Skip to main content

Persepolis, the views of culture through different eyes

Image
By Lulu6477
In the late 1970's and throughout the  80's ( even today they still have unrest) Iran was going through revolution and internal crisis within the nation. Persepolis gives us the view from the eyes and experience of a young women who lived there during these times. As you read the book there are things that could be foreign and familiar to the reader. For me,  the story is very real, but with a different perspective. My family and  I lived in Iran for 3 years and 3 months so a lot of this story resonated with me.  It was very interesting to hear the view point through the eyes of a young Iranian woman living during the same time. As an American in Iran, the things that are familiar to me may be a bit different from most as I am a bit familiar with culture. One thing that may be a familiarity was the depiction of the "modern family" on page 33 you see a dinning room table ( a western piece of furniture) as the family sits around it. There was much western influence in Iran, though a lot of Iranians did not like that. I remember one time being out in our back yard playing with my sisters. We had a large rock wall that went around the back of the yard and the neighborhood in which we lived. An Iranian man climb the wall one day and began shooting at us, yelling and calling us names. As I read the book, I wondered if the man that shot at us was someone Marjane knew.  Most Iranians hated Americans and they hated us being there and spoke it often. The American supported the Shah,  he had a bad rap to many of the Iranian people, but  he did  westernize Iran. Women had more freedom under the Shah  then they did after he was overthrown. Another things that could be considered familiar to readers is other western icons such as American music, like Iran maiden and Michael Jackson ( page 130 and 131) Also American apparel like her 1983 Nike's and denim jackets ( page 131) cassette tapes and songs like "We're the kids in America" ( I love that song).  Things that could be foreign are many, like wearing head coverings. The beatings and torturing of people. The Guardians of the revolution. On page 133 Marjane gets stopped by the women's branch of this and was hassled by them for what she was wearing. They called her a whore and told her to lower her scarf to cover more of her face. These are things as a free nation we do not understand or accept, nor should we. On page 96 it talks of the ritual of hitting yourself  during religious ceremonies sometimes with chains this is a total foreign concept to anyone with any amount of freedom at all. One thing that really stood out to me was on page 97 it talks of how the girls would make fun of things and rebelled against them. On page 98 she explained why this was, they were modernized and had gone to secular schools. To see the view of the Iranian revolution through the eyes of a young Iranian woman there at the same time we were is an eye opening event. Though we see some things differently ( like the position and stance of the Shah) there are similarities also. Though we were not there very long, we managed to get out just before the Ayatollah took over, I understood her story because I saw some of it. 








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of Aya: Life in Yop City

By
To begin this week's post, I'd like to first address a few things about the author's duty to his/her readers. When we think of reading material from other countries or cultures, what factors are important to us? What information do we need in order to recognize the significance of the author's work? For me, it's important for the author to find some way to connect to me as a reader. Do we share a common experience? Can I relate your story to mine? This is not to say that a writer's work is rendered unimpressive if they choose not to do this. But I do think it goes without saying that most impressionable works hit us emotionally. I also think that an author should be conscious of the world that they are painting for the reader. Is it true what you're writing? Does it provide some sort of insight into the world as you see it? Are you confirming outside opinions of your culture, or are you breaking the stereotypes that have been placed upon you? That being sai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bringing Africa into the Fold

By
The comic Aya: Life in Yop City does a fantastic job of illustrating a culture different from the more popular Western variety. For those reading this, have you ever considered Africa in any way that was not influenced by main stream media? No? Well me either. It is sad to say, but my view of Africa was just - more or less - a vast land of chaos and poverty. Why? Because is that not what the media would have us believe? As a western country ourselves - presuming, of course, that you are reading this from the US or some European country - we do not consider other nations to have much value in comparison to our own. Because we have created a Eurocentric view of what society should be, we have disallowed other countries to feel that their own culture is worth portraying in novels or media. For example, most people are lead to believe that Africa is riddled with disease, famine, and "uneducated" people who are in dire need of help. This just isn't true! There are places ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Two Faces of Anarchy in V for Vendetta

By
As someone who has only seen the movie version of V for Vendetta once many years ago and have never read the graphic novel, I wasn’t exactly sure how similar or different the movie version would be to the graphic novel. I was in for a surprise when I discovered just how vastly different, they are from each other. With that being said, they do have some similarities when strictly looking at the motives of the characters. Let’s dive into those motives and how the author and illustrator of V for Vendetta achieved getting these motives across to their readers. In Scott McCloud’s chapter of Understanding Comics “ Blood in the Gutter ” we are presented with different panel – to – panel transitions, and an introduction to the term “gutter” as being the white space between the panels which is where the audience of reader “takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea” (McCloud, 66). After finishing reading V for Vendetta , several themes or ideas that were most prevalent...
Post a Comment
Read more