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How Different is it?

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Persepolis, a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi is about her experience during the Islamic Revolution, and that is where we’re heading next. We’ve been covering Western graphic novels, but now it’s time to turn to different cultures. It can be difficult to understand because believe it or not, cultures can be very different from one another.

While reading Persepolis, Satrapi mentions wanting to celebrate the fire ceremony during the Zarathustrian holidays as well as the Persian New Year called Norouz which is the first day of spring. (Here’s a link to a page that explains what Zarathustrian and the fire ceremony are better than I ever could). I know, same here. I didn’t understand what she was talking about at first, but not knowing actually made me feel like reading more because I wanted to understand. Another thing that is also very foreign to me is growing up in a time of revolution where the people of Iran were forced to wear veils and it was common to hear about bombings. In the chapter titled Shabbat, Satrapi describes how she finds her neighbor’s bracelet still on her hand, but the hand is no longer attached to the rest of her body, and that’s when she realizes that her neighbor is dead.


Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis, L’Association, 2003, pp. 52. 

The image on the panel above seems really foreign to me and maybe it will to you too. Does it? Well, the reason that I find it foreign is because it is an image of a man cut into pieces. Satrapi is literally showing us this, and all I can think about is her actually going through all of it. She experienced the Islamic Revolution and heard about all sorts of unfortunate events at a very young age.

But even though we’re talking about a different culture here, there are many things that I was able to relate to. Growing up, for the most part, all we want to do is rebel. It’s part of being young. Chapter, The Cigarette talks about Satrapi cutting class and her smoking for the first time ever. I’m not saying I’ve done any of it, but of course, as a human being, I have rebelled. Also, as a Hispanic, religion is a huge part of our culture, so I could most definitely relate to the parts where she speaks to God. We’ve gone over McCloud’s claim on how we are able to fit ourselves into a graphic novel because of the simplistic style of art, so when I saw Satrapi conversing with God, I really felt like that was me. 


Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis, L’Association, 2003, pp. 43. 

The panels are pretty much the same as Western graphic novels, and we read them from top to bottom, left to right, but there is something unique that I came across in Persepolis. The panel above is bordered by a creature that seems to look a lot like a snake or a dragon. In that panel, Satrapi’s mom says “Now that the devil has left” referring to the Shah, but that snake is the devil, and from everything that comes after that, we know that the devil never left. I found this border very unique, and it was a great form of foreshadowing.

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