Blog Five: Persepolis

            The first section of Marjane Satrapi’s memoir, Persepolis, entitled “The Veil,” is an opening glimpse into the story of a child growing up in the midst of chaotic disarray, being in Iran during the period of the Islamic Revolution.  Satrapi’s pictorial representation of her childhood is appropriate, as the graphic novel form arouses sentiments of childhood, in general, creating a connection between reader and the young heroine, no matter what age.  The content that Persepolis is based on—revolution, death, war, and pain—certainly isn’t light material, however the novel, at least in the beginning, possesses an amiable cartoonish embodiment.  Each picture tells a story, portrays a feeling, delving into the mind of a confused, scared but lovable little girl.  Satrapi says, “Everywhere in the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veil” (5).  In the picture below this, there is a dichotomy, a separation of black and white; on one side the demonstrators are veiled, shrouded in black, eyes shut tight, and on the other side there is the appearance of hair, open eyes, and dove-white turtle necks.  Both sides look angry, eyebrows slanting down in a sinister look of unadulterated frustration and discontent.  Hanging in the air above the veiled, printed cries for “the veil!” “the veil!” “the veil!”(5).  In opposition to that, the other side of the faceoff shouts “freedom!” “freedom!” “freedom!”(5).   Satrapi does an excellent job honing in on the disconnectedness of the situation, due to the pressures of living in a society torn by the not-so-invisible hand of a so-called “cultural revolution” (4).  She doesn’t understand why she has to wear the veil, the one that she does not want to wear, the one that is too hot to wear, too constrictive.  Satrapi’s ever-developing narrative with God separates her ideas of religion from the unwanted veil.  She has a very intimate relationship with God that isn’t rule-stricken or tyrannous, but rather healthy and personal.  The veil seems to be symbolic of the constraints and limitations that come with the Islamic Revolution, for Satrapi.