Persepolis: The Bridge Between Parents And Children

Improved Essays
The Bridge Between Parents and Children What makes a good parent? There are an infinite number of ways to approach this question. Different parents would argue for different ways of parenting. The definition of a “good” parent differs for different parents. Throughout the novels Persepolis and MAUS, two parent-child relationships are witnessed that help in evaluating and comparing the different parenting styles two different parents with different environments and circumstances adopt. The two parent child relationships that will occupy the focus of this essay are that of Marjie and her mother and the other is Artie and Vladek. The comparison and contrast between the permissive type of parenting style in the case of Marjie and her mother and …show more content…
According to the Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, Marjie’s mother can be classified as a permissive, or indulgent parent – “Indulgent parenting, also called permissive parenting is a style of parenting in which parents are very involved with their children but place few demands or controls on them” (Sruthy and Naachimuthu, 676). This is not the best type of parenting because parents place fewer controls on children which gives them more freedom that the children can misuse to their advantage. For example, Marjie attempts to try a cigarette at the mere age of ten years – “With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye.” (Satrapi, 117). This is strongly supported by the article above where it talks about permissive parenting as a type of parenting in which children tend to be more inclined towards engaging in misleading practices like drug use – “Children of permissive parents may tend to be more impulsive and as adolescents may engage more in misconduct such as drug use” (Sruthy and Naachimuthu, 676). There are definitely more cons than pros for permissive parenting because although being open and allowing adolescents their freedom is crucial, it is also important to note that too much of it is …show more content…
On its surface, MAUS is the story of Vladek Spiegelman’s experiences in the Holocaust. However, the relationship between Artie and Vladek is the central narrative in the novel. Right from the start of the novel, it is witnessed that the two do not get along really well and they also do not see each other really often, even though they live close by – “I hadn’t seen him in a long time- we weren’t that close.” (Spiegelman, 11). The two share an unfriendly relationship and Artie only starts visiting his father more often to inquire more about his experience in the Holocaust because that is the subject of his next novel. This is really selfish on Artie’s part and shows that he does not appreciate his father as much as he should – “I visited my father more often in order to get more information about his past.” (Spiegelman, 43). Another incident where the selfish nature of Artie is seen in his relationship with his dad is when Vladek is in need of fixing his home’s drain pipe and Artie denies to offer help – “No way – I’d rather feel guilty! Besides, I’m too busy, and he can easily afford to hire somebody” (Spiegelman, 97). Artie is very insensitive towards his dad and disregards his dad when he is in need of help which is extremely cruel and unsympathetic. This shows that they do

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Later on, Art’s guilt from this event is later obvious as he goes to visit his father and ask him if he needs any help with household chores. Without a doubt, the event from Vladek’s life had put a strain on not only his life, but his family’s life as well. The rocky relationship with his son was a vigorous one. In volume two of Maus, Art begins speaking to his wife about his father. “I mean; I can’t even make any sense out of my relationship with my father.…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Persepolis Theme Essay

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are few things that traditional western culture values more than protecting the innocence of a child. It is not often considered, but many go to great lengths to guard this intangible element of childhood. “The Shabbat”, an excerpt from Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis, chronicles young Satrapi’s loss of innocence in a terrible way. This comic tells the story of a little Iranian girl who is living through the Islamic Revolution, all from a first-person retrospective point of view. In other words, this story recounts the horrors that a little girl faces in a war zone.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What determines adulthood? Childhood is among one of the most important parts of a person's life and many people want their childhood to last a long time, but for others its cut shorter than they anticipated. In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi shows us how a child can quickly become an adult when they experience major life events with stress and trauma. In the book Persepolis , a young pre-teen by the name of Marji is having her normal childhood as everyone else, but that is until the government of her country, Iran, gets overthrown by a new ruler. Everything around her begins to change, the way people dress, the way people act, the way everything around her country worked , Marji may also be one of the things to change.…

    • 925 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Relationships between characters are often used to develop important ideas and themes. An author will use interactions between different characters to convey their feelings and beliefs. This method helps the reader to understand the concept the author is making. In the novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, the author introduces multiple characters that each have a different relationship with the main character, Marjane. As the story progresses, Marjane meets different friends and family members.…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Holocaust left a lingering hurt with many of the survivors and perpetrators of the war. As a result, victims often suffered from post-war trauma. Traumatic responses, by first generation Holocaust survivors, were often projected onto their children. Authors Art Spiegelman and Hans-Ulrich Treichel illustrate the above in their memoirs Maus I and II and Lost. Both the parents in the memoirs re-enact their repressed emotions, regarding their experience in the Holocaust, through their children.…

