When writing any sort of narrative, be it novel or poem, fiction or non-fiction, scholarly or frivolous, an author must take into account the most effective manner in which to effectively convey the message to their audience. Choosing the wrong form, or method of speaking to the reader, could lead to a drastic misunderstanding of the meaning within an author’s content, or what precisely the author wants to say (Baldick 69). Even though there are quite a bit fewer words in a graphic novel than in the average novel, an author can convey just as much content and meaning through their images as they could through 60,000 words. In order to do that though, their usage of form must be thoughtfully considered and controlled. Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic memoir The Complete Persepolis, took great pains in the creation of her panels in order to reinforce and emphasize her narrative, much like a novelist utilizes punctuation and paragraph breaks. Through her portrayal of darkness and lightness, Satrapi demonstrates that literary content influences, and is primary to, the form.
Lightness and darkness have very different meanings in the human psyche in that lightness is synonymous with innocence and naïvety while darkness coincides with all things daunting and evil. Throughout the memoir, many situations are repeated but to different degrees of severity. For example, on pages 113 and 145, Marjane is arguing with her mother. However, the first instance is simply a minor act of preteen rebellion while the second alludes to the possibility of state-sanctioned rape and execution. At first glance, these pages are very similar; Marjane’s mother is obviously angry and invades upon her daughter’s personal space as she lectures and ...
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...e panels that depict her actions, and the results of said actions, magnifies the reassurance imparted with Satrapi’s words. She was in no true danger and yet her hasty decision to cast the Guardians attention onto another could very well have proved deadly to her chosen scapegoat. In fact, the Guardian she calls out to for protection from the supposedly “indecent” man immediately responds to the situation with, “Where’s the bastard, I’ll shut him up once and for all!” This blunt, aggressive statement is written on of the very few panels in this chapter that have a black background. It brings a temporary sense of fear and anxiety as to whether or not the poor confused man will fight the Guardians to try and keep his freedom from completely false accusations. The white backgrounds return as the reader learns the man thankfully did not fight the armed group of men.
The graphic essay “Show and Tell” by Scott McCloud is written in the form of a comic book as he explains the importance of words and images, and how to effectively use the two components when creating a comic. “Show and Tell” explains to the reader how creating a successful comic does not occur easily, as numerous components must be used in the right way and amount in order to create a product that is worthwhile to its readers. This insightful graphic essay portrays to the reader how in a comic, words and images can successfully be used in numerous ways if they are kept in balance with one another. Society traditionally believes that in a piece of literature words and images should be kept apart, whereas McCloud opposes this
In the graphic novel, Persepolis, the main character, Marjane, faces many coming of age moments. Each one of these change her in a way that impacts her view on the world around her as her and her family strive for a better life amongst a war that hinders their ability to follow their beliefs. Marjane learns to forgive, experiences pain and suffering, and changes her opinions on God and her own views on religion forever. Marjane’s life has been filled with hard times, but also glorious moments as well.
Persepolis is a coming of age story written by Marjane Satrapi in 20001. Depicting a young girl growing up during the religious revolts in Iran. Throughout the story the main character loses her innocence. The author uses the appeals of genre, ethos, pathos, and logos, historical context, and illustration to depict the loss of innocence in the main character.
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.
In Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and in Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, both authors commentate on the romanticism of violence that is often associated with war. Because of this, the authors are able to dispel misconceptions surrounding war. Furthermore, the memoirs allow the authors reflect upon their own experiences of war during their childhoods, as well as examine how cultural shifts perpetuated by both war and the increased influence of western culture that took place within their cultures shaped who they became. Through their memoirs, the authors portray the reality of war and violence through cultural experiences.
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.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of an oppressive regime on the child Marjane Satrapi as depicted the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
Though graphic novels are not recognized as literature by many literary critics, they have the distinction of communicating with pictures in a way that may not be possible with words alone. Themes that would be lost if they were merely sentences on a page are highlighted when set to a graphic novel’s illustration, and graphic novels can connect deeply with the reader through images of war and suffering, such as in the graphic novels Persepolis and Fables.
Satrapi, Marjane. “Why I wrote Persepolis: a graphical novel memoir: writer Marjane Satrapi faced the challenges of life in post-revolutionary Iran. She used the graphic novel format to tell her unique story.” Marjane Satrapi. Writing!, Nov-Dec, 2003, Vol.. 26(3), p. 9(5) Cengage Learning Inc.
Currently, I find myself to use pictures to comprehend new information even a child as well. When I was learning about World War II in middle school, I discovered that the images of the war were very intriguing than reading a textbook in social studies class. In the book, Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, this piece of literature included so much history that had been tied into the novel displaying comic strips of what Satrapi imagined from her childhood, what had really happened and the life the people in Iran experienced in times of war. Not only the Iran-Iraq War has images that depict the tragic event, but the Holocaust can be taught through pictures as well. War and human cruelty in an image reveals a thousand words much more superior than
History is a science, like all sciences and it has precise rules and formulas. Lack of attention to historical writings, will make fake stories; but an expert with simple analysis will find out that he can’t use those fake stories as resources or knowledge of history.
In the novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Satrapi’s childhood was highly impacted by American culture. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the affect American culture had on how Satrapi viewed the Iranian Revolution.
The world of comics enables comic-artists to create a whole other dimension of consciousness. The scale of emotions is enormous, allowing complete freedom for the comic-book drawer to paint a world of new understanding. As coming-of-age memoirs, Persepolis I and Persepolis II tell the story of Marjane Satrapi’s struggle to realize her true self in a world torn apart by civil unrest. Marjane Satrapi’s minimalistic drawing style enables the books Persepolis I and Persepolis II to convey the gruesome concept of death in a larger-than-life manner.
Persepolis 2: The Story of Return is anchored around how Marji is affected by the social injustice that occurred during the Islamic Revolution. Growing up as “a westerner in Iran and an Iranian in the West,” (Satrapi 274) changes and molds her into the young woman she is at the end of her journey. In this second chapter of Satrapis life she moves away from the comfort of Iran and finds a life in Vienna. Marji desires to find her purpose and identity during her brief time here and faces many battles with language barriers, people and herself. Marjis past from Iran haunts her and instills the idea that she needs to make something of herself while in Austria. Finding that Austria took her down a darker path where the light was scarcer and the
Throughout history, religion has gained religious believers, but likewise has lost them. The ability to have faith in something is a characteristic that is unique in humans. But, likewise, people have the unique characteristic of stop believing, specially, when certain events challenge their faith. In Marjane’s narrative story, Persepolis, Marjane slowly lost faith in religion. Religious fundamentalist harmed her love ones, violently, which made her realize that religion was always connected with violent acts. Marjane narrates that a lot of people have accepted the new religious government, she said, “it wasn’t only the people that changed. Ordinary people changed