Reader Response #1

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)