The Complete Persepolis relates the story of Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian woman growing up in the center of the Iranian revolutionary movement, who since a young age saw the horror of the war herself and got involved in the ideologies of the opposition side. The style and figurative language she utilizes to present this autobiography highlights the reality of wartime in Iran and describes society’s ways of living before and after the insurgency. This graphic novel depicts Satrapi’s autobiography with the peculiar angle of how war and revolution affected the lives of the Iranian population. In Persepolis, Satrapi accurately portrays, through satire, irony and symbolism, how the Iranian Revolution changed her perceptions of life in her coming of age journey from childhood to adulthood.
Being a child during the development of the war made Satrapi feel like a foreigner in her native country; this feeling causes desperation and a sense of impotence. Throughout the story, …show more content…
Early in her life, she came across the Key to the Kingdom, a gold key used as a symbol of how far the government will go in order to convince young children to enlist in the military. They were offered a place in heaven and a remembrance as a martyr if they died for the cause. In another context, Satrapi utilizes the cigarette as a symbol of her maturation. Trying a cigarette for the first time she says, “With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye… Now I was a grown-up” (Satrapi 117). The irony is that after all the war and death she saw growing up, a cigarette was not what made her mature. Another example of her growing maturity occurs when she shared a cigarette with her mother when she comes to visit her in Vienna. It was the first time Satrapi and her mother had a conversation as equal, adult women, and not as mother and
Being a child during the development of the war made Satrapi feel like a foreigner in her native country; this feeling causes desperation and a sense of impotence. Throughout the story, …show more content…
Early in her life, she came across the Key to the Kingdom, a gold key used as a symbol of how far the government will go in order to convince young children to enlist in the military. They were offered a place in heaven and a remembrance as a martyr if they died for the cause. In another context, Satrapi utilizes the cigarette as a symbol of her maturation. Trying a cigarette for the first time she says, “With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye… Now I was a grown-up” (Satrapi 117). The irony is that after all the war and death she saw growing up, a cigarette was not what made her mature. Another example of her growing maturity occurs when she shared a cigarette with her mother when she comes to visit her in Vienna. It was the first time Satrapi and her mother had a conversation as equal, adult women, and not as mother and