1) After returning to Iran Marjane sees multiple shrinks because she doesn't know how to deal with her feelings of being a "Westerner in Iran" and "an Iranian in the West." She seems to feel guilty about avoiding the war and living safely in Europe, while at the same time she doesn't want to diminish her own feelings of loneliness and suffering from being separated from her family and subjected to abuse while she was away. What are some of the effects holding this in had on her? Was it ever necessary for her to go to Europe when most of her friends and family ended up surviving? Did leaving Iran cause more damage than good? (Think about why she left specifically).
2) Quote on pg 301
"When you run, your behind makes movements that are... how do you say... obscene!"
"WELL THEN DON'T LOOK AT MY ASS!"
This is a funny quote but a lot of serious issues are covered comically in this comic.
"Why is it that I, as a woman, am expected to feel nothing when watching these men with their clothes sculpted on by they, as men, can get excited by two inches less of my head-scarf?" Marjane says this on page 297. As Satrapi has said in an interview that was posted on this blog before, not everything in this book is exactly true. Do you think Marjane really felt brave enough to ask this question? And, like she said earlier in the book, every religion has its extremists. Why do the ones in control of Iran target women and not notice what men are doing? The veil is a huge motif in this story, what do you think it means to Marjane and her family versus some of the extremists?
3) Marjane at the end of the book moves to France and looking her up on wikipedia I think it says she is still there and has never moved back. Considering how much she hated Austria, what do you think were her motives in moving to France for good and why do you think it was different this time around? Is this end of this story satisfying in that way? Did this comic have a traditional story with a climax? What was it?
I think that Marjane was truly having an identity crisis. I do not believe that these people could help her; while she is an Iranian she is not of this Iran. She did not fit into Austria because she could not relate to those people either. I think that what she learned when she returned to Iran is that she had to learn to be herself, and while she probably didn't tell that official to "not look at her ass," she probably did feel and think that.
ReplyDeleteIn her interview she states that this book was not written to be a political statement, but how can this not be a political statement. The entire book is basically a political statement whether she intended it or not.
In the end I believe that she was able to make a life for herself in France because one she spoke the language while she did not speak German. I also believe that she decided that while she was from Iran she certainly wasn't an Iranian as the dictates of the current Iran would be. She referred to herself as Persian several times and I believe that is how she learned to separate herself from the war torn history of her past.
Marjane is at least a free thinker that would never have been able to write or express herself in Iran...her parents were right to send her away and encourage her to never return.
I'm going to go on a slight tangent here: I agree with your point that Marjane was going through an identity crisis.
DeleteShe tried going to those different Psychotherapist but no one could help her. I'm surprised the medicine she was finally given didn't work better for her. Though, the suicidal thoughts and actions are side effects of most antidepressants. She didn't know any better and therefore gave in to the feelings she was induced by. But at the same time, if she hadn't of hit bottom like she did and was given medicines that truly made her stable again, her rebound into a new woman would of been very different if not done at all.
So that was my thought on her depression period that was triggered when you mentioned her identity crisis. I feel her identity crisis was what made her depression so much worse once she was finally back in her homeland with her family.
1. After Marjane is expelled from one school for (accidentally) striking the principle and gets in trouble at her next school for contradicting her religion teacher, her parents have a talk with her. Her father tells her that "Considering the person you are and the education you've received, we thought that it would be better if you left Iran." Marjane had received a somewhat progressive education, since her parents made an effort to send her to French schools. It seems her parents are also worried about her outspoken and rebellious characteristics, which would make it particularly dangerous for her to be in Iran. The impression I got was that Marjane's parents didn't want her to be stifled in such an oppressive environment, but rather go to a safer and more lenient environment where she could learn and grown. In this way, I think sending her away from Iran was a good choice, or at least the best choice in a difficult situation. There is no way that her parents could have foreseen the difficulties Marjane had while she was in Austria.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a shame that Marjane had to face the racism that she did while living abroad. I thought this aspect of her time in Austria was ironic, because she left Iran to seek out a place where she could be herself and where attitudes would hopefully be more open-minded and progressive. Although not everyone treated her poorly, there were definitely those with very archaic ideas about “good” races and “bad” races of people. I can definitely see why Marjane would be depressed after all of the struggles she endured when she lived in Austria, and why she would go see several therapists. Her failed relationship, her loneliness and isolation, and her time living on the streets obviously weighed heavily on her and to make matters worse she felt that she could not tell anyone about what happened to her.
