No Borders Between the Ideal World and Reality

Pg. 318, Bottom panels
Before and After shot.
Panel on the left: Marji as a bright beautiful young lady.
Panel on the right: Marji back to her chain smoking, slightly irritable ways.
Marji beautifies herself, as an act of rebellion, yet at the same time, maybe hiding herself from the harsh reality of Iran. She reluctantly marries Reza as they hope to escape this harsh reality and live in an idealistic world, though in the end, it doesn't work out, as reality comes crashing down on the ill-fated lovers.
Perhaps if Iran wasn't in the strict oppresive state it was in and Marji was given more time, and Reza hadn't sort of forced the marriage upon her, then it may have worked.
But that's reality.

BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL

Throughout the comic, there are panels where Marji will look directly at you, speechless or explaining her thoughts. This is called breaking the fourth wall, which means the character's awareness of the reader/ audience. Although, I'm not actually sure if the author, Marjane Satrapi, meant for Marji to be aware of the readers, or if she wanted to capture the whole "documentary style" in her comic, as this is an autobiography. Either way, I think it's pretty cool.

The Veil of OPPRESSION

At the very first part of the story, we are introduced to the veil and how the children react to it. The veil was meant as a sign of oppression, in which the children were forced to wear these veils to cover most of themselves up, shunning out individuality and diversity. This is represented by Marjane Satrapi's drawings of the children wearing the veil; they all look the same, same eyes, same noses, same mouths, covering up their hair, and clad in black. This links back to 1984, in which the Party's main objective was to make everyone think and act the same, denying them of their basic emotions and personality.

Reading Graphic Novels: Level Up!

A guest speaker came to talk about how to read graphic novels. It was valuable to help understand Persepolis as she explained the subtle representations of certain motifs or literary features presented in each panel. She also explains the different techniques graphic novels use, using the example of Watchmen: Jon Osterman, better known by his alias Dr. Manhattan, steps into a worn down, deserted, cob-webbed bar and remembers decades ago, the same bar, yet filled with people and in prestine condition, where he met his first love, Janey Slater. This scene portrays time and how fast it seemingly goes, through Dr. Manhattan's eyes since he got his superpowers.

Week 1-The Snippets

"Down with the king, down witht he king" p-18. This quote remined me of 1984."down with the king" and"down with big brother". They both sound similar to each other and gave me a connection with eachother.

Week 1: The Snippets

Blog created. Snippets reviewed and analysed. An interesting scene on page 42 with the crowd of people, including Marji and her family, frolicking happily, with their eyes closed, exlcuding Marji. Represents how everyone is blind to the truth, whereas Marji is unknowingly aware, which is presented on another panel, where the parents smiles, celebrating their freedom achieved, whereas Marji frowns, disagreeing with her parents. There is also a dragon/snake like frame slithering around the panel, I guess sort of telling the reader that their hardships are not over yet.