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.

Week Five [COMMENTS] ---[Fi]

In Kelvin's blog, he compared the bottom panels of page 153 and 341: he said, they"are very similar but the atmosphere is different." I agrees with with him; although both bottom panels are about Marjane saying good byes to her family in the airport, the expressions show on her parents face are different. In page 153, the atmosphere was downhearted while the atmosphere in page 341 was filled with content: although her grandma cried, it was "tears of joy."

Surely after Marjane came back from Austria, her personality changeD because she is now an adult who has more experiences compared to 7 or 8 years ago when she was still a child. Therefore the second time she left for France she was content or at least less panic since she was no longer the young Marjane who have never been exposed to the European world, now that she has,she becomes a more determined and strong women who can lead her own life.

Week Five [LITERARY FEATURE HUNT] ---[Fi]

PAGE 268

Marjane changes her expression from the first panel through the fourth panel. Noticeably, it changes from non-chalant to sad to depressed. As her expression changes from panel to panel, the amount of blackness in the back ground becomes more and more: black representing depression.

This is juxtaposition because these four panels are placet side by side creating the change in expression of the protagonist and change in the background colour at the same time.

MORE TMR.

Week Five [Snippets] ---[Fi]

Looking at this panel, it immediately reminds me of 1984. Marjane just got back to her country. She wonders around the streets and was astounded when she sees a big image of a sixty-Fie-foot high Murals presenting Martyrs along with slogans like: "The Martyr is the heart of history." For more than four years of living in Austria, the images that she sees goes on the buildings are advertisements for food or clothing with slogans like "the Best sausages for 20 shillings," rarely any images related to any religion

Comparing this to 1984, this huge image hanging on the building is like the images of big brother: one is a dominant religion in Iran, the other is a and the only party in Oceania which everyone seems to believe. The purpose for both the religion and the party hanging posters everywhere is to constently reminds people to believe that they are, and the only ones who could run the society.
Going back to the characters, obviously Marjane and Winston are both situated in the same position where they are rebellious toward the dominant religion/party and being different from everyone else around them.

MORE TMR

Week Four (Class Act)- Alice

Since my citations needed improvements, I will write the proper way here so I won't make another mistake in the future.

After quotations, the page number has to appear in parenthesis--it can incude the last name of the author also.

Ex. The very first panel that appears in the Persepolis says "[T]his is me when I was 10 years old. This was in 1980" (3) or (Satrapi, 3).

Also, the semi-colons are used to connect sentences that oppose each other, and colons are used to connect the first clause with its explanation.

Week Four (snippet)-Alice

Snippet

Pg 228

This panel is one that illustrates the Viennese students demonstrating against the government.

As you can observe, everyone in this panel has light-coloured hair; except for our protagonist, Marjane Satrapi. Her unique hair colour makes her stand out, while others look similar to each other. This ties in with the important motif of her being an outsider.

Pg 18

The two panels--this one and the one above--are almost identical to each other, with a few minor exceptions. The hair style of the people, the position of their body, and the background of this panel are the exact same with the one above. I think the author is trying to point out that rebellions are the same, regardless of ethnicity, religion and cause.