2. I think Marjane makes some excellent points about the unfairness of women being targeted more than men for things like wearing the wrong clothes or their head scarves being too short. As she points out, the men are not getting in trouble for having haircuts or wearing tight clothes, but the women are watched very carefully and reprimanded for any slight violation. I think that it was very brave of Marjane to speak up and risk punishment for speaking her mind. I also think it was admirable that she was able to use logic to defend her point - she is right that the double standard doesn’t make sense.
The idea of women bearing the burden of responsibility for both the way they behave and the way men behave is definitely not isolated to Iran. In the US, women are told to behave and dress decently to avoid being raped by men. This attitude is as widespread as it is illogical.
3. It doesn’t really surprise me that Marjane ended up in Paris. She grew up attending French schools and her parents always tried to get her a French education - I assumed because they thought it would be more progressive than one she would receive from an Iranian school. I may be wrong, but I also believe Paris is one place which allows people to become citizens but also maintain their citizenship in their home country - a dual citizenship. Aside from that, Paris is a beautiful city; I wouldn’t mind living there, that’s for sure!
Persepolis
ReplyDeleteI could never imagine myself having to go through such an identity crisis. Having lived in Europe, Marjane was able to feel the freedom that she always heard about, but having returned back to Iran, she began feeling as if she didn’t belong. Compared to her friends in Iran, Marjane had experiences that they never had and this difference in experience created a large gap of understanding. In the scene where Marjane and her friends talk about her time in Europe, we see Marjane bringing up her sex life and having her friends who seem so “western” themselves, still judge her as a whore for being different. This interaction with people her own age sparks her movement away from Iran in both mentality and physicality. She finally sees that she is not really apart of their world anymore. When going to therapy, Marjane felt that she wasn’t being listened to well enough. Nobody seemed to understand her and this lead to her last hope being drugs. Seeing little way out and not being able to tell people about her feelings, Marjane feels like the only way to ever be happy again is to die. Her attempted suicide ultimately leads her to finally accepting her place in society and she makes the best of it from then on. I feel as if it was necessary for her to go to Europe. Her parents understood that it was dangerous at that time of her trip and they only wanted her to be safe. Yeah, she came back home and her family had been fine, but it was an important time for her and her parents. Marjane grew up in a place where she had the freedom to enjoy life and this sculpted her into the person she wanted to be. The person that feels strong enough to strive for change. Europe was sort of a testing ground for her future.
Marjane returning home let her experience the possibility of living a real life in Iran once again. Having gotten married and ultimately failing at it, she was able to give life a try. Her getting an education let her explore the world around her and her own potential. In the end, Marjane finally moved to France and out of Iran for the last time. Moving back to Europe this time was different because she herself was different. Her experience back home in Iran shaped her future goals and who she wanted to be in the world. The first time she moved away, she was too young to understand this life she wanted. She had so little experiences in such a society and life that she made mistakes she could have fixed herself. Her being unable to survive in Europe led her to needing her family once again. Marjane finally moving to France, she knew that she didn’t need her family anymore. I feel like the climax of this piece is Marjane living on the streets. It was so surprising a life changing. I wasn’t sure what to expect happen next. This climactic event shaped what Marjane really wanted which was a second chance with her family back in Iran which would shape her decision to finally leave home once again.
ReplyDeleteAddressing question two:
The veil is interesting with Marjane because it’s a visual symbol of her submission (I say this word specifically because she has no desire to wear the veil other than necessity) yet ideologically she is completely at odds with this and other repressive laws concerning outward displays of self-expression for women. She wears makeup and jewelry for much of the book at all ages and yet at a point must give in and give up at least part of her resistance in this aspect.
This scene is really enlightening because even this basic human capacity to move quickly out of necessity is deemed sexual by the guard not because running is a suggestive act, but simply because her female body in its natural state of movement is inherently suggestive to the onlooker. There is no motive or intention in the least on Marjane’s end—and in reality she is fully covered—she didn’t cut any corners in this scene—yet she is unlawful because she exists as a sexual object.
What she yells feels very justified and I think there’s a part in every modern reader that cheers her on, yet I cringed when I read it because though she is right it was such a risky move. She is clever and is able to get out of a lot of tough spots, but she doesn’t necessarily have the power here. Long term, she had to move away to be able to enjoy ideas like that, and I think the veil in this book is another visual reminder that she, like other similar minded Iranian women, are in some degree forced into submission.
Addressing question three:
It’s interesting to think of the way that class plays into how this story ended. All of Marjane’s family seems to know and understand that she can never live out her life in Iran—the two are not compatible because Marjane is not a conformist by any stretch and at every interval in the book we see her resisting law at great risk to herself and others. In young adulthood she manages, but this would hardly be sustainable long-term, and if she did she would be abandoning a large part of the identity that she worked so hard to cultivate her entire life (following examples from her Uncle and Grandmother for example). But it’s sad in a way, because Marjane could afford this luxury of leaving to Europe. Her family used to be well off I assume, with the Cadillac, though I do know they downgrade later on, but what about an educated family at odds with the oppressive laws who cannot move—is there fate a compromise of personal identity, or prosecution?
I agree about the veil and I was definitely cheering her on when she stood up to the guard who yelled out to her. I think that Marjane makes some really good arguments against the dress standards for women in Iran. She really highlights the ridiculousness of the rules in the scene you mentioned where she is running and the guard tells her it is obscene or when she points out that it doesn't make sense for her school to prohibit wide-legged pants when they cover the body even more than tapered pants. Also, something she said really stood out to me - her theory that the regime was trying to distract women from their oppression by keeping their minds on making sure they follow all of the rules set in place. That's a pretty scary thought, because I think when people decide to follow laws they like to think there is a good reason for doing so - not because the government is trying to keep them in line.
Delete1) Who can say if it was necessary or not to leave. Maybe her father would've died on a trip to go get Marjane some medicine if she got sick or something if she stayed then they both died? Parallel multiverse string theory could make things so much worse had she stayed. But I understand your point, either way she was doomed to take emotional damage, but I do agree leaving has been detrimental to her emotional well being.
ReplyDelete2) I particularly love the "If hair is so sensual then you'd better shave your mustache" line as well. Yea I've thought about Satrapi's truthfulness in this book a lot and due to all her outbursts and streaks of luck I don't really believe all that she's said. Especially because of her point about the veils mainly being there to keep people thinking about their physical appearance and not their hindered liberties. I don't think she would have asked these questions that would have caused outbursts like this, but it's possible of course. It's not my life anyway so who knows.
3) She did need to leave just like she did before so I agree and won't argue that, and Austria didn't offer her sanctuary anyway so France seems like a safe pick to move to, and I'm happy it worked out there. In terms of ending the book like that, no it's not satisfying in the least. The unprofessional untied ending leaves much to be desired. The book worked before because we could relate to the characters and feel for them when events occurred, but the ending just seemed to stop. It really felt like Satrapi got to this point and said to herself "I guess I've run out of things to tell you". The end. It wasn't traditional at all in the sense that it was not cared for. Maybe never seeing her grandmother again could've been built up to instead of just being dropped on us as if she wanted to point that out before running out of paper to draw on.
Marjane's secular education and western or contemporary upbringing made her moving to Europe the best decision. She could express herself and learn things more freely there without risking being hurt or killed by a war. Her fight with the nuns and the doctor she was living with was unfortunate, but it was better than becoming a victim of the war. She learned a lot and had perspective that was unique but for some reason she felt was inadequate compared to her friends. Marjane's alienation was interesting as it seemed she was both resentful and relieved to have to follow the Iranian social law again. After her identity crisis and depression she began to find herself and appreciate her own strength. Her strength was in her ability to reflect upon her culture from multiple perspectives.This is what probably drove her to want to become an artist as she became happy again and started to work on furthering her education.
