How Graphic Narratives Depict Young Woman of Cultural Backgrounds

The Term ‘Crisis’ is demonstrated in graphic narratives through the realties young women face in constructing their own identities, which are in turn shaped by the culture and society they live in. In this essay I will analyze two graphic narratives, Persepolis and Snapshots of a Girl. I will argue that both of these graphic narratives show how young women of colour and also with strong cultural and religious beliefs struggle to identify themselves as individuals who are not willing to assimilate to modern culture, Caucasian, heteronormative culture. Other themes such as the coming of age, sexuality, and freedom and confinement are significant in both of these graphic texts in which young adolescents shape their lives.

The Coming of Age

Persepolis: The story of a Childhood; is a graphic memoir about family crisis, historical disturbance, and coming of age that features Satrapi’s young self, Marji, as the protagonist. The text traces the Satrapi’s family through the chaotic year following the Shah’s overthrown in 1979 and the establishment of an Islamic theocracy in Iran. Both a chronicle of political and personal turbulence as well as a careful example in educating Western readers, Persepolis aims to teach readers about how to think about the Middle East, and how to feel. Persepolis starts with Satrapi’s autobiographical avatar, Marji, as a ten-year-old child. The story begins in the present past, narrating the events of her childhood just before the start of the 1978-1979 revolutionary period. This can be found in the opening pages of this text, “In 1979 a revolution took place, it was later called “the Islamic Revolution””. The narrative continues sequentially and flawless through Satrapi’s autobiographical child narrator. The flashback technique signifies temporal change, highlighting a shift from the present time of the story to a revisiting and a retelling of the past; the concepts of memory, history, and nostalgia are thus integral to the flashback. Although the entire story is in black and white, we know that the ending scene in the film is ended by two scenes in color, which may suggest that Marji as an adult in the present time. Both scenes occur in Paris’s Orly airport, so that the film’s flashback begins and ends with Marj’s present and presence in a transitional space. Her past remains in Iran, and her future is in Paris, but in the present time of the cinematic narrative is caught between the two temporal moments and two geographical locations while situated in the transitional space of the airport, looking back at the past, but unable to move forward into the future. The two elements that mark a significant difference between the comics and the film, therefore, are the flashback framing device in the animated feature.

The way the flashback is used in Persepolis suggests the entwining of the past and the present, and the continual re-appearance of the past into the present, suggesting the impossibility of keeping the past away. Similarly, “trauma theorist has remarked that a feature of the traumatic experience is the inability to keep trauma safely in the past; traumatic memories constantly encroach on the present”. Understanding Persepolis as part of a growing number of autobiographical texts that Iranian women that narrate the trauma of the 1979 revolution makes our understanding of the use of the flashback technique, pointing to the conjunction of traumatic memory with the flashback. The scenes depicting Marji in the Orly airport, in the film you see it is filmed in color and present time, coexist with her memories of the past. But not only does the past exist along the present, undermining that the past is always retold through our knowledge of the present, but the past actually invades on the present, interrupting the narrative as it unfolds. The first transition to the flash back is one we can remember from the film where Marji ten-year-old self running into the same shot as the one occupied by adult Marji in the Orly airport. Marji looks on skeptically as the image of her younger self rushes into the picture, with excitement and positivity. The flashback scene ends with Marji’s first departure from Iran. The scene ends with her turning to wave a final good bye to her parents, only to witness her more collapsing into her fathers’ arms. Her parents’ figures are completely blackened and the book ends. Persepolis is preoccupied with narrating the events of the past; this process of narrative recall involves a reinterpretation of the past in the present. This graphic narrative does a great job at showing Marji’s coming of age from the opening scene where we see a ten-year-old girl to the closing scene where Marji is a young woman.

In contrast, looking at Beldan Sezen’s graphic narrative, Snapshots of a Girl, discusses identity crisis, family crisis, sexuality and coming of age that features a nameless young girl as the protagonist. This text uncovers the evolution of young girl’s transition as she comes out as a lesbian, from a very young age into her adulthood. An example of this evolution can is at the beginning of the Sezen’s narrative where she is describing herself growing up “as a girl, as a boy, the tomboy, the girl in the orange dress; in jeans, in shorts”. Throughout the rest of the text we see this young girl transition into a young woman. Beginning with the first chapters “18 and running” and “denial years” discusses her years as an adolescent girl who is interested in many different things, boys and girls, and she goes on terrible dates with boys which only complicates her ideas of how she really feels about girls. Through Sezen’s artistic images, we see the transformation of an identifiable young girl at the beginning of the text transition into her full out lesbian identity. Some examples of this can be found on page 98 where she comes out to her father, she is depicted with short hair and more masculine features, or on page 112 where she comes out to her aunt, with her oversized clothing, to page 116 where the entire frame of her is showing her whole body with short hair, baggy clothes, oversize boots, short hair, and hair on her legs describing her lesbianism.

