Hello readers! This week in my ASTU class I read an academic essay by scholar Hillary Chute titled The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”. The essay argues that the newly respected medium in literary form, comic books, is not dominated by men. Chute highlights the brilliant work of Marjane Satrapi for the graphic narrative Persepolis. She also praises the unique qualities of comic books in general. For me, the fact that Persepolis has illustrations added a whole new dimension to the story. When Satrapi could not find the right words to perfectly describe something, she was able to use her drawings to better get her point across to the reader. For example, on page 89 Satrapi describes the forced migration of Iranians living in towns near the border of Iraq because of the intense bombing. In a regular novel she could have described the tragedy and certainly could have had an emotional impact on the reader. However, the comic book medium allowed her to draw the situation, in this case abstractly.

This is her drawing:

The flames in the abstract illustration invoke a greater, or at least significantly different, emotional response rather than what just a novel would do.

A great thing about comic books is their simplicity. Persepolis took no more than two hours to read. Perhaps this simplicity could be used for the benefit of young students and beginner readers. Instead of teaching challenging novels, it may be smart to introduce more graphic narratives to school curriculums. My guess is that young students would enjoy reading and learning more because it would be a lot easier to comprehend what they are doing. This all comes back to the idea of global citizenship and how we can encourage more young people to become global citizens. With greater engagement in education, it is obvious that young people would be further inclined to be global citizens.

Thanks for reading! Please comment with any discussion points!

Ben Ross

Hello everyone! This week in my ASTU class I read the graphic narrative Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. After seeing we were going to be reading a comic book for my first university reading ever, I have to say I didn’t know what to expect. However, I was quickly enthralled by the story. The relationship Marji had with her parents moved me. I’m not afraid to admit I teared up at the end as Marji left her parents for possibly the last time.

Some things I really loved about the story were the powerful illustrations. A constant I noticed was Satrapi’s abstract drawings of mass death. This can be seen on page 15 and page 102. Satrapi’s method of drawing the bodies in a very uniform and spiritual way forces the reader into reacting more intensely. The frame on page 102 particularly “got me” in that Satrapi drew the young boys killed in battle blown up holding their “keys to heaven” close to me. The fact that the Regime tricked young boys into fighting and ultimately dying for an absurd cause makes my blood boil.

It’s that feeling that you get- the feeling of “blood boiling”- that I think makes this story so impactful. Despite this being a comic book, and seemingly child-friendly, Satrapi did not shy away from being graphic, detailed and dark. The more I read about different characters doing terrible and awful things to innocent people the more angry and upset I got, and thus the more I invested myself in the story. Before reading Persepolis I had very little knowledge on the history of Iran and Iraq in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Now, I can say I’m educated on it (with a little more research on my own) and I can further understand the future and current  issues going on in the area.

I think this all ties back into being a global citizen. Persepolis was chosen for my curriculum because the professors knew that it would stir a reaction in me and my classmates. This brilliant graphic narrative further pushes me to strive to impact our world for the better.

-Ben Ross

Works Cited:

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003. Print.