“2,500 years of Tyranny and submission.” (Satrapi, 11). Page 11 of The Complete Persepolis is used to describe what Marjane's father says about the foreign oppression Iran has faced.
Well, here is my first official blog post about Marjane Satrapi’s The Complete Persepolis. I will begin this post by being blunt. When I began selecting my top three books to read for the ENG4U Summative, this book was not on my list. I judged the book by its cover, which I still don’t find that appealing. However, after one of the other students told me that The Complete Persepolis is a memoir about growing up in revolutionary Iran, I immediately became interested. Not often do we, in Western society ever hear about Iran from an Iranian perspective (not to put a post-colonial lens here) . I changed the order of my top three books and put this book first. I was put into the group to read The Complete Persepolis for our summatives.
When I began to read this book in the parking lot after purchasing it from Indigo, I was instantly engaged. The introduction briefly discusses the history of Iran from the second millennium B.C to the 1980’s. By page three the book changes tremendously. Rather than continuing as a book that discusses Iranian history, it instead is written as a graphic novel (yes, a "comic") from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl. The graphic novel format was hard to get used to at first, but after a few pages I began to really enjoy it. The graphic novel format makes the book really an easy and fun read; the pictures play in your mind almost like a movie.
Up to now, the main character, and the author, Marjane, is beginning to change from an innocent girl to one who has been traumatized by the war and the revolution. Marjane describes a friend of the family who was captured and "he suffered hell. He always carried cyanide on him in case he was arrested, but because they took him by surprise he never got a chance to use it. They even burned him with an iron." (Satrapi, 51). The pictures in the book made this part very intense. For now, I hope the book will stay intense and interesting and I am looking forward to my next blog post.
When I began to read this book in the parking lot after purchasing it from Indigo, I was instantly engaged. The introduction briefly discusses the history of Iran from the second millennium B.C to the 1980’s. By page three the book changes tremendously. Rather than continuing as a book that discusses Iranian history, it instead is written as a graphic novel (yes, a "comic") from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl. The graphic novel format was hard to get used to at first, but after a few pages I began to really enjoy it. The graphic novel format makes the book really an easy and fun read; the pictures play in your mind almost like a movie.
Up to now, the main character, and the author, Marjane, is beginning to change from an innocent girl to one who has been traumatized by the war and the revolution. Marjane describes a friend of the family who was captured and "he suffered hell. He always carried cyanide on him in case he was arrested, but because they took him by surprise he never got a chance to use it. They even burned him with an iron." (Satrapi, 51). The pictures in the book made this part very intense. For now, I hope the book will stay intense and interesting and I am looking forward to my next blog post.
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