In addition, Sezen’s graphic narrative discusses the life of a young adolescent, from a Muslim cultural background that doesn’t discuss about general sexuality, let alone about being anything but in a heterosexual relationship due to the strict influence of immigrant parents who choose not to understand or assimilate in American culture. Some examples of this can be found in “coming out to my mother part 1, 2 and 3”. One example can be found on page 52 where she is attempting to tell her mom about her interest in women, and her mother is extremely confused thinking that there is something literally wrong. Another example can be found in the chapter “coming out to my father”. Sezen calm, yet panicking in her mind, slowly introduces the idea that she is into women, and her father being naïve plays it off as if he doesn’t know that his daughter is a lesbian. Sezen fully admits her lesbianism to her father, however her father somewhat seemingly tries to understand, but still proceeds to brush her off by offering her some gum.

Identity 

Marjane Satrapi’s charming, yet tormented, search for self-home in the middle of Iran’s troubled political and social past. Illustrated and narrated by Satrapi herself, Persepolis is the touching autobiography of both an Iranian and Western identity. Persepolis begins with the young Marji at ten years of age, dreaming of becoming the last prophetess of the galaxy. Marji, the brilliant, curious and resistant child of two leftist politically active Tehran intellectuals, is delighted by the sensation and exciting atmosphere of revolutionary Iran. But as Iran becomes significantly more oppressive, the young Marji is sent to Vienna to study. In the beginning of this graphic narrative, Persepolis depicts Satrapi’s childhood and her struggle to live in Iran during the rise of the Islamic revolution. The first part of the novel demonstrates a child’s education into the world she lives in and her family’s participation in protests taking place in Iran against the inevitable war. The ten-year-old Marji often talks to God and sees herself as the last prophet in which she dream of social equality, “At the age of six I was already sure I was the last prophet”, brought about by the law that women were forced to wear the veil and men and women were separated in every aspect of life, “Then came 1980: The year it became obligatory to wear the veil at school”. Satrapi portrays her struggle as a young woman who just wants to be “normal” in a country where posters and designer clothes were seen as an opposition to the regime and parties had to be held secret. Finally, the return depicts Marjane’s struggle with the separation from her own family and her personal battle with her identity, after moving from a religious Iran to an open and secular Europe. Having struggled with not only the separation from her family and home, but with a new language and a new way of life she returns home to find a country destroyed by the war with Iraq.

Marji struggles to negotiate her Iranian identity in the Western world. After a breakdown in Vienna, the now twenty-year old Marji returns back to Iran only to find her home is no longer there. Graphic novel turned animated film, Persepolis reifies the alternative comic as an art form that innovates the narration of “mature” and, at times, grim subject matter. The complexities of an Iranian identity manifest themselves in several ways for Satrapi. Rocking Nikes and a Jean jacket, the Kim Wilde obsessed Marji turns to Iran’s dangerous black market to purchase illegal Iron Maiden tapes. In Vienna, Marji struggles in different ways to assert an Iranian identity that is both proud and independent. Much of Persepolis details Marji growing and facing the frustrating that undoubtedly accompanies dating. When drinking and dancing at a bar, the twenty-year-old Satrapi is asked where she is from, and she shamefully lies that she is French. At this point, Satrapi is visited by a memory of her grandmother reminding her to never forget who she is and where she came from. Indeed, the tension of an Iranian and Western identity is Satrapi’s chief conflict. Through her experience in Vienna, Satrapi encountered much racism and prejudice. And upon returning to Iran, Satrapi weeps that she was a stranger in Austria and now a stranger at home. However, the graphic novel also appears to demonstrate a young Iranian woman’s struggle with her own personal identity in a foreign country and the hardships faced by the separation from her family and her own way of life. Therefore, Satrapi presents to her readers a fundamental and very relevant depiction of how an individual’s identity can be shaped, not only by the political turmoil surrounding them, but also by her own form of creative practice in the form of an autobiographical graphic novel, an integral work of literature in our society today.

