iranian women. Satrapi endeavors to display the intersection of the lives of some Westerners with her life as an Iranian, who spent some time in the West. Satrapi, dissatisfied with representations she saw of Iranian women in France, decided to challenge them. In her words, “From the time I came to France in 1994, I was always telling stories about life in Iran to my friends. We’d see pieces about Iran on television, but they didn’t represent my experience at all. I had to keep saying, ‘No, it’s not like that there.’ I’ve been justifying why it isn’t negative to be an Iranian for almost twenty years. How strange when it isn’t something I did or chose to be?” (Satrapi, “Why I Wrote Persepolis” 10). In acknowledging both Eastern and Western feminism, Satrapi’s novel humanizes the female Iranian perspective in a way that can easily digested by Western audiences.
Even in our present time we can see how culture principles and characteristic drive can cause conflict. Within a society, an individual does not exist. If an individual does exist, then they are no longer a part of the society causing rebellion. In I and Thou, Buber explains that the self becomes either more disconnected or more unified through its relationships to others. The film Persepolis is an adaption to Marjane Satrapi’s The Complete Persepolis coming-of-age graphic memoir. It involves a young Muslim girl name Marjane as she comes of age within the environment of the Iranian Revolution. The film explores the actualization of Marjane through allegory to show how she must construct her identity within a foundation of westernization, religion, and gender.