LITERATURE

“Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” by Marjane Satrapi

“Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” by Marjane Satrapi

Introduction

“Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” is an autobiographical graphic novel (comic) written by Marjane Satrapi in 2000. The novel portrays the experiences of a young girl living in Iran during the era of late 70s and early 80s. Marji is the protagonist of the novel who is the daughter of wealthy parents actively involved in leftist politics. Embracing the revolution, Marji's family realized that the regime is as oppressive as the old one. The novel tells that how the tyrannical abuses of power affects Marji, her struggle with religion, view of her parents regarding the social class and finally her personality.

About the Author

Marjane Satrapi was born in Rasht, Iran, on November 22, 1969. She grew up in Tehran, where she witnessed firsthand the political turmoil of the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. Fearing for her safety, her parents sent her to school in Vienna, Austria, when she was fourteen. Returning to Iran for college, she studied visual communication at Tehran University. She then relocated to France, where she continued her art education. There she honed her talents for writing and drawing, the result of which was the first volume of Persepolis, published in 2000. The work brought her international attention. She continued to write, publishing three sequels to Persepolis, as well as Les monstres n'aiment pas la lune (2001; Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon, 2006), Broderies (2003; Embroideries, 2005), and Poulet aux prunes (2004; Chicken with Plums, 2006). Although she makes her home in France, Satrapi remains invested in the politics of her home country of Iran and have actively denounced the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's 2009 election.

Discussion

The author, an émigré from Iran to France, retells the history of her family in the novel. She details out the shift in rule happens after the death of Great-Grandfather Nasser al-Din Shah in 1896, the invasion of Azerbaijan by the Russian empire in 1920, collapse of Shah Reza in 1979 and the making of an oppressive Islamic state under the Ayatollah Khomeini. The author has set her story amidst these events and tells how these events changed her life, her personality and how the society around her affected her (Schroeder, 2010pp. 130-136). The Cultural Revolution began by Khomeini not only changed her life but also the people around her. She and her friends were suddenly required to wear the veil, and their previously nonreligious, co-education schools became religious and segregated by sex. At school Marji is forced to tear pictures of the shah out of her textbook and is taught that the new regime takes no political prisoners, something she knows to be false (Tully, 2004).

Persepolis dramatizes the horrors of political oppression and honors those who died resisting it. The author depicts the murders of opponents of first the shah's and then Khomeini's regimes, the torture of dissidents in prison, and the deaths of young Iranians in a pointless war with Iraq. She also makes it clear that women suffered particular hardships after the Cultural Revolution ...