Persepolis 1 Dialectical Journal Essay

Reason 1: Readers can be more in tune with author’s emotions, and create a bond.
First, readers find it easier to be able to understand author’s complex emotion from reading memoire in a graphic novel. In Persepolis 1, the use of memoirs tells the emotional complexity of love, extended families, friends, sex, education, and all the other things that go into Marjane’s life. For example, readers can understand the Marjane’s complex emotions, especially the love to her parents. In page 33, Marjane feels uncomfortable to sit in her father’s Cadillac, because they are in a higher social class compared to their maid. In page 49, Marjane feels ashamed of her father’s stable work, compared to Laly’s father as a soldier fighting for Iran. However, in page 152, she expresses her love to her parents by saying I love you at the airport. Therefore, by following the flow of memoire, readers can understand the complex emotions of the authors, and create

a bond with Marjane.

Reason 2: Easier to Follow Author’s Ideas
Furthermore, the story is easier to follow ideas because of the flow of the content about growing up, and developing way of thinking. In Persepolis 1, readers can find the contribution of development of her every thought, instead of having a thought without reasons. All Marjane’s thoughts can be traced back. For example, we can see in page 53, Marjane, a girl who resent inequity and care about people in poor before, turns into a person who come up with an idea of torture for people lost in a game when she is playing with her friends. She illustrates the evil torture including “The mustache-on-fire torture consists of pulling on the two side of the upper lip. The twisted arm. The mouth filled with garbage” (p.53). When readers feel surprised about the change of her characteristic, and evil thoughts, readers can trace back to page 51. Readers can find out the reason that Marjane is engaged in a conversation with a victim from prison, and she wants to experience life in prison. The victim mentions the guardian whipped him with “thick electric cables so much” (p.51), put their cigarettes his “back and thighs” (p.51), and “burned him with an iron” (p.51). Therefore, readers can understand the reason for her changes of thoughts, and make sense of some of her weird behaviors showed in the story.
Reason 3: Readers can Get Inspiration Based on Reliable Life Experience
Moreover, to use memoire in a graphic novel allows readers to get inspiration from Satrapi’s reliable life experience.

Readers will reflect on their experiences, borrow or copy the effective ways of doing after they trust the reliability of the story. In Persepolis 1, I enjoy seeing the way Marjane communicating with her parents, and their communication style really impressed me. For example, Marjane’s parents send her to Austria for protecting her in page148 and page 149, and Marjane understand the parents love is about giving her freedom, rather than keeping her beside themselves. When I reflect on my own experience, I was one of the lucky children with open-minded parents. For me, my parents love me by affording me to a university in Canada. I am inspired to learn the way in the story Marjane express her love and appreciation so often to her parents by hugs and words, which makes her parents happy. From author’s memoire, as a reader, I learned useful skills with trust about communicating with parents and expressing love to

them.
Reason 4: Learn about the development of identity of the author.
Finally, by reading memoire, I can accompany people on the journey from a young child to a young adult, so I can make sense of the development of author’s identity based on their background. In Persepolis 2, in page 163, Marjane shows that she wants to stay in the margin of the society, because of the freedom she can embrace after experiencing all the regulation for a student, being an Iran, being a wife and being a European. I can understand new way of viewing her identity by reading Persepolis, because Marjane tells of her ongoing effort to become herself now by drawing her memoire.