Persepolis Essay

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“Persepolis is a stylish, clever, and moving weapon of mass destruction”- Sunday Telegraph. Persepolis (first published in the year 2000 by Pantheon Books) is a French-language (now translated into many languages) autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi depicting her childhood from the perspective of Satrapi’s childhood self up to her early adult years in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution. She has effectively condensed the events during the Iranian revolution into a funny yet a meaningful graphic novel (a fictional non-fictional/that is presented in a comic strip form and published as a book.) Persepolis aids in the ‘mass destruction’ of the stereotypical view of Iran as the ‘Axis of evil.’ It also contributes significantly to the ‘mass destruction’ of popular and prevailing notions of what constituted comic and like wise. Marjane Satrapi, by hoisting her own pirate flag, through simple, humorous, comic style writing evokes a powerful empathy and understanding towards the Iranian people. She strikes an intimate chord with the reader by being cleverly humorous and blatantly tragic all at once. By using frames of drawing with minimal text, Satrapi manages to put forward the story in most straightforward, immediately identifiable form. Persepolis, a graphic novel, effortlessly connects with the mass audience, a characteristic that I wish to further imbibe in myself so that I can become a leader of the masses. The usage of minimum text with frames of drawing allows the reader to enter into a different kind of textual interpretation. This is why Persepolis stands out from other autobiographies. Furthermore, This style of story telling aids in the representation of the childlike understanding of the world. Moreover, it helps us to relate to the story much more effectively. The pictures canvas a great deal of emotions and sentiments that the

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