'Persepolis' and Bridging the Cultural Gap Through Art

The first time I read Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, I was fourteen years old, and 9/11 was still fresh in the minds of many Americans. I had been raised in a conservative white family with little knowledge of the Middle East outside the horrors on the news, and the few Middle Easterners I knew were hesitant to draw attention to themselves in the face of anti-Islamic propaganda. Although I did not agree with the sentiments of the time, I regret not speaking out more against the hatred I saw every day, and while I can hardly say that I am an outspoken person now, I hope that I have shown even the slightest bit of personal growth in the ensuing years. Persepolis, an illustrated autobiography based on Satrapi's experience growing up in post-Revolution Iran, was one of the events that marked the starting point in my change.

I do not doubt that Satrapi's upbringing was wildly different from mine. That first glance into her childhood, starting with her recollection of the year following the Islamic Revolution, showed a girl confused and frightened by the changes happening around her. Satrapi was as lost in this strange new world as I was, and that made it all the more simple to see things from her perspective.

Source: Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. Pantheon, 2007.

The above image shows a scene that should be familiar to Westerners: children gleefully rebelling against their school system, not with malice but a childlike sense of glee. They make light of heavy subjects in their schooling and celebrate when they are "punished" with suspension. However, this scene is placed against a backdrop of Islamic fundamentalism. The girls are punished for not wearing their veils properly and scolded when they do not show respect for Iranian martyrs. Their teacher, shown in full, conservative dress, conveys a sense of religious oppression before she ever opens her mouth. And this is all drawn in a clean, simplistic style, calling back to one of the major points of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics:

Humans by nature are drawn to iconic images. Simplistic art, rather than realistic art, is more likely to catch a reader's eye because they recognize what it is supposed to represent. A realistic drawing, especially in a foreign setting, may not resonate with all readers because they may not recognize the significance of the finer details. Satrapi's style, therefore, breaks down the foreign elements of post-Revolution Iran and conveys them through small, easily digestible pieces. A Western reader may not understand the importance of hijab and abaya in the context of the comic, but the cartoonish expressions and body language are more readily accessible, familiarizing a common situation in a strange, foreign setting.

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