Hillary Chute’s article, “The Texture of Retracing In Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis”, commends Marjane’s Satrapi’s ability to capture the trauma she both faced and witnessed as a child in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Through Satrapi’s graphic narrative, “Persepolis” she uses a minimalistic approach, composed of using simple lines and a black and white colour scheme, to depict the unfathomable events against the political revolutionaries in an almost child-like fashion. Although these images may seem unrealistic, and almost exaggerated to the extent of fiction, the true horror lies within the idea that the images produced by Satrapi are “plausible visualizations” (Chute 101). With images including bodies “cut to pieces” (Satrapi 52), and burned with irons (Satrapi 51), I found that images that fit along with these scenes, although extremely simple, captured the almost “simple” of idea of torture itself. A cut up body remains a cut up body. Regardless of the gruesome details Satrapi chose to leave out, the horror of the act itself remains prevalent within each frame.
In recognizing the simplicity of the images, I in turn also recognized the tremendous power that results from a minimalistic style. When skimming through the novel, I was not particularly upset by the passing images; at first glance, the cartoon-like frames did not evoke a strong sense of horror. Yet, this is one of the very reasons that caused “Persepolis” to be included in the American Libraries Association’s (ALA) list of Frequently Challenged Young Adult Books, and in 2014, to be included in their list of Top Ten Most Challenged Books. One of their reasons stated that puts “Persepolis” so high up on these lists include “graphic depictions” (ALA 2014). I found this extremely interesting due to the fact that the images themselves are not extremely detailed or violent in the events that they are representing, yet the idea behind them is enough to propel an association to deem this novel as having content that may be inappropriate to be used in schools.
Furthermore, the Chicago Public Schools in 2013 also deemed Satrapi’s “Persepolis” to contain content that they view as potentially harmful, and as a result, “took steps…to restrict student’s access” (Publisher’s Weekly) to the novel. Again, it was based off the idea that the images were too graphic and thus the inhumanity that it represents is not what they want their “kids [to] walk away with, not [with] the images of someone with exposed body parts urinating on someone’s back or someone’s being tortured” (Publisher’s Weekly). Yet, with extremely graphic and violent content, in the form of films and video games, dominating the attention of the youth, I wonder why images that depict real-life humanitarian crises around the world can be labeled as containing images too explicit to enter the knowledge of students.
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel “Persepolis” exemplifies the ability express trauma in a way “more horrifically than…realism” (Chute 102). In presenting her life through a simple and childish demeanor, she puts it into a context in which I find very easy to comprehend. I feel that I am able to relate to the character, which in a sense similar to myself, is unable to fathom the severity and injustice occurring during the time period, and is learning throughout the novel. In researching the reception of this novel, I was surprised to that “political viewpoint” (ALA Top Ten) was also another reason that this book was listed, along with “politically, racially, and socially offensive” (ALA Top Ten). This makes me wonder as to why having a “political viewpoint” and expressing it through a narrative poses to be an issue according to the ALA. Is it because it differs from their personal beliefs? Or is due to the fact that this book contests and highlights a current ongoing and debatable problem? And how can our own viewpoints and perspectives be broadened if these are the reasons for restricted literature access?
Works Referenced
Chute, Hillary. “The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi’s ‘Persepolis.’” Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 1/2, 2008, pp. 92–110
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003.
“Issues And Trends”. News and Press Center. N.p., 2017. Web. 12 Jan. 2017.
“Frequently Challenged Young Adult Books”. Banned & Challenged Books. N.p., 2017. Web. 12 Jan. 2017.
“Chicago Schools Restrict Access To ‘Persepolis'”. PublishersWeekly.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 12 Jan. 2017.