Strong feminist roles are very common in revolutionary works of literature. During the Iranian Revolution, women were not treated equally and were seen as inferior to men. In the novel Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi includes strong female characters show a contrast to the belief of the time. Because of the powerful women in her life, Marjane was influenced to be a strong woman herself. Marji’s mother and grandmother were people who influenced her to be the person she became by watching their actions and listening to their stories. Satrapi characterizes Marji as strong and independent due to the influence of women with similar characteristics throughout the novel.
Mothers tend to have strong relationships with their children and force them to be the best that they can be.
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Marjane's mother asked, “So tell me child what do you want to be when you grow up?” “I want to be a doctor,” Marjane replied (9). After the meeting with her teacher, Marji tells her parents that she wants to be a doctor, when in reality she still wants to be a prophet. Her parents are just as supportive of her decisions as when she wanted to be a prophet, and this support shows her that she could be anything that she wants to be and also depicts the influence of her mother. Marjane's mother is not only a proud woman but she is honest and does not appreciate unnecessary falsities around her. She exclaims, “What nerve! She always had that nasty spot. If we weren't neighbors, he would have said she's a martyr raised from the dead,” (44). This occurs when the neighbors come up to Marji's family and tell them that a bullet has just missed the woman's face and left a slight scar. Marjane's mother knows that the woman has always had “that nasty spot” and that she was lying. This shows how people during this time period often glorified war and the concept of rebellion. The fact that Marji's mother got so offended at
In Persepolis, Satrapi develops the central idea of Marji and her parents rebelling against the social injustices held by the Shah and the government. This is demonstrated in chapters “ The Trip”, “The Passport”, and “Kim Wilde”. Early in the revolution, females were forced to cover themselves up. They were told to wear their veils because it didn’t show a sign of western American style or sexual
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.
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.
In the scene where Marjane and her mother are outside of the grocery store loading up their car, a man comes up to Marjane’s mother and tells her to put her scarf back on, and when she kept minding her own business, the man became irritated. She then responds that he should have more respect towards women which in turn, made him respond angrily, “Women like you, I fuck them against the walls!” Marjane’s witnessing of the oppression of women, specifically to a woman she cares deeply about, can be evidence of the reasons for her rebellious stage later in life. Furthermore, Marjane’s uncle told her about his story of rebelling against and running from the government which led her to become motivated to be like him. As she grew older, she began to have a mind of her own and actually started to think about what was going on around her. This is initially where she began to lose her cultural identity and where the link to westernization becomes
Today’s class discussion on Persepolis 2 (Marjanne Satrapi) revealed the importance of dependence and independence in forming one's identity. Persepolis 2 starts when Satrapi has been sent to Vienna by her parents to escape the oppressive Iranian regime. In doing so she is also separating herself from the dependence she had on her parents. In this separation Satrapi is left without inhibitions, her rebellious attitude consumes her. She becomes friends with anarchists and experiments with drugs.
During our class discussions, the issue of identity in Marjane Satrapi’s novel, Persepolis (2004), became a contentious issue. The question was asked whether Persepolis might be understood to being in-dialogue with western ways of seeing and did the effects of modernization influence the identity of Marjane’s protagonist in Persepolis. How does the novel involve the issue of identity? I will extend the argument and, through the exploration of Marji’s changing ideologies, I will attempt to prove that Marji is caught between the traditional eastern culture and western modernization.
Education is an important part in the development of young woman’s life. In the novel’s The Complete Persepolis and A Woman’s Story, the culture of the young woman affects the education they receive, allowing for a strong emphasis on self-education, which helps shape the relationship between mother and daughter. In A Woman’s Story education is the key component to social development, while in The Complete Persepolis education is imperative for enlightenment. This social development through education in A Woman’s Story helps establish the importance of self-education between mother and daughter.
Throughout Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi displays the vital role that the women around her have in developing her character and becoming the woman she is today. Women such as her mother, her grandmother, her school teachers, the maid, the neighbors, and even the guardians of the revolution influenced Marjane and caused her to develop into an independent, educated, and ambitious woman. Throughout the novel, Marjane never completely conforms or lets go of her roots, this is primarily due to the women who have influenced her. Marjane’s mother was one of the most influential people in her life, her mother taught her to be strong and independent. By introducing her mother through the story of her mother getting photographed at a demonstration, Marjane presents her mother as being independent and rebellious (Satrapi 5).
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.
The transition from high school to college can be a difficult experience, but also life changing. It is a time of independence, along with constant questioning. This transition is a coming of age story, just like the novel Persepolis, the story of Marjane’s childhood and growth. Both are about transitioning from a safe haven to an unknown, distant place. Marjane learns to question authority, and form her own opinions through her experiences during the Iranian Revolution. By the time she steps onto that plane to leave her parents behind in country faced with political unrest, she is an independent woman. A part of growing up is learning how to think for yourself in order to thrive in a new environment such as college. Although Marjane’s story and mine are separated by geography and circumstance, many of the things we learned while growing up allow us to question authority and find a new perspective by thinking for ourselves.
Even though Marjane returns to Iran because of the events that destroyed her state of mind, she ends up carrying over the emotional effects like depression, over dependence and Isolation/loneliness back home.
In the beginning of the novel, Marji opens up to her grandmother and admits that she wants to be a prophet, her grandmother does not mock her or tell her she can not be a prophet, instead she announces she will be Marji’s first disciple. (7). Her grandmother also buys her books to help educate her on what is going on in their country (28). Both of these actions display that her grandmother wants her to be educated and also wants Marji to do whatever she desires and teaches her that she truly can be whatever she wishes. Before Marji leaves to go to Austria, her grandmother tells her “always keep your dignity and be true to yourself” (150). This is something that continually goes through Marji’s mind as she begins to make mistakes, being true to herself is something Marji is constantly struggling for and becomes a major theme throughout the novel. In the end of the novel Marji learns how to be true to herself and her ambitions as she divorces Reza and moves to Paris, which was an action heavily based on the ethics and teachings of her