This week of blog posts consisted of our primary focus in class which is the topic of the graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of A Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi. The themes of these posts expanded from talking about the veil, and coming to an understanding of what they represent, all the way to discussing the importance of graphic narratives as a genre. Each of the student’s posts were both enlightening and eye-opening. I was able to gain an inside view of my classmate’s perspectives of their thoughts that they have when engaging with this particular text.

Before diving into Persepolis, as a class we were given articles by different women about the veil in which we were exposed to varying perspectives of their reasons for choosing to wear or not wear the veil. Amanda has shed some light on this particular topic in her blog post titled Wearing the veil as a form of identity. Amanda shares some insight on the identity that the veil creates. Amanda writes, “However, after reading multiple articles written by women who have a close relationship with the veil, I learned that the the veil can also act as a form of identity.” Through exposure of different women’s perspective Amanda was able to acknowledge the other, less known side of the reasonings of wearing the veil. She mentions as well that this information was new to her. The presence of loud media makes it is easy to come to the conclusion that women are forced to wear the veil and are therefore being oppressed. However, Amanda along with myself, have come to learn that this is just one side of the story.

Alternatively Leah decided to use Persepolis as a stimulus for her blog post but chooses to focus more on the perception of Muslims. Leah beautifully interwove a personal story of her Uncle Bobak who was born in Iran and lived there at the same age as Marji. She went on mentioning how Persepolis has sparked a yearning to get to know more about her Uncle and his experiences. Leah shared, “Because his situation is not unique and millions of non-white Americans, Canadians, and people all over the world are discriminated against and stereotyped as being terrorists”. Leah expresses the current situation in our modern society and how the media in, predominantly, western countries assume that people who are Muslim must be terrorists. As a way of moving forward from this, Leah suggests that people educate themselves about different cultures and engage with narratives, such as Persepolis, to have a more open-minded and worldly view.

Some of the class has already read Persepolis either for pleasure or in their past classes. Julian reflects on his previous experience of reading Persepolis and how reading it a second time has completely changed how he views the graphic narrative. Julian even brings in a quote from one of his book reports, when he was 9, expressing that there were some interesting points however he was not happy with the pacing. Through his experiences like tutoring Syrian refugee children and hearing their stories has helped Julian gain a newfound appreciation for Persepolis. On a different note, Melody chose to discuss the graphic novel as a genre. She shares how taken aback she was when she came to learn that we were going to be reading a comic, and after all aren’t comics for kids? However, her perspective on the genre has changed completely, “Since reading ‘Persepolis’, I have come to realise the power of graphic narratives and animation.”  With the addition of pictures of panels taken from the graphic narrative, Melody makes her argument of how the simplicity of the icons work in conjunction with the text to convey the trauma that Marji faced.

It is quite obvious after reading my classmate’s blog posts that Persepolis has had a profound impact on us as a whole. Not only that, but this graphic narrative has opened our eyes to the potential that the genre of graphic narratives have to offer. Satrapi through her simplistic yet expressionistic depictions of Marji’s childhood in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution are striking while engaging. These elements work symbiotically to convey the story Satrapi is trying to share and has most definitely achieved this in our class.