ReplyDeleteMarjane is a very curious person about many things and that makes her sensitive to stifling education environments. This is why she chooses to speak out against things that are making her suffer most within the forum of the classroom. When she yelled at that official it was the first time she stood up for herself outside of the classroom and it was a powerful moment in many ways. The veil is frustrating in simplified cartoon form alone, making it more difficult to recognize characters. In my used copy of the book someone has written 'look the same' in the very second frame on the first page. To have to conform and become unrecognizable for someone who was curious about so many things and wanted to express themselves would be maddening as well as depressing. The veil is antiquated and obsolete and encourages a feeling of doubt in one's fellow people and women especially. Education not being well enough structured to provide people with a feeling of individual insight or political independence probably cause the elections to fail and in desperation the people of Iran had a socio-cultural atavism.
Persepolis was as much about struggle as it was about growth and change both personally and on political and social levels. At the end of the story Marjane had become who she wanted to be and that meant she wasn't insecure or worried about finding a place anymore. She could go where she would feel the most free and have the most opportunity, so she went to Austria. She had seen the end of the war in Iran and what little there was left to be offered for her, so she was happy to leave.
2) Marjane addresses this issue multiple times throughout the book. One explanations she gave that I found compelling was that when people are fearful about how they look and always on edge to avoid getting arrested for trivial things, they aren't worried about things in the bigger picture. The whole situation seems so hopeless, even if you did dissent they would just jail you or kill you. Any group that operates under the extremist platform is probably not really adhering to their own religion as strictly as they would like you to think they are. The “Guardians of the Revolution” are just concerned with money and power, religion has nothing to do with it other than give the poor and uneducated something to rally around. It's like when a politician tries to squeeze past some really terrible bill with a title like “Save the Children Act.” If you go against it, you look like a jerk. The Islamic Regime just took the name of Islam, and used it to intimidate the people.
ReplyDelete3) It was really compelling to me when I finished the book just how many different versions of Marjane we have seen. Childhood Marjane is very different from the version that moved to Austria, who is very different from the Marjane that came back to Iran. Staying in Iran for a few years had the same effect. I loved Marjane's dad in this book, he may be my favorite character. My favorite part was when he told Marjane and Reza his 3 stipulations for getting married- let my daughter get a divorce if she wants one, please get a divorce if you do want one, and get the hell out of Iran. Everyone knows that the story is going to end with her Marjane leaving Iran, that's why it's kind of anticlimactic when she does. There isn't really a climax, but there also really isn't an overarching narrative. The whole book was made up of little stories with common themes throughout. I think it was a satisfying ending, although I would love to see another couple of chapters. I'd be interested to know what she thinks the present and future looks like for Iran.
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ReplyDeleteSo, when Marjane was in Austria, she was pretty much on her own. Not by any wrong thoughts her parents had, but because Europe was the best place for her. She was raised to be a strong woman, and her parents also instilled in her a very educated opinion. They didn’t agree with sending her away, but they also didn’t agree that Iran was the best place for her, she would lose in the end. She finds herself stepping away from the friends that she had before she left for Europe because they have been trapped in a repressive society and don’t know how the world works. She suffered in Vienna because she lived among people who didn’t trust her. What I am saying is that if she hadn’t gone to Europe in the first place, she probably would’ve been thrown in jail, tortured, or even worse killed because she didn’t agree with anything the regime did. If she didn’t learn how the rest of the world saw Iran, she also wouldn’t have become the strong person she is by the end of the book. It also depends on what your definition of surviving is: the fact that most of her family physically survived is one thing, but look what toll it took on her family. Her mother’s hair went gray early, and her father doesn’t seem to be the open-minded and spirited person he was at the beginning of the book.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think she was brave enough to ask the question. A question like that would definitely catch the attention of the regime and ultimately land her in jail. Women are the ones that are supposed to be submissive to the man, however before the regime, it appears that many women led lives similar to those of most Western societies. It’s a way to exert control, it gave men the power in their world. The more indoctrinated and controlled people are, the more unlikely they are to rebel against those in control.
Marjane seems to come from an upper class family, they are not rich, but they are not poor either. She and her mother see the way that the school and the regime treated the poor when their housekeeper’s son was given the key and told that if he died in the name of God and for Iran that he would get into Heaven and have lots of women for himself. Doesn’t this sound like the very thing that is believed Al-Qaida told all of their recruits if they participated in bombings and terrorist actions? They didn’t believe they were just being brainwashed into being Martyrs. If this story was told from a different class perspective, Marjane would seem like a spoiled little rich girl with spoiled rich girl problems. If you look at it that way, its seems very similar to the attitude that the Nazi party instilled into most citizens before the start of WWII. They made people think that the Jews were the ones making them poor.
The veil is a symbol of oppression to Marjane and her family, specifically her mother. It didn’t make sense to them to wear the veil in order protect them from men’s perverted eyes. They didn’t wear it before the revolution and war, they were free to be themselves and wear what they wanted.
She was a divorced woman with no ties to her country. She didn’t agree with the regime’s actions and she saw their tyranny first hand when her co-worker drew the Rapunzel story with a man with a beard. They arrested him for inadvertently making fun of the law and regime. He was tortured and let go, but she could see how oppressive they were. If she was going to survive and live her life how she wanted, she was going to have to leave Iran. She realized it. I thought the ending was a little short. She had explained all of these other things and events throughout the book in great detail, and then all of a sudden she’s ready to leave on a visitor’s visa for France, and then moves there permanently because she can’t go back. It was like all of this build up and then poof she’s back in Europe.
I don’t put it past Marjane. I think she really did say that. It’s hard to tell what things happened or didn’t happen as she says they did. The character she has created would be one to say those things. She has always been the outcast, the one who thinks differently. It would be interesting to know what parts are accurate and which were embellished. But at the same time, it really doesn’t matter. The story was conveyed well and we easily fell in love with the character Marjane and all the little things she did.
ReplyDeleteI feel the veil signifies how traditional you are. Marjane was everything opposite of a traditionalist but tried her best to play the part when in public. She tried to get by with a lot of things in public, the makeup, the painted nails, the veil not quite on just right. It was her way to trying to stick it to the system. Marjane thought this was an important part to point out since she emphasized it a lot throughout the story. Many times, she was sent home to change, or take makeup off. That repetitiveness was giving emphasis to Marjane’s true feelings about the veil. Even her grandmother hated the veil. She would ask Marjane as soon as she walked in, “why don’t you take that thing off your head. Isn’t it suffocating you?” Marjane is probably the way she is because her family is the same.
1) I think that she specifically left because her parents essentially made her leave by setting up all of the arrangements. The family surviving in retrospect makes you question if her leaving was necessary, but we are not fully aware of what went on when she was in Europe. Her identity was questioned by everyone and that eventually made it turn to question herself. This confusion that seemed to hold Marjane probably pushed her to keep moving until she found a place where she thought she fit.
ReplyDeleteWhat she did not know is that she wasn't going to find any place where she fit in, as long as she was carrying around her burdens. The medication wasn't going to help her it was just going to make her numb to the world and accept it. This did not fix the problem her being ready to leave her family at the end fixed the problem. She did not second guess herself, which is something she did her whole life. I can't blame her for that because she wanted to learn the truth. Anyone who seeks the truth about life earns my respect.
3) If someone finds peace in a place then they should not be quesitoned by anyone. Life and love carry our bodies and minds to distant places that we would never expect to end up. I think her leaving to go to France at the end of the book is a play on the romantic aspect that France upholds. Things with her husband not working out could have possibly freed her mind and conscious enough to make a change.
I think that the end of the book may be looked at as disappointing, but I look at it as her finding closure. If she didn't document her time and present it to us perhaps she found that peace that she needed in her life. She moved on from telling her story and focused on living out new events to build another book. Perhaps we will hear from her, but I hope we don't because that means she's happy living.
1. If Marjane hadn't left Iran, she would likely have gotten herself into some very real trouble. The rest of her family managed to maintain a low profile, where she had a tendency to cause problems with the religious authorities. That said, her loneliness in Austria made her pine for home before eventually leaving Iran for good. It also gave her an open eye into what the rest of the world thought of her people, giving her the sense that she did not belong anywhere.
ReplyDelete2. It seems to me that Marjane has a tendency to react less out of bravery and more out of anger. Her responses are often emotional reactions to people who she feels have affronted her. In the more extreme styles of Islam, women are treated as little more than sinful objects to tempt righteous men from Allah's path. This is why men are targeted less than men in the idea of looks.
