2008 Woodie Awards
Persepolis gives new insight through unexpected genre
By: Courtney Hague
Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Features
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How many graphic novels have you ever read? For me the number is very small. I guess first it should be said that graphic novels are a type of comic book; they are longer and more literary than what one would normally think of as comic books, but they do indeed tell their entire story through pictures with dialogue or exposition, which complements those pictures. As scared as you probably are of picking up a graphic novel, it really is worth it.
The one I read most recently, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, details the author's coming of age in Iran during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was the time when the Islamic regime was just coming into power in Iran. Marji, the main character in the novel, is the daughter of two revolutionaries during this time. Her parents oppose this new regime, and the regime that was overturned before it. The family often attends demonstrations and Marji tells the readers of the horrors of the revolution and the war by relating stories of people she knows such as her uncle who was imprisoned and tortured, released many years later, then re-imprisoned and ultimately executed for crimes against the country.
This story details the life of a normal little girl growing up in a culture that is constantly changing. She finds that while it is cool to be "punk," society does not approve of it and her normal pre-teen actions are criminalized. She goes from a non-religious, co-ed school to a religious school where she is required to wear a veil, and the boys and girls are separated from one another. These changes in her school environment clash with the sense of stability she gains from her home where her parents still operate as they had before the Islamic regime came into power.
As confusing as adolescence already is, Marji has it much harder as the society around her changes and contradicts itself. Eventually as the climate in Iran changes from revolution to war, Marji's life becomes much more complicated and the reader sees how the war affects people she knows in every aspect of her life. Eventually her family must decide how best they can live.
I found this work very moving. I laughed with Marji and recalled what it was like to be in middle school, and I cried with her as she lost friends, family and neighbors to the war and emigration. Throughout this graphic novel, Satrapi manages to make this time period in Iran very relatable. She shows us a young girl who could have been in your own seventh grade class, and then shows us the environment in which she lives. This very powerful novel lets us see that people are the same everywhere and that resistance to the government is not limited to any one place.
The one I read most recently, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, details the author's coming of age in Iran during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was the time when the Islamic regime was just coming into power in Iran. Marji, the main character in the novel, is the daughter of two revolutionaries during this time. Her parents oppose this new regime, and the regime that was overturned before it. The family often attends demonstrations and Marji tells the readers of the horrors of the revolution and the war by relating stories of people she knows such as her uncle who was imprisoned and tortured, released many years later, then re-imprisoned and ultimately executed for crimes against the country.
This story details the life of a normal little girl growing up in a culture that is constantly changing. She finds that while it is cool to be "punk," society does not approve of it and her normal pre-teen actions are criminalized. She goes from a non-religious, co-ed school to a religious school where she is required to wear a veil, and the boys and girls are separated from one another. These changes in her school environment clash with the sense of stability she gains from her home where her parents still operate as they had before the Islamic regime came into power.
As confusing as adolescence already is, Marji has it much harder as the society around her changes and contradicts itself. Eventually as the climate in Iran changes from revolution to war, Marji's life becomes much more complicated and the reader sees how the war affects people she knows in every aspect of her life. Eventually her family must decide how best they can live.
I found this work very moving. I laughed with Marji and recalled what it was like to be in middle school, and I cried with her as she lost friends, family and neighbors to the war and emigration. Throughout this graphic novel, Satrapi manages to make this time period in Iran very relatable. She shows us a young girl who could have been in your own seventh grade class, and then shows us the environment in which she lives. This very powerful novel lets us see that people are the same everywhere and that resistance to the government is not limited to any one place.
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