Job #4: Question commander
Persepolis
Intro+ p.3-62
Why would the Shah kill thousands of people trying to keep his power, and then try to start a democracy for the people?
In the book, the Shah, was basically a dictator instated by the british so that they could get oil from Iran. Then, when people started rebelling against him, he sent his soldiers and private police to kill the people at the riots. There was even a massacre so large, rumors accused Israeli troops of doing it. But Soon before the Shah was deposed, he declared that he "understood" the revolt and said that he would help them reach a democracy. He tested many prime ministers but disliked all of them, so why would he "try to make everything better after all he has done, but not try at all? I think he ultimately knew that he was going to be forced from the throne, so he may have done that to try and leave with a better image.
Why is this book also in a comic book format?
When we read Maus, we understood that the purpose of the graphic format was to facilitate the understanding of who's who with the animal metaphor. but this book, has no metaphor like that, so what is the purpose? I think that it is for people to understand what she saw while she grew up in Iran. While growing up, she saw many awful things, that maybe she thought wouldn't be explainable using only words, so I think thats why she decided to make it a graphic novel.
Why would Marji's father tell Hossein that his girlfriend is a maid, when it is none of his business?
In p. 36-37, Marjis father finds out that Mehri is dating a man of a different social class. Then, for some reason, he takes it upon himself to tell Hosein that she is a maid. he then leaves her just because of that. I have no idea why he did that. he knew how this social thing worked, and he must've expected the resulting outcome, but he still decided to make a decision that could ruin his maid's self esteem. But if I could think on reasons for his actions, I would say that he may have thought that something much worse that her heart being broken would happen if anyone else were to find out about the relationship they had, since they were of different social classes, like in today's society, if a rich woman is seeing a poor man, society will shun her internally/externally, depending on where they are.
I agree with question #2. But I also think that she used the graphic novel format because it helps to visualize the story more. And it could appeal more to readers when it's more visual. Like what you said how the book Persepolis doesn't use any metaphors to explain the situation in the story, Like it did in the book Maus. But this one used the graphic novel format for many reasons but to also explain what she went through with pictures and images, instead of just words. I would think she did this because sometimes it is hard to find certain words for a situation, when just a picture could explain it all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the main reason is because we can visualize and understand every piece of the story. If this book wasn't in a comic format, I think I wouldn't have been able to understand what the author was trying to say. Do you think the comic made the story more understandable ? Also, I find it more interesting than just reading a book filled with words and no picture. The comic in this book describes every situation and makes it more interesting and easier to read.
DeleteWhy would Marji's father tell Hossien that his girlfriend is a maid, when it is none of his business?
ReplyDeleteI think Marji's father told Hossien that knowing that they would brake up. He doesn't want his maid dating someone from a higher social class. It seems like in that society social class and where you stand in it is a huge deal. Marji's father didn't want anyone to assume things if word got out that his maid was dating Hossien, who is higher up in social class.In addition to that, I think if Hossein knew she was a maid he wouldn't have had anything to do with her. You can know that because he broke up with her and stopped talking to her as soon as Marji's dad told him she was a maid. Marji's father didn't care if he would ruin the maids self esteem, or make her upset. All he cared about was making sure they were not together. I think where you stand in social class can always change. For example, if you were born in a lower class family, you could get educated by public schools, and if you work really hard maybe you would get a scholarship to go to a college later on. Overall, good job on your post Lucca.
I choose to answer your first question, "Why would the Shah kill thousands of people trying to keep his power, and then try to start a democracy for the people?"
ReplyDeleteTo start off, I would like to mention that I agree with you that in the book we are now reading Shah is practically a dictator due to the british. He was satisfying their needs while he established a slaughter. People would go out to the streets and start rebelling against his interests since he was truing Iran into a country which only pleased himself and foreigners. All the rioting caused him to be desperate, so eventually he started to send military forces to kill and tourture the civilians who where unsatisfied with his objectives. IN my opinion he turned against himself and started to agree and support the idea of a democracy because he was willing to put anything at risk to gain power. I believe that he knew for himself that he would be going to be deposed but we would do anything to try to hang on the power to himself the longer he could. When he was deposed he wanted to consider himself a winner for somewhat trying, that is why he would know say he understood the riots. that accrued.
Thanks,
Gui
I’m going to answer your third question, “Why would Marji's father tell Hossein that his girlfriend is a maid, when it is none of his business?” Because I also wrote about this on my post. The man who Mehri liked was a person of a different social class, so they weren’t allowed to date. If he didn’t know about her, and he would start to like her they would be sad and depress more than to know the fact at the time. Therefore Marji’s father told the man that they were live in different social classes for them two. Even if he was for the social classes, I think it hurted to broke their relationship then. However it could not be avoided at that time period.
ReplyDeleteWhy is this book also in a comic book format?
ReplyDeleteI think the main reason is because we can visualize and understand every piece of the story. If this book wasn't in a comic format, I think I wouldn't have been able to understand what the author was trying to say. Also, I find it more interesting than just reading a book filled with words and no picture. The comic in this book describes every situation and makes it more interesting and easier to read.
The question I chose to answer was: Why is this book also in a comic book format? In my opinion, I think that it is also in comic book format because the power to see something is much more effective than reading some words on a paper. In other words, when something is more visual, it seems to be more appealing to some people nowadays because maybe they are too lazy to read books, or they could just seem to be more interested in comics. For instance, when a kid walks into the bookstore, he sees a thick book with boring words and a comic book full of colors. Obviously, the kid would choose to read the comic book because it seems more intriguing and visually attractive. The same thing applies to the book ''Persepolis'' and ''Maus''. Both tell a story in comic book form and it pretty much is very powerful and can help the reader interpret something in the way the author wants it. For example, in the book ''The Hunger Games'' there is the main character, who is Katniss. Before watching the movie, the reader can think of Katniss as something, but after the movie, it will be hard to visualize another Katniss instead of the actress Jeniffer Lawrence. The film wanted to show Katniss as one person, and the book probably another person. To avoid confusion, I think that sometimes the author needs to show something so that the reader doesn't really go to the point of view the author doesn't want them to go. To wrap it up, I think it was quite interesting to read your questions because they each made me think differently and reflect a little bit more.
ReplyDelete