3. I don't believe that this story had a traditional style climax, but autobiographies often have no need for that. Her story does have a sort of unsatisfying ending, if you ask me. Real life seldom does. It is interesting to me that she decided to end on the death of her grandma, lifting it up as a sacrifice to her being able to start her new life in France.
I absolutely do not believe that leaving Iran did more damage than good. Ultimately i think Marjane's outspoken, blunt rebellious nature would have caused her to be targeted at some point or another, and despite most everyone else she knew surviving, i doubt she would have. I think her issues which drove her to the shrink stemmed less from the issues she was actually discussing and more from the decision she had to make between being either an Iranian or a Westerner. She had to choose an old life, or a new one, and that decision caused a schism in her consciousness which is ultimately the reason she was at the shrink. The final nail in the coffin of her old life was the divorce from Reza, as this was her attempting to force her old life to fit again, and when she finally decided it didnt, and she tore it all away, she was free of the issue, and decided to be a westerner, and left Iran for good.
ReplyDeleteThis quote definitely covers some hefty subjects. The veil is seen as a symbol of oppression i think by both the women and the extremists (though the extremists would never use such a word). For the women it is a clear and blatant symbol of oppression though for the extremists they create this oppression under the pretense of protecting the women and the women's purity. I doubt Marjane actually asked such a question outloud, im sure the question burns brightly in the mind of every women shackled to a the veil.
I'm not sure about the climax or where that was, but i think the move to France came from the clarity which her return home gave her. I think in Austria she was shedding her old skin, and becoming a new creature in her freedom, with this however came some ugly stages, where she was going wild, and turning her back entirely on her old life. However moving to France she had the clear understanding that she could build her new life atop her old life, and accept the lessons and the absolutes she had always held, in going forward into her new found freedom in France. I found the end very satisfying because she was finally able to end her rebellion and simply begin to exist in her freedom, and to exist in a way which was both true to herself but dignified (just as her grandmother had told her to)
Satrapi does an excellent job of characterizing herself as human, which adds a great deal of depth to her memoir. She’s willing to show herself in a less than flattering light multiple times, and without these and other moments of weakness it would’ve been much more difficult to take her reflections seriously during her stints with psychiatrists. A lot her problems are centered around her sense of belonging, and this carries over into her willingness to communicate. One can’t help but find it ironic that the girl who was convinced she was a prophet had so much difficulty articulating her feelings and problems to others. Bottling up her feelings of isolation only exacerbated the problem; the less willing she was to divulge her feelings, the harder it would be to connect with others. I think it’s difficult to say whether her time in Europe was necessary, simply because we can’t establish with any certainty how her time in Iran might have been. The one basis I might use for this would be how her childhood friends behave when she finally returns. Air-headed, quasi-brainwashed, they make a good argument for how the regime’s oppression can subtly alter the thinking and behavioral patterns of individuals. For my part, I feel like Satrapi’s time in Austria was integral to her developmental transformation, where as a teenager it provided her the freedom to fully grow into herself, and acquire the outsider perspective that defines her.
ReplyDeleteWithout knowing the extent to which Satrapi embellished her life story, it is more or less impossible to know whether she ever spoke up, let alone used such wording. Given the context for this particular scene however, I would say that it is likely that there was at least some kind of confrontation between her and the school, since the results of said exchange play a role in the later story. Perhaps it was less cinematic, where a muted yet constant resistance on her part led to her work on the artists’ uniform. What I find important here is what you might call the “irrelevance” of truth. I don’t think the story is necessarily more powerful or effective simply because of any pretensions of factual accuracy. I think what makes Persepolis work is its presentation of a culture, oppressive and omnipresent, and the story of a value caught within it.
