Persepolis Prompt 1
Reading “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi was a new experience for me. At first I did not comprehend what I was reading. I found myself reading and re-reading the first few chapters. I guess what threw me off was that I had very little prior knowledge of the history of Iran. After reading the beginning of the book and really understanding the author, I thought the book was really fun. I enjoyed her detailed pictures, often found myself trying to read deeper through her descriptive pictures. I don’t think that I’ve ever read any book that between fiction and nonfiction. Reading this book I learned many valuable things about the Iranian culture. I enjoyed how in the beginning the main character is only a 10 year little girl. I appreciate how through the story we see her grow and mature as an independent intellectual young lady. Marjane gives the reader a good sense of what life was like in Iran while the revolution was going on. She shows us many examples of what life was like as a husband, wife, child, and even lower class people.
Besides all the background satrapi gives us on Iran I appreciated her stance on the veil. It really changed my stereotypical thinking about why women choose to wear it. From personal experience I know that some Christian women wear the veil too. But I always thought that they were forced to put it on once entering a church. My sister in law wears it when she prays and when she’s at church. She tells me it’s a sign of respect. I guess out of ignorance I never really made sense of it. But satrapi brought to my attention that not too long ago (1980) they passed a law that made it obligatory for girls to wear the veil. I support and applaud Satrapi in her quest to rebel against such a submissive government.
Another topic in the book that really changed my perspective was wealth. Eventhough Marjane is telling her life as upper class girl. She shows us many examples of how having money changes certain situations for her family. On Page 110 “their faith has nothing to do with ideology! A few bills were all he needed to forget the whole thing” says Marjanes father. Here the family was at close risk at getting caught with alcohol in their house. However money comes to the rescue when the father offers the officer a couple of bills to forget the whole ordeal. That is all it takes for the officer to leave the family alone. Another example is on page 99 “They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them into heaven” says Mrs. Nasrine. This part of the story really shocks me. First of all I could not believe that they would do such a thing at a school. Bu t what topped it off was what they were telling the young boys in order to get them ready for what was ahead of them. In that same chapter as their maid is going through disaster of possibly losing her son, Marjane is on the phone getting invited to a party. It’s almost as if Marjane doesn’t completely understand the severity of the situation.
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Great work here! It has been very interesting to read your insights and to discover that, despite little prior experience, you were able to work through the difficulty and gain some valuable insights after reading Persepolis. Your personal experience with the veil and your sister-in-law is very effective at conveying this idea of wearing the veil out of a sense of reverence. I think reverence is a concept that many in our own culture have lost site of and I think reverence is very important to consider when thinking about this novel. Marjane doesn't have any reverence, in contrast, to what the government is doing in her society and I think you make some excellent points as to why this is. I can see a paper blooming out of this post. Why don't you try to write more about your ideas here in the Idea post? I think you have the beginning of a great Reader Response paper!
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