Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

The Book Persepolis, By Marjie Satrapi, caught my eye right away. Uneducated about the Islamic revolution in 1980, I saw this book and knew I had to read it. Once the book arrived, I was immediately surprised by the book and the fact that it was a graphic novel. However, this really excited me because I had always loved reading graphic novels when I was younger. The book had one of the freshest perspectives on writing that I had read in a while. This has been one of the most interesting Memoirs I have ever read. The Memoir is so powerful because of its ability to telling stories through not just words but also pictures, and how it was able to express certain emotions, in ways ordinary books could not. For example, Satrapi uses the Graphic novel sense of the book to express the emotion that you could not see or empathize with through just reading text. Whether Satrapi decides to express happiness or sadness, Through the novel, she expresses the way she felt personally and also gives you a visual, to help put yourself into her shoes. She also gives the reader new insight into the Islamic Revolution and people who lived in Iran. Many people are quick to judge people, and that comes especially true when talking about people during the Islamic Revolution. She makes the reader understand that the people who had to first-hand witness the Islamic Revolution, are no different than ordinary people, just like the reader and even helps you sympathize with the character. Satrapi does a great job at incorporating western fashion, to help show the reader visually that people from who lived in Iran during the Islamic Revolution are just like any ordinary person. This book blew me away, and I look forward to reading the second part of Satrapi’s Persepolis.

I have taught this book to my tenth grade English students for the past five years, and I believe it has helped to send my former students into society as informed adults with enough perspective to see Iranian people as fellow global citizens, not Middle Eastern enemies. Satrapi wrote the book to inform people about the Islamic Revolution and to give readers an insider perspective. I know that the book was originally written in French, and then later translated to English, which are the main languages of the Western world. This points to her intended audience - Westerners. Satrapi was trying to show the Western world what Iranian people are really like -- not extremists, not radical Muslims - but mostly peace-loving, creative, independently thinking people who value their Persian culture and lifestyle and have suffered greatly for remaining in their homeland in spite of the challenges. Throughout the book, she paints herself as religiously moderate and politically involved, even as a child, and not at all negative towards the West. With images of the Iranian hostage crisis in the back of our minds, it is easy for Americans to assume that all Iranians hate Americans, but this is far from true. Satrapi shows her love for Western culture and music and books with Michael Jackson and Kim Wilde and Iron Maiden. She mostly clearly demonstrates the impact of their suffering with how drastically the loss of her Uncle Anoosh impacted her. She also wants people to have the facts about the revolution as well, which we see in the wealth of historical information integrated into her memoir. I personally believe that Satrapi was very effective in helping society see Iranians differently, mostly from my personal experience. Before reading this book six years ago, I assumed that if the theocracy remains in power, that must mean that the majority of people in Iran must be really religious and anti-West, or else why wouldn't they overthrow their government? This book helped me see that they are really suffering under a different kind of tyranny, and also helped me understand why it happened. She shows why they overthrew the Shah - for freedom from an oppressive government, a government in which she knew that the difference between the social classes caused many people pain, but then she also shows throughout the rest of the book how the Iranian people were manipulated into becoming faithful to an Islamic regime. The serious re-structuring of schools caused great suffering and contributed to the difficulty with changing mindsets. If the religious government controls the schools, then the children are inculcated with the religious ideas, much like how Marjane was initially inculcated with the thought that the Shah was chosen by God. In addition, the Islamic regime ultimately secured their power by uniting the Iranian people in war against a foreign enemy and carrying on the war until the society was so completely devastated, they would not have the energy or desire to cause further revolt of any kind. I think this is an important topic for the Western world to see, as Western relations with Iran affect us in many ways. Our government currently has strict economic sanctions on Iran, which causes our gas prices to go up and impacts us where we feel it the most, our wallets; however, most people do not see the reason behind this, and why the world needs to take note of the tyranny in Iran. In addition, many people here in the United States lump together all of the people in the Middle East under the label of "Arabs" and then furthermore, see them all as extreme Muslims and terrorists, particularly since 9/11. As a student pointed out in class today, the book was published shortly after 9/11, which is likely not a coincidence. In the days after this event, many Americans viewed any Middle Eastern man with a beard or any Middle Eastern woman with a hijab as a terrorist, a threat; yet Marjane paints us a much needed picture of a world so many Americans do not realize exists - a world in which many free spirited Iranian people endure a forced dress code that represents far more oppression than we here in America could ever imagine.

I am an English tutor. Many of the people I help are Arabic. When you deal with any culture, it is inevitable that difficulties will arise due to cultural differences. It is worse, though, when there are political difficulties between your country and theirs. Naturally, both sides are going to have prejudices. To better understand the people I deal with, I have been trying to familiarize myself with the cultures that I come into contact with. This is why I chose this book.

It is a graphic novel. However, though the pictures might attract younger readers, I should warn anyone who is purchasing books for their child that it is probably more appropriate for teens. It depends, of course, on how much parents protect their child and how willing they are to answer questions. Though the book isn't exactly "snuff" (meaning it focuses totally on violence and killing), it doesn't shy away from the violence that the author witnessed or heard about. There is one picture that shows a man urinating on another man (as a form of torture). There are references to torture, dismemberment, and rape. Another picture showed how the army locked a bunch of people inside a movie theater and set fire to it.

All that aside, this is mostly a book about a girl growing up in Tehran, Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The story starts in 1979-1980, when she is ten years old. It concludes when she is fourteen years old (though there is a sequel book after this one). It has a very strong plot and provides interesting tidbits about Islamic culture. Iran has had a tumultuous history that is rather hard to keep track of. However, this was particularly interesting because some of the events were ones I heard about when I was a child growing up. It provides another viewpoint on the same events--such as Saddam Hussein's campaign against Iran. There is also some nostalgia, as the girl had a fascination with American culture of that period. Though some of the things depicted are disturbing--moreso because the book is visual--it has its moments of humor. The author successfully humanizes the characters so you can identify and sympathize with them to some degree.

I did enjoy the book, and I would recommend it to older readers who are interested in learning about other cultures. If you like "coming of age" stories, you will probably like this too. Be warned that it won't always made you feel good, and it may be inappropriate for young people and sensitive people. However, it is a good book--and I plan to keep it, as well as buy the sequel.