From the very start of the memoir, Marjane presents herself as an outsider, comfortable only with her connection to her family. She is first a prophet, then a rebel, and then a foreigner, both in Austria and in her home Iran. Throughout her developmental stages in the story, she is constantly fighting her own sense of alienation, simply looking for a tenable identity. I think the book’s conclusion is meant to end on a note of self-actualization, with Marji comfortable with herself and ready to live as her own person. In the book this seems to be completely implicit in the ending, but in the film version I feel as though this is captured much more effectively. As she leaves the airport in the taxi, and is asked by the cab driver where she is from, she replies simply “Iran.” She knows where she’s from, she knows who she is, and she’s just fine with it. To be completely honest, I felt the book’s ending was much more unsatisfying in comparison. With all that comes together in Persepolis’ final act, I felt as though Satrapi’s anticlimax seems out of place. I’m curious to see if she has any difference of opinion between the film’s ending and the book’s.
Satrapi does an excellent job of characterizing herself as human, which adds a great deal of depth to her memoir. She’s willing to show herself in a less than flattering light multiple times, and without these and other moments of weakness it would’ve been much more difficult to take her reflections seriously during her stints with psychiatrists. A lot her problems are centered around her sense of belonging, and this carries over into her willingness to communicate. One can’t help but find it ironic that the girl who was convinced she was a prophet had so much difficulty articulating her feelings and problems to others. Bottling up her feelings of isolation only exacerbated the problem; the less willing she was to divulge her feelings, the harder it would be to connect with others. I think it’s difficult to say whether her time in Europe was necessary, simply because we can’t establish with any certainty how her time in Iran might have been. The one basis I might use for this would be how her childhood friends behave when she finally returns. Air-headed, quasi-brainwashed, they make a good argument for how the regime’s oppression can subtly alter the thinking and behavioral patterns of individuals. For my part, I feel like Satrapi’s time in Austria was integral to her developmental transformation, where as a teenager it provided her the freedom to fully grow into herself, and acquire the outsider perspective that defines her.
ReplyDeleteWithout knowing the extent to which Satrapi embellished her life story, it is more or less impossible to know whether she ever spoke up, let alone used such wording. Given the context for this particular scene however, I would say that it is likely that there was at least some kind of confrontation between her and the school, since the results of said exchange play a role in the later story. Perhaps it was less cinematic, where a muted yet constant resistance on her part led to her work on the artists’ uniform. What I find important here is what you might call the “irrelevance” of truth. I don’t think the story is necessarily more powerful or effective simply because of any pretensions of factual accuracy. I think what makes Persepolis work is its presentation of a culture, oppressive and omnipresent, and the story of a value caught within it.
From the very start of the memoir, Marjane presents herself as an outsider, comfortable only with her connection to her family. She is first a prophet, then a rebel, and then a foreigner, both in Austria and in her home Iran. Throughout her developmental stages in the story, she is constantly fighting her own sense of alienation, simply looking for a tenable identity. I think the book’s conclusion is meant to end on a note of self-actualization, with Marji comfortable with herself and ready to live as her own person. In the book this seems to be completely implicit in the ending, but in the film version I feel as though this is captured much more effectively. As she leaves the airport in the taxi, and is asked by the cab driver where she is from, she replies simply “Iran.” She knows where she’s from, she knows who she is, and she’s just fine with it. To be completely honest, I felt the book’s ending was much more unsatisfying in comparison. With all that comes together in Persepolis’ final act, I felt as though Satrapi’s anticlimax seems out of place. I’m curious to see if she has any difference of opinion between the film’s ending and the book’s.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think it was necessary for her to go to Europe, I did understand her parent’s perspective, that they wanted a safer, more peaceful life for her, but I think they made it okay and it would’ve probably been better for them if their daughter was with them during those harsh times. I think leaving Iran caused more damage than good, she was struggling with her identity in Europe, and amongst her return, she also was struggling to be a “westerner in Iran” and “an Iranian in the West,” it was a never ending conflict and caused a lot of distress for her.
Yes, I believe she had a very strong personality, I don’t think that would be a strange thing for her to ask, or to fear asking. It is easy to target what is viewed as the “weaker” sex, and considering when acts of abuse or domestic violence occur; women are the usual victims, so it is only normal to want to avoid all means possible to have women be victims of cruel acts of violence. I think Marjane and her family view the veil as a form of oppression, they aren’t doing it because they want to but because their lives are in danger and want to avoid being noticeable amongst everyone else in their society by being uncovered, and those “extremists” who don’t think wearing the veil is oppression.
this was a great story! loved it!