Hello readers!

In my ASTU 100 class this week, we discussed a graphic narrative called Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. It is a memoire about Satrapi’s experience as a child growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the war against Iraq. Persepolis serves as an emotional account of these events, not a historical one; it is Satrapi’s memoire. The discussions that we had in class regarding this graphic narrative prompted many of my fellow classmates to discuss this piece in their blogs.

Some students focussed on the innocence that they felt “Marji”, the child narrator, lost as a result of the conditions that she grew up in. Priya Adhikari, for instance, wrote about how the subtitle of Persepolis, “The Story of a Childhood”, is inaccurate, as the children during this time period grew up with such political, social, and economic unrest, that their childhood was stripped of them. They never had the chance to truly experience it. Although Imaan Punja also discussed the topic of innocence in her post, she chose to draw parallels between the children of Iran and the First Nations children forced to attend Canada’s residential schools. Imaan’s blog post confirms the ideas described by Priya, while making a connection to another relevant issue that haunts Canadian society.

My classmates also focussed on the connections between Satrapi’s graphic narrative and some concepts that have been discussed in their other classes, especially sociology. For example, Sania Shoaib argues the importance of Karl Marx in Persepolis and how Marji is influenced by his views through other members of her family and the larger society. Although Sania’s blog was insightful, I found that I was searching for more depth in her points about Marx; I wanted the discussion to continue. Isabelle Semmelhack’s post satisfied my curiosity by going further than sociology. She created a network of influences by drawing parallels between sociology, political science, and English, further describing the value that each of these disciplines has in their ability to better explain Satrapi’s memoire as a whole. 

Keeping to the theme of using several connections to back up ideas, Nicola Cox’s post regarding Persepolis discusses an academic article that we read last week in ASTU 100, called “The Role of Interpreting Communities in Remembering and Learning” by Farhat Shahzad, as well as her personal experience re-reading Persepolis at an older age, and her findings about Iranian culture from one of her friends who emigrated from Iran. Nicola discovered that the concept of “family” is quintessential in Iranian culture, as Satrapi describes in her memoire. The young character, Marji, is influenced by her parents, her uncle Anoosh, and many other members of her family and community throughout Persepolis. Their opinions matter to Marji, whether she outrightly admits it or not. Nicola also describes the view that Western society posses about families and how it is contrasted with Iranian culture.

Although everyone’s findings were helpful in further understanding Satrapi’s Persepolis, disclosing the numerous perspectives that one can take while reading this graphic narrative, I found my thoughts paralleled by the questions asked by Kendall Manifould, specifically regarding memory. The one that drove the argument in Kendall’s post considered this: “Is memory a reliable source for recounting events?” She went into detail about the importance of remembering and the significance of forgetting, describing how “it is one’s duty to remember and be a witness to important events. It is the brave, and noble, thing to do”.

Based on my personal experiences, it seems inevitable that people remember things how they want to. The emotions that they attach to certain memories, both during the event and after it takes place, guide their judgements and shape their actions and character. This is the view that I took while reading Persepolis. The way that Satrapi wrote about her childhood experiences seems to confirm this point, as she tells readers her story in the way that she wants to portray it, which is not necessarily how it occurred. However, the common theme through my class’ blogs is that Satrapi’s honesty in her writing and the pictures in her frames provoke questions of innocence, childhood, and the significance of remembering traumatic events.

Excellent work, bloggers! I cannot wait to see what you write about next.