In contrast, Beldan Sezen’s graphic narrative, Snapshots of a Girl, tells the story of her coming out as a lesbian, through a series of fragmented moments about her life. Sezen revisits the various moments of her coming of age, and her coming out as a lesbian, in both Western and Islamic cultures to friend, family, and herself. Through a series of illustrations, she navigates through the identity crisis of her life, through the terrible dates with guys and sexual politics around her with the raw honesty of a young woman who is in search of happiness. Sezen begins this narrative, describing herself as a dyke, a tomboy, a girl as a boy wearing an orange dress, jeans, in shorts-old cut-off. Sezen’s first chapter “18 and running” describes how she feels about herself, and then we are introduced to her first sexual experience with another girl. Confused by what had just happened, she is asked “Darling tell me what you like”, with the response of absolute confusion “what, what, what”, she immediately packs her belongings and runs. Her following chapter “the denial years”, takes us through five terrible dates with guys, that she attempts to conform to the idea of a heterosexual relationship but can’t seem to stand any of the guys she’s with. The last guy she dates confronts her with the idea of being a lesbian “Have you ever considered that you might be a lesbian”. From this moment we are presented with several chapters of coming out, “coming out to my mother part 1, 2 and 3” followed by “coming out to my father” and “coming out to my aunt”. Sezen uses her real-life experiences during the 70’s and 80s, about “coming out”, from a woman of cultural and colored background, to discuss how hard it truly is to come out and identify herself as a lesbian, which may also suggest why she dedicated multiple chapters to “coming out”. At the end of novel, we see how her parents are still quite not willing to assimilate to their daughter’s lesbianism. The final chapter “coming out to my mother part 3”, on page 132, we see the phone conversation between her and her mother. Still fearing the idea of coming out to her mother, and her mother’s very little response, finally she tells her mom she won’t come home for Christmas unless she can bring her girlfriend. Her mother finally accepts the fact that her daughter is a lesbian, and for herself she can now live in peace without the fear of her own identity of being a lesbian. An example of finding peace with her identity can be found on page 136, “I am butch, a shy butch, someone with the word mom tattooed on my upper left arm and with heavy gold rings on all my fingers, who never dares to take my hands out of my pockets, that kind. That’s how I go through life. By saying I am butch”. In this very scene we can see how finally she is finally proud of being a lesbian, rather than hiding her identity, which she did for so long.

Challenging Authority 

The transition from high-school to college can be a difficult experience, but also life changing. It is a time of independence, along with constant question. This transition is a coming of age story, just like the novel Persepolis and Snapshots of a Girl. Beginning with the Persepolis, the story of Marji’s childhood and growth, are about transitioning from a safe haven to an unknown, distant place. Marji learns to question authority and form her own opinions through her experiences during the Iranian revolution. By the time she steps onto that plane to leave her parents behind in a country faced with political unrest, she is an independent woman. A part of growing up is learning how to think for yourself in order to thrive in a new environment. In 1980 the children found themselves wearing a veil, taking away all sense of individualism. Marji Statrapi illustrates this in one panel containing a school picture of herself and her classmates. Looking at it from a far you can see the loss of individualism because all of the girls are wearing this veil. The as you move down to the fifth panel, the children start using the veil to play, because they do not understand the complexity of why they have to wear it. In the fifth panel, the girls are starting to question authority around them. They do not understand the veil and did not want to wear it. Therefore, they turn something that was unwanted into something they can use to have fun.

Marji’s education was one sided, and this is quite evident as it was during the period of the revolution when the government held all power. By controlling the information told to students in school they would be able to gain more control over the people. During the period the time of the Shah, genders we separated in education, the students were taught that bilingualism schools were a symbol of capitalism and that they needed to be closed. There is a panel that Satrapi drew of herself saying “And that was that”, to show that children believe what their teachers or the government are telling them. Therefore, they do not question that there could be possibilities, that it could possibly be one sided. What here teachers or authority figures said around her easily molded Marji and her peers. They were hidden from those possibilities of a different reality. For example, Marji states that she loves the king because God chose him, “As for me, I love the King, He was chosen by God”. What she does not know is that the father of her grandfather was the king that was overthrown. Marji believed everything she had read in her schoolbooks. However, she begins to notice that she does not really know what is going on around her. At one point in the book, her parents are telling a joke and begin to laugh, however Marji finds herself utterly confused on how it is funny. Her father is mentioning a demonstration that happened earlier that day, where a man was named martyr even though he died of cancer. She says “something escaped me. Cadaver, cancer, death, murder, laughter?”. She finally realizes what she had been taught in school is not completely the truth because she realizes that there is a plethora of knowledge, she has yet to discover in order to fully understand what is going on around her. Once Marji starts experiencing the horrible events around her, and hearing the stories her parents tell her, she starts rebelling against the regime ideas. She beings to read books on these topics to gain exposure to the reality of revolution. She begins to formulate her own opinion and ideas and puts herself out in the open. For example, her teacher is telling the students that since the Islamic Republic was started there have been no war prisoners. Marji had been reading books on her own and talking to her parents. She knows that this is a lie and stands up to her teacher, “My uncle was imprisoned by the Shah regime, but it was the Islamic regime that ordered his execution. She begins to form her own opinions and ideas, she begins to rebel by wearing her Western clothing outside, she rebels against the government taking away her freedom to dress how she wishes, and she takes big interest in her country. In addition, she begins to listen to the TV and radio with her parents and goes to a demonstration for the first time and passes out flyers. Marji’s journey begins as one with fear due to the political distress she endures due to the current revolution going on. However, Marji adapts quickly to her current surroundings and learns to defend herself as a young Muslim woman whether or not it will benefit her or cause her more distress.

