How Does Satrapi Use Nationalism In Persepolis

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Growing up constantly living in fear doesn’t sound too fun, does it? Well, in Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, the author and main character describes her personal experiences during the Iranian Revolution, a violent revolution with bombs being dropped daily, which happened when she was only a little girl. In doing so, she accurately represents nationalism, revolution, and political awareness.
Nationalism is shown multiple times throughout Persepolis. Nationalism is a patriotic feeling, principle, or effort. For example, in the picture to the left, all of those people are nationalists, because they cheer on their country and believe in their military, just like Marjane. Also, in the story, when her father kind of gives up on the battle, and she goes to her room, Marjane marches around up there and talks about how her dad doesn’t love his country, and begins to get angry. (Satrapi 83) This just shows how nationalistic Marjane truly is. She tries to keep up with what is going on, and no matter what is going on, she always believes that her country will come out of it a great country.
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This is shown in the picture to the right, where people are revolting and standing up for what they believe in, as it is their right to do so. Everywhere around Marjane, there is Revolution. In the streets, in the cities, and even in schools, there is revolution being shown. An example of this can be found in the novel, where it shows many people of Iran together shouting “Down with the King!” as the thing they were revolting against at that point was the King of Iran, whom they believed was a horrible leader, and a horrible person. (Satrapi 18) So, they started a revolution. Eventually, after a long time of demonstrating, it worked. The King stepped down, and the people of Iran were free from his rule, and they could choose to set up their own government. That’s just what revolution

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