Literary Analysis #4- Sophia S.

Persepolis is a book about the a young girl, Marjane Satrapi who is the author of the book. The book is about her growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Specifically during and after the Islamic Revolution. The year is the 1970's and the 80's, the book already starts with girls having to wear veils. Even foreign religious schools have to wear them and they also have to change their whole school lifestyle. Separating boys from girls. From the beginning we know that Marjane is a very imaginative girl. She believes she is the prophet from God. She believes God visits her every night, and she also believes everything she is told. Which is a big problem at the time because of the Shan and the revolution and their are many different sides of the story. For example in school she was told that the king  was chosen by God. ""As for me I love the king, he was chosen by God." "Who told you that?" "My teacher and God himself."... "God did not chose the king." "He did so! It's written on the first page of our schoolbook. "That's what they say."" (pg. 19). This is a conversation between Marjane and her father. The book never said her age but from the drawing she looks like she is around 7. Which is a very young age to know about war and politics. At least for me I remember that I would play tag and not have one worry. I learned about war and current events when I was 9 or 10. But I did not learn the true meaning of war until I was 11 . Because my parents thought it was to complex and gory so they left it to my teachers who taught me. And even until today the art of war is still confusing to me. So, for Marjane it must have been super confusing all she knows is what her teachers tell her, and they have to tell her about what the king says and those are full of lies. So you can imagine being a child at the time. Do you think that children should learn about war and current events at such a young age?

Another thing about that scene between her father is that is shows from the present to the past. Maus was really clear about when it was the son talking to the father about the story, and when it was actually the story being told. But in Persepolis the years are all over the place. All I know for sure about the story is that she is very young through the story. Because she has a very active imagination and she also looks very young. So the book is not in a chronological order in fact it is very confusing for the reader. At times it has that Maus technique with someone telling their backstory but other times is that all over the place. The book is told in Marjane's point of view (who is the author), but like I said their are many stories and sometimes it shifts to the storytellers point of view. So that part really reminds me of Maus and makes me wonder if all autobiography graphic novels are like this? If they tell multiple stories and are not in chronological order. But there are not that many autobiography graphic novels out there because they are all usually very serious and mature topics, and some people think that it is insensitive that they are drawing about it. Like I said that it is a mature topic and also many stories told, and many dates told. So I think for those reasons the author chose to draw it. Because it would have been much more confusing without images. Also the images, for example the ones where God comes into her room helps us picture how she sees God. And also the image of the war helps us see how Marjane saw it when she was little. Some of the images are graphic like the images of the prisoners of war being tortured. Overall the images help us see how the character used to think like, which a very young naive girl  who is confused because there are so many different arguments at the time.

This was how Iran was at the time,you can see why Marjane was so confused.
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