From beginning to read Persepolis, it was interested in me right away. With the comic graphic novel styles, it made me pleasantly and eagerly to read more and more to find out what would be going to happen next. It helped me understanding and learning about history of Iran, especially during the religious revolution and the war with Iraq.
Marjane shares her memory about her childhood experience during the revolution. She is confused about the religious that she has learnt from school that is conflicted with her parents' point of view in real life. When her father tries to explain the history of the revolution against the King, gradually she understands more about her background. After the King steps down and the new republic government takes over, people start to celebrate and enjoy the new freedom. They wish to have a better life that they have tried so hard to fight against the King. However, in the reality is not true. Under the new rule of Islamic regime dictator, many people, including her classmate and relatives, move to the United State and other countries in order to escape this new fundamentalist regime. Her uncle, Anoosh, is a political prisoner under the King. Under the new control of the government, he is released from the prison and he is executed as the charge of being a Russian spy. In her mind, her uncle is represented for family and love. It is not fair that he has to die, she feels empty and alone to suffer for this loss. By then she does not believe in God anymore (70). During the war, there are million people die. There is one scene Marjane describes the story of her classmate, Pardisse, about her father died during mission in Iraq. After hearing the story, all people are in the class crying to sympathize with her classmate that she endures her pain for the loss of her father during the war (86). Another scene, she witnesses that her neighbor, Neda Baba-Levy, dies during bombing raid in her neighborhood. She uses the black picture to express her suffering and anger against the violence and darkness of war (142). From one scene to another, Marjane carries on her emotional journey from childhood to teenager. By using her own family, as in general for all Iranian people, she tries to illustrate all circumstances that people have gone through from the old government to the new government, and during the Iran Iraq war.
This is the comic graphic novel, there are some scenes that make me laugh when to read over and look at illustrated pictures. There is one evening, when her grandmother, her mother and Marjane are waiting her father for hours. Everyone is so worried that her father may get arrested or killed. I am so anxious about his safety, and wondering that bad thing is probably going to happen to him. Finally he gets home alright and tells everyone a story that he has gone to the hospital to take pictures. The crowd has carried the old man body and called him a martyr. The old man’s widow has stopped them, telling that he has died from cancer. Later all the old woman joined in the crowd to demonstrate against the King. The story makes everyone laughing (32). During the war, foods are low in the country and tensions increase among people. Mali, friend of Marjane’s mother, and her family come to stay in Marjane’s house because the Iraq bombers have destroyed their house. One day in the grocery store, one woman finds a can of kidney beans and says that they will make chili. Marjane comments, “We’ll forget about the flatulence factor” (92). One of the boys asks what flatulence is, then they start laughing so hard.
There is another thing I learn from this novel that the tradition of Islamic religion. In the twentieth century, Iran has been influenced western culture. There are two groups of people: one group still keeps traditional culture and another follows modern style. One day Marjane’s mother is assaulted on the street by fundamentalist because her mother does not wear the veil around her head. Her mother thinks that she should follow the rule in order to avoid this problem. Then women are required to over their heads in public. Marjane describes the way people dressed became an ideological sign. For fundamentalist woman, she wears the long veil that covers the whole body, so in public people can see her face only. For modern woman, she shows her opposition to the regime by letting a few strands of hair show. In the same manner, there are two sorts of men to appear in public. For the fundamentalist man, his face is covered with beard and his shirt is hanging out. For the progressive man, his face is shaved with or without mustache and his shirt is tucked in (75).
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