Gamban 3
Amanda Gamban
English 1A
Professor Knapps
3 March 2013
Reader Response
#1: Persepolis
Persepolis is the memoir of Marjane Satrapi;
a grapic novel through the eyes of herself as a young girl living during the
Islamic Revolution. Throughout the begging she shows us how she viewed the
uprising of her people and the strong sadistic control of the government. As
she is telling us about her country she is also showing us who she is at the
time of all this chaos. She learns about the history, conflicts, and
punishments that came from the revolution. Marji is so fascinated she wants so
learn as much as she can, but what she doesn’t know is that she is discovering
her self along with the process.
The first encounter that she had with the new
ways of her country was the change made within her school. Girls were now
separated from the boys and had to wear veils. With this new reform in her
school she is confused about why this is happening, she states, “I really
didn’t know what to think about the veil, deep down I was very religious but as
a family we were very modern and avant-garde.”(p.6) Marji being so young
doesn’t know how she feels because of the conflicting areas that she is
involved in. Any child would be confused of such a strong change of environment.
Such as when you move and experience the first day of school without knowing
what is going to happen. When most children would become afraid she only becomes
more curios of what happened and what was to come.
Marji being such a curios and imaginative
girl she wants to learn as much as she possible can, in order to have a better
understanding of the people of Iran. To consume so much knowledge she begins by
reading books and asking her family about their experiences and stories. Marji
was so “enlightened” but as she say’s confusingly in the book, “ I realized I
didn’t understand anything..”. (p.32) Being so young or new to a setting it’s tougher
to apply yourself properly to the situation. For me it’s learning a new
language. You can learn all of the forms, phrases, and vocabulary but as soon
as speaking the language it’s harder to say everything properly. By taking in
so much information she didn’t know how so apply it in a real situation so she
read as many books as she could possibly obtain the proper information she
needed.
When the dots started to connect she
realizes that there is a type of social structure with in her culture and her
family has been apart of it since she was born.
She was uncertain about the choice that her parents have made because of
the closeness she has with the maid. Her disgrace that she had for the
revolution was the same for the difference with in Iran’s social classes. (satrapi)
Marji was torn between what she thought was right when her own parents didn’t
agree with Marji’s view of social standards. Even though we don’t have that
problem where we live, people do get caught up between different lifestyles and
in some cases prove that they are better than others. Incases where the
differences between social classes are so large that people don’t want to
associate with the lower classes, which is a sad problem that people face all
around the world whether the law enforces it or not.
Growing up during this time of political
repression and turmoil for the Iranian people is a hard childhood for such a
young girl, but through Marji’s standpoint it was fascinating to learn and be
apart of the of the change. Wherever people live they learn to adapt to their
surroundings to live and survive for the better of the people. Reading about
the hardships that people go through makes you appreciate what you have, but
what interreges me even more is the different perspectives that you see. Marji
gives us that experience of seeing her perspective. As she learning and experiencing
the revolution and war, so are we.
(692
words)
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