Women's Rights are Not that 1800's

As mentioned in my previous blog, I sense this comic to be more like a movie rather than a book. That is why whenever I am reading it I sometimes have to stop for a second because the images are so vivid and hard to deal with. As mentioned previously, Satrapi is telling her story, when she unfortunately was living a very hard time in her country. Through her pictures and dialogue I start to sense what she felt: fear, happiness, sadness, relief and more, which demonstrates the power Persepolis has. It has evoked in me the feelings and images that were going around and still are at the time.

Reading Persepolis has brought many memories to my mind, and I don’t know where to begin. I remember when I was a little girl my grandmother told me that when she was studying in the States she met a woman from Iran whose name was Zareena. She was sent by her family to study English in the States for six months and then she would have to go back to her family. My grandmother always repeated to me that it was terrible how women were oppressed, how they had no liberty and how they were always ignored by society. This impacted me so much, that when I lived in Canada and saw women with burkas I felt very sad for them. I always remembered what my grandmother had told them, and all I wanted was for them to be able to show their face. As I got older, I understood and respected that this was part of their culture, but still I was never able to feel okay with it. I felt as if these women were being ignored and oppressed. These feelings started to come back to me when I continued reading Persepolis and Satrapi was forced to wear her burka, or when she was made to wear again her traditional wear instead of jeans (132).

I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if us women, were oppressed by society, and we couldn’t even choose what type of clothes to wear. Before reading Persepolis I connoted women oppression with the 1800’s, but unfortunately that is not the case for all of the countries on Earth. 

Let The Games Begin

When I stated reading the article, “Why the Olympics are a lot like the Hunger Games” I was completely hooked. This may sound cliché, but I am obsessed with the Hunger Game movies because its so unreal, but somehow I find a way to relate with them, as does Samantha Retrosi.

I related the Hunger Games with war. Whenever 18 year old boys or older men were drawn into war because they had to defend their country, and their lives seem as the Hunger Games. You can look at it as the “game” to survive. In Samantha’s case she looks at it as the game to win.

Unfortunately, for her and for many athletes it is an extreme training, that made her grow “accustomed to gritting her teeth under the strain of various forms of pain.” With her article I was able to see the other side of this glorifying event, the side of pain and sacrifice. When I watch the Olympics I view it as if it was a magical event that only the best of the best can go, but I never put too much though about what it meant to be the best of the best. Samantha shows the fans the side that one should actually admire them for, the side of their pain, as towards their side of beauty and physical excellence.

After reading this article, I realizad how much the Hunger Games are in our society, and thanks to Samantha I was able to realize it. Of course, maybe her descrptions are a bit exaggerated so that her appeal to pathos convinces the reader of how terrible her glorifying experience was, but still its the other side to the story that I had never though about.

Congratulations to all those in the Winter Olympics, may the odds be ever in your favor. 

Movement

Comic books are organized in a strange way in which I wasn’t used to seeing. The different sized boxes, with some dialogue or no dialogue at all follows a sort of zigzag pattern that strangely my eyes are able to follow with no problem. The dialogue and image blend into one creating a sense of movement rather than stillnes, like the feeling when I read a book.

I have pondered about what I enjoy more, a comic or a novel and I haven’t been able to decide, both of them have their pros and their cons. When I read novels I am able to imagine the setting and the characters, which is one of my favorite parts. Its nice when I read a book such as The Great Gatsby, and it comes out in theaters and I can compare of what I imagined them to be like, and how they are in the movie. Imagining all of the characters, settings, and moments of a novel are the magical and unique sparks of reading a book. But when it comes to imagining the characters in the comic it’s a little more difficult. At the beginning of the comic I was immediately introduced to Satrapi and her family. Although the comic introduces me to their physique, my imagination leads me to picture their movement. Due to the images and the dialogue they create a sense of movement that I can picture perfectly in my head. It takes me about 30 seconds to read and observe the pictures and texts of the page, but it doest seem like it because I sense a feeling of a film rather than of a book. The great thing about reading a book or a novel is that my imagination is on a roll when I am reading either of the two, that’s the fun part.

As mentioned in my previous blog, Persepolis tells the story of Marjane Satrapi, a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. This was a very hectic and sad time for the Islamic people, specially the revolutions like Satrapi’s family. I had studied this time in Global Studies and saw how terrible it was, but its crazy to think that in that comic book I can picture everything, and feel as if I was their with Marjane accompanying her in her every move. I was with her when she had to put on her burka, when she went to the riots, but most of all I continue to be with her because I not only think of her when I am reading the book, but at times of the day when I give thanks of how lucky I am to have the freedom I have.  Satrapi demonstrates these times of her life with the different images that express her emotions as well as the actions that were taking place. Again it seems more like a movie than a book, because all of the images connect to make one story. As obvious as it might seem, it’s unbelievable.

 This page is an example of how I can sense the movement of the story. Here, a friend of the Satrapi's who had been in jail is telling stories about how they tortured people at the Prison. As I read it I felt as if it was a movie rather than just a book. I could imagine what his voice sounded like, and how the faces of the family was stunned. How they would move around the room shocked, as well as the reactions of the prisoners when they were tortured. Here we can also see the effects of the different sized boxes in the comic. They are small when its more like a sequency and just speaking, but when a big image as the one there appears, its because it is more important, or it is taking us back in time. 

Images Tell a Story of Their Own

My perception towards comic novels started to change when I read Maus. Before, I associated comic books with children and super heroes, but now I connote them with creativity and surprises because you never know what that comic novel can be about. I just started reading Persepolis (comic memoir) by Marjane Satrapi and it is no different. It is the memoir of a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

Opening a comic book is similar to opening a regular book; you don’t know what you are going to find. At first I didn’t know what to expect about Persepolis. I looked at the front cover and I knew that it had to do with the Middle East due to the picture of a girl with a burka. Then I started passing those black and white images and found that it had to do with some kind of revolution and hectic time. Being able to decipher what the comic was going to be about by just looking at the images was very cool, I felt as if I was in third grade again; in a good way. Its funny to think that when I was little all I wanted to do was to be all grown up, and read a 500 page novel, whereas today the uniqueness of comic books is what’s brightening up my reading.

What most stood out to me was that the images are straight to the point just like the dialogue. It shows and says exactly what is necessary so that the reader can feel what Satrapi was feeling at the time. What give it a more realistic feeling to the comic, is that there is no remorse. For example, on top of page 52, there is a big picture of a man cut into pieces, and all the quotation says is “In the end he was cut to pieces” (52).  When I saw this image it made my legs feel weird and I sensed a feeling of disgust. These images make the reader approach the comic with pathos, which Satrapi intelligently utilizes so that the reader, like myself gets hooked to the book. Now I always want to know what will come next, but with caution because it’s full of surprises.