The Complexity of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

If a person were to hastily flip through the pages of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic

novel Persepolis, using only eyes to judge, the book could easily be put off as just

another piece of literary fluff. Their inner literary critic might utter a perplexed gasp and

their mind might reel with the wonder at how they happened upon something that was

surely intended for the children’s comic book section. With any further examination of

the book’s literary content and the power of its simplified artwork, however, such an easy

to assume accusation shows through as fatally incorrect. Persepolis is the memoir of a

young woman growing up in the decimating national conflicts of 1970s Iran depicted

alongside an unexpectedly, simplified artwork style. At first it may appear that this is

done only for the sake of unique marketability or because it is merely Satrapi’s natural

drawing style. A deeper examination, however, will reveal that “…a form of

amplification through simplification” (McCloud, 30) is achieved and visual support is

given to the text in a manner that realistic or more “serious” art could not accomplish.

Though simplified in its artistic approach, Persepolis is anything but simplified in

content.

When a writer chooses to include illustrations in a piece of literature, the first task

is to decide the level of abstraction/ realism the art will present. In Persepolis’ case, a

simplified art style works best, as it amplifies only the primary features of the text, unlike

realism which would be far more focused on social details. Given the book’s heavy

subject matter (of both a war beyond massive devastation and the metamorphosis of a girl

caught in its trauma), Persepolis has a great deal of information to cover in t...

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...captivating

and personally significant aspects of her experience. Through generality and a lack of

explicit realism, Satrapi invigorates the book’s deeper messages in a manner that extends

beyond the written word and into conceptual imagery. “By de-emphasizing the

appearance of the physical world…the cartoon places itself in the world of concepts”

(McCloud 41), concepts that convey the subjective, but still far too true life of Marjane

Satrapi. This simplified and symbolic universe is not Iran or Austria or France; it is Marjane’s Persepolis.

Works Cited

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HyperCollins

Publishers, 1993. Print

Strapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of Childhood. Paris, France: L’Association, 2003. Print.

Strapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story of Return. Paris, France: L’Association, 2004.Print