Persepolis

It was interesting to read Chute’s article on Persepolis. I thought the “graphic narrative” was different from what most little comic strips normally are. This was more of a novel, if anything. It’s interesting how the article addresses a few of the main points in the graphic narrative by Marjane Satrap.
The fact that girls were forced by law to wear a veil seems like they have no liberty or say in what they can and can’t do. She learned much about the Iran-Iraq war, the tortures families and friends endured, along with the injustice being created because of the war. I thought it was really interesting to hear that when she got rebellious, her parents sent her out of the country probably in fear of her getting killed for being so outspoken. It shows how protected the society was when women were to speak out. In the beginning of the article, it talks about how women were pretty much just for show. They had no say in what went and men believed they were the best at everything. Newsflash: times have changed; it’s the 21st century. One thing that really got me was that fact that Anoosh, Marji’s uncle, wanted to see her out of anyone in the family. He told her to never forget the kind of history she’s living in. That’s something that no matter what gender you are, you should always treasure history.
I found it rather odd that Marjane would use just 2 tones of color in her graphic narrative. The colors back and white showed symbolism in the sense that all she wrote about and talked about was violence. She didn’t do the strip in color because violence isn’t normal, and by using colors, it would make the idea realistic. This idea reminds me of the movie Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg. The entire movie was shot in black and white. The only thing that was in color was a little girl in a red dress which signified amount of blood shed that happened throughout the holocaust and the loss of innocence. The tie between both the strip and movie comes in where they each have a meaning behind the writers’ unwillingness to accept reality.