In contrast, Snapshots of a Girl, depicts a similar coming of age story, a story of a young Muslim girl who is in an identity crisis about transitioning from being straight to lesbian, which is a place of fear, the unknown, and distress caused by the anxieties she faces trying to “come out”. She learns to question authority through her experiences of coming out to her parents, coming out to family members, through her journey of identifying as a lesbian, as well as during her travels to Berlin. A huge part of her independence and growing up is highlighted through her entire story of coming out as a lesbian. She has no one to turn to, because her parents come from a very strong political and religious Muslim background, therefor she isolates herself and masks her lesbianism and goes through most of her journey on her own. An example we see of her independence is when she is talking about herself on page 20, “I was completely into myself, withdrawn. From somewhere deep inside me, an uncertain longing manifested itself in my first few days at the laboratory”. Another example of her independence can be found on page 39. Here she is explaining her experience at Wigstock, “I walked into Tompkins Square Park by accident that afternoon. For the first time in my life, I was away, on my own. No parents, no boyfriend, no nothing, Just me”. In this very scene she finally feels free and empowered from what society has treated not “normal” and finds herself in the middle of a LGBTQ festival. Marji fears coming out to her parents after the first instance where her mother finds her sketching of her daughter making out with another girl and responds, “I’m afraid that you are…”. Immediately from this moment she feels that she has lost her mother’s trust and cried in silence that following night as she lied next to her mother in bed.

Later in this text we see how her freedom begins to unfold. She was living away for six years with six other women in Oberhausen. She was engaged in various groups such as ‘antifa’. A group that’s main activity was to expose fascist groups and individuals which they encountered daily on the streets to raise awareness. Additionally, she explains the other groups she was involved in, ‘fantifa’, which raised awareness about sexism and fascism through art. This group included gay women whose focus was not men but women. Furthermore, she is beginning to accept her lesbianism more and more as she surrounds herself with people with the same interests. In her travels to Berlin, during lesbian week, she got together with woman to attend workshops and talk about the community, mainly pointing out the differences, which resulted in discussions and arguments. On page 85 we see her talking about her Turkish identity as shame to her new lover, because it is seen as wrong to be anything but straight, “We talked, and we talk to this day. About our families, about mothers, sisters. About the deep-rooted impact of “AYIP” the Turkish concept of SHAME, about the guilt of choosing one way of life instead of being obedient children”. On the following page she feels as if her voice is being heard and she has someone that likes her, “She chose me… We had similarities. I felt chosen, I felt home”. At the end of this graphic narrative we see how once a girl who was completely afraid of expressing her own rights and identity as a woman, turn to being proud of her sexuality and the young woman she has become, “I am proud of all those butches, young and old(er), who define themselves as butches despite living in times when having to choose either of the two conventional genders seems to be necessary”.

Conclusion

The term ‘Crisis’ is demonstrated in graphic narratives through the realities young women face in constructing their own identities, which are in turn shaped by the culture and society they live in, which is explicitly shown in both of these graphic texts. Persepolis and Snapshots of a Girl demonstrate how young women of colour and also strong cultural and religious beliefs struggle to identify themselves as individuals who are not willing to assimilate to Caucasian and heteronormative culture. Furthermore, these texts tell a greater story for young woman, to never allow anyone to control how you live your life based off your political, religious, sexual, gender, and cultural beliefs.

Works Cited

• Chaney, Michael A. Graphic Subjects: Critical Essays on Autobiography and Graphic Novels, University of Wisconsin Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/york/detail.action?docID=3445147.
• Chute, Hillary. “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi's ‘Persepolis.’” Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1/2, 2008, pp. 92–110. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27649737.
• Nabizadeh, Golnar. 'Vision and Precarity in Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.' Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 1, 2016, pp. 152-167. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/1790692619?accountid=15182.
• Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis- The Story of a Childhood. Pantheon Books, 2003.
• Sezen, Beldan. Snapshots of a Girl: Beldan Sezen. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016.
• Wright, S. (2007). “Young children’s meaning-making through drawing and ‘telling’: Analogies to filmic textual features”. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 32(4), 37-48
• Walseth, Kristin. 'Young Muslim Women and Sport: The Impact of Identity Work” “Leisure Studies, vol. 25, no. 1, 2006, pp. 75-94. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest