Persepolis Research Paper

As Americans things like Baseball, Cheeseburgers, Democracy, and Football are all staples of our culture and we tend to hold these things very dear to our hearts, but what if we collectively hated these things and antagonized them? In Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi these feelings are expressed towards her Iranian culture. Topics like culture, government, and religion in Iran are antagonized greatly.

This picture demonstrates the theme of strict social class hurting the people. The top 1% of people outweighing the many smaller people in wealth and resources. Likewise, this theme in Persepolis becomes present when Marjane talks about her neighbor who is forbidden from having a relationship with the lower class girl who was taken in by Marjane's family. When Marjane's father goes to explain the situation the boy quickly loses interest in the girl. Marjane's Father tells her “You must understand their love is impossible.” Marjane's replies “But is it her fault she was born?” even Marjane's progressive father accepts the rigid social classes. Showing how deeply the social hierarchy is ingrained into Iranian culture.

This image shows the antagonism of Islam and other cultures represented as the group of people all pointing toward an Islamic terrorist, the terrorist is meant to represent the antagonistic view of Islamic people as terrorists. This theme of antagonism of a culture is present in Persepolis when Marjane and her parents are confronted by a supporter of the installment of islam in the government, he insults them by calling them “westernized trash”. Showing that in Iran they antagonize the west and other cultures because it is against their warped view of