Currently, life narratives, autobiographies, and memoirs done in the comic form are receiving a “newfound respectability right now” (Chute 92). Just one of these graphic narratives is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis is the story of the authors, an Iranian girl’s, experience and witnessing of the Islamic revolution. It also includes the uprising, protesting, and revolting of her family members such as her father and mother, against the countries Shah; the ruler. Throughout the graphic narrative you see illustrations of the citizens revolting against authority, such as the police and the Shah himself, and when you do, the authorities are colored black and the revolutionaries are colored white. This color differentiation is where my interest lies and what I will explore through specific examples from Persepolis. I will reflect on why the authorities are colored in black and why the revolutionaries are colored in white.

When we think of the colors black and white we association them with abstract ideas. Black is usually associated with the being “bad,” “negative,” or even “violence.” White, on the other hand, is associated with being “good,” “positive,” and “peace.” Satrapi uses these same ideas and associations with color to depict which side of the Islamic revolution was the “right” or “good” side and which was the “bad” or “wrong” side. By doing so we also see what Satrapi’s standpoint is on the Islamic revolution.

One example of the color differentiation in Persepolis is in the chapter “The Bicycle” (Satrapi 10). Satrapi parents are discussing a recent event that took place at the Rex Cinema in bed (Satrapi 14; Dha). A fire had started in the cinema and people were attempting to go inside the cinema to help those trapped inside to get out, but the police forbade anyone from entering and hit those who tried (Satrapi 14-15; Dha). In one panel (illustration) you see the police standing in front of the on fire cinema colored in black. The next panel depicts the police again in front of the cinema but this time you also see the people trying to save the victims inside with buckets full of water. In this panel not only are the police drawn much bigger than the people, showing their power, but the people are colored in white and the police in black once again. The color differentiation continues into the next panel showing the police now taking action against the people by “attacking them” (14). This examples use of color differentiation illustrations that the police are in the wrong. That the police blocking the citizens from saving those in the cinema is a wrong deed. That “attacking” (14) the citizens for trying to help is also the wrong action. Having the citizens in white shows that they are taking the right action.

Another example of the color differentiation and its power to show the authors standpoint on actions is in the chapter “The Veil” (3). Like the title suggests this chapter is about Veils, veils that women were told to wear in schools (4-5). Not everyone agreed with this custom (5). People protested and yelled, “freedom” (5) from the veil. This argument is depicted in a panel that shows a “demonstration for and against the veil” (5). Where women wear the veil, colored in black, are yelling “the veil” (5) in opposition to women, colored in white, yelling “freedom” (5). The color differentiation again shows that Satrapi is in favor of not having to wear a veil. But it also tells us to think of the veil as being “bad” and “negative.”

Works Cited

Chute, Hillary. “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.” Women’s Studies Quarterly, Vol 36, No.1&2, Spring/Summer 2008, pp. 92-110. www.jstor.org/stable/27649737. Accessed 26 Jan. 2017.

Satrapi, Marjane. 1. 1st ed. Paris: L’Association, 2009. Print.

Dha, Gurneet. “The Comic Form: Representations of Violence in the Visual Style of Persepolis.” Accessed 26 Jan. 2017.