Poem in relationship to Persepolis[FION]

I have chosen the poem called "Much Madness is divinest Sense" by Emily Dickinson and relate this to Persepolis.

Much Madness is divinest Sense-
To a discerning Eye-
Much Sense-the starkest Madness-
‘Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail-
Assent- and you are sane-
Demur- you’re straightway dangerous-
And handled with a Chain-

To begin this, I will talk about the poem itself first.

To understand this poem better, we need to know the reason for Emily Dickinson to write this poem. Dickinson spent most of her life time in her birth place, Amherst, Massachusetts. It was known that she had "a dictatorial husband and a tyrannical father." Since she didn't make contact with the outside world, much of her knowledge of the outside world comes from the books she read. For a year, Dickinson was sent to a school called South Hadley Female Academy; however, because she didnt' adapt to the new environment and the strictly religious atmosphere, she returned home, and gradually step away from social activities. After a few more years, she started to confine herself in her father's house and didnt' leave that house even until her death in 1886.

No one exactly know when this poem was written, but it was guess that "Much Madness is divinest Sense"was written in 1862. This was during the nineteenth century which woman had many limitations. Many believed that this poem "demonstrates an anger and battle against the limits imposed by the authoritarian male upon the nineteenth century intellectual female."

Relationships.
“Much Madness is Divinest Sense- / To a discerning Eye-." From these two lines, I think, Dickinson is not only rebelling against the men who make the rules which lessens the status of women in the society, but also against the women who blindly accepted them. Just like in Persepolis where every woman needs to wear a veil, although obviously, it is an unfair rule to women, most of them obeyed to it. Like what Dickinson was referring to, society was "madness" however some women sees it as "divines sense" because they dont' have "discerning eyes."

‘Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail-

Notice that Emily Dickinson capitalized "Majority" and "All," maybe she is trying to put it as a remider that "majority" and "all" didn't truely had the power. Therefore "Majority" and "All" in this case, only applies to men "as All, prevail." This was the society Marjane was in, where men had all the power.

Assent- and you are sane-(1
Demur- you’re straightway dangerous-(2
And handled with a Chain-(3

1) If you agreed with the "Marjority" you'll be fine.
2)If you disagreed with the "Marjority" then you'll be dangerous even if you are right.
3)When you disagreed, you have to face the consequences.

This was Iran.

One day at school, the teacher said that since Islamic republic was found, they no longer have political prisoners. Marjane corrected her teacher by saying that islamic regime does ordered execution and she gave the example of Anoosh which infuriated the teacher. At last she got kicked out of the school: reason being is that she told the truth.

Class act Week 6[FION]

This panel was brought up by Mr.McGuigan.
This the first time that Marjane speaks up to the readers telling exactly what is in her mind unlike the panels from the previous pages where she only makes eye contacts. With only eye contacts the readers can only infer what is Marjane is trying to bring out through the panel.

In this panel, Marjane said "we confronted the regime as best we could," meaning she is not satisfied with the rules and laws by the government in her country; this surely shows her rebellious attitude as if she is saying "this book is mine, I can do what ever I want."


In class Kelvin also brought up a very interesting idea of the cover where the main characters in Persepolis are looking at a person beside them, which forms a cycle. I think this cycle starts with Marjane's dad--> then Marjane's mom--> Marjane's Grandma--> LIttle Marjane--> Anoosh--> Big Marjane. The ending point of this cycle is big Marjane since this cover shows the important people in her life who affected or influenced her to become who she is(the end point to the circle!). These people in the cover therefore reflect to the growing process and experiences of Marjane Satropi.

Week Six: Literary Feature Hunt (Alice)

Literary Features Hunt
panel transitions

Today, I thought I had spent too little time trying out the literary features exclusive for graphic novels, so I tried to find the different types of panel transitions that Ms.Brownrigg taught us. I only had to skim through the end of the book to realize that it was literally everywhere. They were used in wide ranges to describe and emphasize unique moments in her life.

The first one I found was "moment-to-moment transition":

Pg. 304

These three consecutive panels (and gutters in between) show the growing number of students who wanted the freedom to draw people without veils or without having to "draw [a] man while looking at the door" (300). The gutters naturally weave the panels together to actually visualize the increasing crowd. Since it shows a subject's passage of time, I believe it is a moment to moment trannsition.

The next one is "action-to-action transition".

Pg. 307~309

The two pages have no narration or speech bubble, which is unique throughout the entire Persepolis. Since it only shows moving figures, it is an action-to-action transition, no doubt.

Following it is the"subject-to-subject transition".

Pg. 320

Again, the three consecutive panels. They each show a person's opinion on the Iraq attacking Kuwait. The passage of time is minute, or the panels might be depicting the same moment.

Finally, the "scene-to-scent transition".

Pg. 154

I immidiately found the blank page that Fion mentioned in one of her posts. If it is assumed as a gigantic gutter, then the last panel on page 153 and the first panel on page 155 can be seen as a scene-to-scene transition, because on the former panel, Marjane is in Iran; then suddenly she is living in Austria. Ms.Brownrigg described this transition as "transporting the reader across "significant distances of time and space." (16th slide of Comics-Vocab ppt.) I think the panels and the blank page fits into that definition nicely.