Week Six: Snippet (Alice)

Snippet

Page 316

This page describes the process of Marjane and Reza's wedding. Although it should be a joyous event, Marjane does not look happy at all, except for the first panel. When she and Reza got crumbs of sugar loaves sprinkled on their heads to bring joy and prosperity, Marjane is pouting. Also, she is looking away from Reza in the fourth panel, which suggests that she is doubting if the marriage will indeed start out on a sweet note like the ritual bids them. Furthermore, as Marjane is following her mother and answering various people's questions, she puts on a mask (psst! a motif!), a fake smile on her lips. Finally, the last panel on this page--showing her walking down a dark corridor--seems to pmply that her marriage will turn out to be a dark passage, and a lonely one, too. This turns out to be true in the end of the book, because Marjane accuses Reza of being a hermit: "you never want to go out! If I have to go everywhere alone, what's the point of living together?" (Satrapi, 319) What's more, they never look at each other during the their wedding! This observation led me to believe that this entire page is full of carefully-disguised forshadowing details.

Week Six: comment on Harroop's blog ---(Alice)

Harroop brought out an interesting question worth keeping in mind while reading through Persepolis: "Where does our identities come from?" She thought that they derive from our heritage, our peers and some from the media. I definitely agree with this, because Satrapi spends most of her time in Vienna struggling to find out who she is. When the question is applied on her, Satrapi's "identity" has an Iranian ancestry and European friends and abundance of books; but her source of information of current events are weak because News was censored in Iran and she didn't want to hear the news of her mother country when she was abroad.

While pondering about this question, I was naturally led to the motif of her being an outsider. Then it became a sort of a chain reaction--questions following questions. If indeed our identities have roots, then do people with the same background have the same identitiy? That being the case, in a world of 6 billion people, can a true "outsider" exist?

I found these questions very complex. There are other factors to consider, like genetics and environment, and also statistics. My knee-jerk reaction to this question was to say yes to both of these questions, though they are not completely true. I think as long as we are humans that share many similar characteristics (physical and mental), our identities can be identical to an extent. The variation might depend on individual's experience; I do nto believe anyoneone can do the same thing and feel exactly the same about it; riding a rollercoaster, for example. Some people like it, some are scared of it. If the hypothesis, "our backgrounds make up our identities" was true, and people knew about it, then we would have had tons of einsteins and live in a super-developed world.

Week SIX! [snippit] FION

In page 304, Satropi tries to tell the reality that was happening in Iran: although people are are under strict laws which restrict them to do many things, for example partying and putting on make up, people still do it on their own time. "Are the laws effective?" this may be a question that Satropi wants to ask us.

As you can see, the majority of this panel depicts the real life of the people while only a portion of it shows the official representation of Iran. This signifies the majority of these people actually enjoys freedom, as a matter of fact, only the minority obeys to the strict freedom-less rules under theocracy. Also the photo of the official representation of Iran is in front of the partying atmosphere background, seems like it's telling us that these laws are very superficial just like the photo is(in the surface). Underneath the photo, there are many people who enjoys themselves and to do what is against to the laws. So, are the laws effective? Seems like a no. The more extreme the laws get, the more the people go against it.

Week Five--comments (Alice)

Comments

Manny mentions an interesting panel on page 257. In the last panel of the page, Satrapi is lonely and seems to melt into the background. We talked about a similar panel on page 169, where she is again, lonely and blends in with the background. If drawings can have a motif, I think this might be it.

Week Five--Snippets (Alice)

Recurring style of drawing

When Satrapi wishes to show an inner conflict or another side of a person, she shades in half of the character's face. This can be found in few places throughout the graphic autobiography.

For example, these panels on page 25...

This page talks about Satrapi's grandfather, who was victim of a political war. Satrapi's mother is reflecting on her family's agonizing past. I think this panel shows her that she was impacted indirectly--seeing her father suffer must have hurt her also.

The young Satrapi on the right side, just realized the two sides of her nation's history. Children her age are optimistic and are taught only the good side of things; however, the moment the panel is dipicting, her utopia shattered. Her conflict reflects the bipolar view of Iran.

Page 146

"All night long, I thought of that phrase: "to die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society." Niloufar was a real martyr, and her blood certainly did not feed our society's veins."

Again, Satrapi's face is partially covered in black. Conflict here can be the meaning of the phrase. The propaganda doesn't match reality. She is confused as to which one is right.

page 328

Here, their conflict is their unstable relationship. Prior to their mythology project, they fought daily; during the project, they never fought, not once. Even though they seem to be working, I think they are really thinking about where this relationship is headed. The white side represents all the happy memories--what brought them together and the time they spent working together--and the black side, are all the fierce skirmishes they had.

This pattern in drawing makes the readers understand Satrapi's feelings, even if they are not described as words. Its recurrence helps it become clearer, because readers can find other panels that imply the same thing.

Week Five--Literary Feature Hunt (Alice)

literary feature hunt

Pg. 41

I was just flipping through the book... and found this panel, which I have mentioned already as ironic, to be a satire as well.

The definition of a satire in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary is described as such:

satire
satire /ˈsæt.aɪəʳ/ US /-aɪr/
noun [C or U]
a way of criticizing people or ideas in a humorous way, or a piece of writing or play which uses this style.

I now believe this panel is not only ironic, but also satirical. It implies that the Shah was only pretending to be "trying out democracy"; he really didn't try at all. Surely, he didn't judge the prime ministers by their physique--but they were chosen by his standards.

I believe that there are many other political and non-political satires, as Satrapi, the author and the protagonist, was a rebel since she was ten years old.