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.