The Image of Ordinary Life During the Islamic Revolution in the Novel 'Persepolis'

The novel Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is about how she grew up during the Islamic Revolution, which included a series of events that involved the replacement of the Reza Shah’s government and a war with Iraq. In this memoir she shows how the people of Iran, mainly the secularist and the Muslims were being marginalized, excluded and silenced and how it affected them during the revolution is 1980. Her choice to represent her experience from the perspective of an oppressed group and the use of the conventions of the graphic novel in order to justify the purpose of this memoir and it also serves as a voice and increases the visibility to those who were oppressed.

Throughout the novel Satrapi explores the theme of growing up under oppression and she introduces herself and the problems from Islamic revolution through the symbol of veil. In the first page Satrapi presents herself wearing the veil with the caption that reads, ‘this is me when I was ten years old. This was in 1980’. In the picture she looks expressionless and without identity. The next frame, shows her class photo were you cannot make a difference between Marjane and her classmate because all of them have the same expression of depression and have covered themselves with the veil. In another frame which covers an entire page, Satrapi shows an image of herself in a classroom with other her friends wearing veils, mourning the people who died during the war. The characters in the picture had identical expression and it is impossible to tell Marjane apart from her classmates. Through these images Satrapi is creating a sense of loss of individuality and people’s compliance to oppression. The placement of the image after the forced imposition of veil and the uniformity of the image paints the veil as a symbol of political corruption.

Throughout the novel Marjane explores the differences between private and public life. Marjane and her mother always wore their veils out in public but refused to wear at home. Through this she makes a point that they can be themselves when they are not limited by the conventions of the regime. Another detail that supports the point is the prevalent use of the color black when depicting the outside world and the use of white within their home. This stylistic device creates a harsh, visual contrast when portraying the interaction with the outside world, mainly the fundamentalists. For example, on page 5, the modernists shouting ‘freedom!’ are colored in white, whereas the fundamentalists are all dresses in black.

Besides focusing on her own troubles of growing up during the revolution, she also sheds light on her parent’s struggle and also on how so many people were systematically silenced. As Marjane grows up she comes to realizes that her parent’s thoughts and beliefs are opposite to those of the Iranian regime. The difference between her parents and the regime were that they like drinking alcohol, reading intellectual books and having parties and enjoying a wealthy lifestyle whereas the regime hates the sign of wealth and they execute such secularists. In one frame Marjane helps her mother pour alcohol down the toilet as the police were threatening to search their apartment and in another frame the mother covers the windows with black curtains to prevent the neighbors from seeing the parties. She tells the story of her parents through the use of black and white drawings which shows the difference between the evil regime and her secular parents. The story ends with her parents sending her to Austria to protect her life from the horrors of the war. This scene shows how not just her secularist parents but also other elite secularist had to make sacrifices.

There are several stories that Marjane tells of people getting hurt, locked up and killed by the extremists in the government. One of the several stories is when the Islamic revolutionists overthrew the Shah in 1979, many Persian nationalists and military people were imprisoned during the Iraqi attacks. She even shows how the Muslims were oppressed when she shows a man flogging himself and when a bunch of veiled women beating their chests and chanting martyrs. These stories are the signs of the time in which she lived.

To conclude, Marjane Satrapi tells how different groups, including her parents and other social groups were silenced and oppressed in 1980’s Iran.Graphic novels make significant historical and political topics more accessible to the general public because they tend to use relatively basic language accompanied by images that help reader understand the complicated issue .The images of Iran and stories told by Marjane are shocking because there was a lot of injustice that happened in the name of freedom and religion and these stories about the marginalized and oppressed people should be told and listened as it increases the visibility of these groups and serves as a voice to those who were oppressed and it tells us stories about people who cannot live tell their own.

Bibliography

• Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood and the Story of a Return. Vintage, 2008.
• “English and Comparative Literary Studies.” Nick Vaughan-Williams, warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/first/en123/cwl-litcrit/persepolis2013/closereading/.
• Murray, Christopher. “Graphic Novel.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 May 2017, www.britannica.com/art/graphic-novel.