Persepolis Response 2

During an interview with the United Press, Marjane Strapi said, “the only thing I hope, is that people will read my book and see that this abstract thing, this axis of evil is made up of individuals with hopes and lives.” In the interdiction of her book Persepolis, she writes that she wrote the graphic novel as a way to show that Iran is not the only country that has terrorism, fundamentalism, and fanaticism. In other words, she was aiming to challenge the modern perceptions that Iran is one of the most dangerous and morally corrupted countries in the Middle East.
I think Marjane Strapi challenges this myth beautifully in Persepolis. By establishing the story from her point of view, Marjane humanizes our superstitions about the people of Iran. The fact that she begins her story by showing Iran’s gradual change in lifestyle during the course of the new regime and spends a great deal of story time showing her nuclear family talking about and reacting in positive and negative ways to the changes and threat of war establishes a sense of humanity for these people. Also, her plot mechanism to show many of the characters openly disagreeing with the government and living in silence and fear with a sense of powerless to stop the nation’s violence after witnessing many people who they admire and love suffer for exercising the prohibited freedom of speech, reminds her worldwide audience that the physiology of the Iran people isn’t too different from their own. It winds up being a successful storytelling approach.
I think Persepolis confirms and dispels my opinions about Iran. It confirms my opinion that Iran is a warlike country with a religious influence. It confirms the legends that I have heard that the wars in the Middle East are fought against other countries and themselves for no other reason except that the government believes that it is the only method to satisfy squabbles. However, Marjane Strapi’s book also dispels many of my views about Iran as well by solely reminding me that not all people are in the Middle East are bad and even though I may not agree with many of the approaches in the Middle East, the people there also have a souls, families, jobs and everyday lives as well. Furthermore, Persepolis opened my eyes and allowed me to discover that many individuals in Iran don’t agree with their government either, but feel powerless and afraid to stop their government’s corruption.
Persepolis deepened my knowledge of Iran’s history. It also allowed me the opportunity to understand the psychology and sociology of the Iran society and why they would be submissive to such a controlling government (I now understand that it is because they are afraid). While the novel doesn’t do much to change my opinions of Iran’s government today, the book does allow me to sympathize for the people who unlike Marjane, are still living there today.