    • 1849 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The fact that Art is attempting to heal himself along with depicting Vladek’s story, is evident in his biography. Author Elmwood believes that by intertwining himself into the narrative of his father, Art is able to overcome his insecurities and become a part of the family’s history (701). Besides, when Art discovers that Vladek read his comic strip about Anja and asks Vladek if he is angry, Vladek responds that he is glad that Art got it outside his system (104). Thus, in Maus I and II, there is a sense that Vladek and Art are aware that Art is a victim of intergenerational trauma and he needs healing, but in Lost, the narrator seems oblivious, at times. “The narrator whose suffering is to live with traumatised parents and the consequent loss of an identity is more detached from the distress that his parents experience,” explains author Van der Merwe (4).…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Vladek on the other hand was just blunt and spoke to his son as more mature than he really was. Religion also played an important, though subtle role in Vladek and Artie’s…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Peer pressure is difficult to withstand during teenage years, especially when teenagers are on their own far away from parents or guardians. In Marjane Satrapi’s memoir, Persepolis, the chapter titled “The Croissant”, does not suit the story in the chapter because most of the events that happened in the chapter have nothing to do with a "croissant ". The story was about a young girl named Marji, who was sent abroad by her parents during her early teenage years to study because of a war in her country and the lifestyle she led. Marji behaved like most teenagers who cannot withstand peer pressure. She was naïve, unfocused and trusting.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Theme Of Guilt In Maus

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Vladek has many odd personality traits and most can be connected to his experience in the holocaust. In the 70s, Vladek is hard headed, short tempered, and is a stingy and cheap with his money. Vladek’s relationship with mala is suffering and barren. Prior to the holocaust he shows none of these traits.…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When reading the novel the readers can read that Art and his father, Vladex, don’t have a healthy relationship. There are times in the novel that the reader can feel Art resentment towards his father and dead brother who…

    • 1003 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    January of 1978 was the beginning of ten years of dark times for Iran. The people of Iran had to suffer through a revolution, a new government, and a war. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi is a book featuring a young girl Marji who was growing up while these negative events were happening. Marji had to face many issues growing up with her parents, herself, the war, and the new government. Marji was able to get through these events, however it was not without deaths, violence, and negativity.…

    • 1418 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Conflict In Maus

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages

    They have just begun and already are having disputes about what the book should incorporate and how it will affect the story. Vladek wants the story to have a beginning, middle, and end; but Artie wants to know the details, and how and why decisions were made under such tough circumstance (Young 678). Artie tries to control his fathers telling of the story; where as, Vladek just wants to tell his…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Likewise, this evident in the scene in Maus II where Vladek in the present, much to the embarrassment of Spiegelman and his wife, uses his status as an ex- inmate at a concentration camp to not only return several bags of half eaten groceries to a store but also get “six dollars worth of new groceries for only one dollar. ”(Spiegelman 2: 90). Moreover, the humour in this scene, which stems both from Spiegelman and his wife’s mortification and, to a degree, Vladek’s gall, serves to illustrate Vladek’s more negative qualities. Moreover, such an illustration, in combination with Spiegelman’s portrayal of his father as a man who repeatedly told his wife “And you’ll see that together we’ll survive.” (Spiegelman 1: 123) when they were facing the horrors of life under the Nazi regime, prevents Vladek from turning into the stereotype of the saintly Holocaust survivor and, instead, paints him as a human being who is both as noble as he is flawed.…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a Polish Jew, Vladek Spiegelman, the main narrator of the Maus series and the author’s father, was sent through concentration camps during World War II and had to undergo many difficult situations along with other Jews in the same situation who were shunned by German Nazis. Vladek and other Jews are portrayed as mice in the author’s illustrations, with the Germans being depicted as cats, representing how Jews were seen as vermin and thought to be inferior to the Germans, who were the “vicious predators”. Throughout his life spent in the concentration camps, Vladek looked for opportunities to use his wide array of skills and resourcefulness to impress the Nazis, in hopes of ultimately receiving better treatment. Although he was able to live through these challenging times, the events he experienced ultimately dominated his entire life and behavior for years following the end of the Holocaust. He is portrayed as a man with his own racial prejudices even though he, too was a victim of racist beliefs.…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the course of the Iranian Revolution, there were many conflicts in the fight between individual freedoms and collective national obligations. Ideally, individual freedoms and collective national obligations should coincide, but they clearly did not coincide during the Iranian Revolution. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi and "Individualism and Freedom: Vital Pillars of True Communities" by Edward Younkins affect the readers' views on individual freedoms and collective national obligations by stating the importance of individual freedoms while undermining the strengths of collective national obligations. First of all, a source that convinces the reader of the importance of individual freedoms is Persepolis:…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays