In The Novel Persepolis English Literature Essay

In the novel, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, sympathy is generated in the characters. All through the novel, Satrapi is able to communicate and generate sympathy in characters through the use of visual representations in the format of a graphic novel. A graphic novel is defined as a narrative work in which the story is told to the reader using sequential art. Satrapi characterizes many characters in the novel with having sympathy for one another and having sympathy because of the many problems in the community such as the Islamic Revolution which is occurring at the time that this novel was written. The Islamic Revolution refers to the events involving the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under the Shah Mohammad. Moreover, the Islamic republic was under Ayatollah, who is the leader of the revolution. With the use of frames and drawings with minimal text, Satrapi is able to give the reader a different type of textual interpretation. Satrapi is able to communicate this different type of textual interpretation with the use of black and white background and due to each page of the novel having six to eight panels demonstrating her childlike understanding of the world. Although Satrapi communicates sympathy in many other ways, Satrapi is able to best generate sympathy with the use of visual representations, dark imagery and with the use of a child-like understanding of the world.

Satrapi is able to best generate sympathy with the use of visual representations. On page 66 panel 6, there is a visual representation displayed that shows Marjane’s Uncle stating “everything will be alright” (Satrapi 66). This piece of evidence is important when describing how sympathy was generated because with the use of the graphic novel term face, Satrapi is able to express that Marjane’s Uncle was worried because his face expressed sadness due to his head being tilted in a downward position, and his eyebrows being slanted downward. One can interpret that Marjane’s Uncle was feeling sympathy for Marjane in the visual representation due to his facial gestures. In addition, the graphic novel term background is important when conveying sympathy because the black background represents dark and one can infer that everything will not be alright, although Marjane’s Uncle said they would, due of the background being entirely black. Satrapi’s use of imagery and tone immensely depicts that Marjane’s Uncle is experiencing sympathy because one can infer that his tone was sad due to the visual representation displayed showing his head being tilted in a downward position. Satrapi’s style is creating a sorrowful tone to convey the sympathy that Marjane’s Uncle and her family are experiencing. Satrapi generating these emotions that the characters are feeling and expressing further demonstrates how sympathy is generated in my opinion.

Satrapi creates sympathy in the characters with the use of the dark imagery. On page 57, panel 4, there is an image that describes how Ahmadi was tortured. The use of dark imagery used in this panel describing the torture of Ahmadi makes Marjane’s family achieve sympathy after learning the experience that Ahmadi faced. On the same page Marjane states “I never imagined you could use that appliance of torture” (Satrapi 57) .This piece of evidence is also important when describing how sympathy was generated because it further demonstrates the sympathy that was gained because Marjane was unaware of how cruel Ahmadi was treated and she felt terrible after hearing his about his mistreatment. With the use of the graphic novel term borders, Satrapi’s is able to convey the significance of the torture of Ahmadi because it was a bigger panel than the rest of the panels pertaining to the page. Because this panel is bigger than the rest it demonstrates how vivid the torture was and how important the torture was in the novel. One can infer that Satrapi was attempting to convey to readers that the panel with the torture scene was important by making its size bigger than the rest of the panels on the page. This further demonstrates the significance of the torture scene because of the sizing of the panel. In addition, the graphic novel term faces can further illustrate that Marjane and her family were experiencing sympathy because their faces were all shocked and their heads were tilted downward with sorrow looks on their faces. These facial gestures further illustrate the sympathy that Marjane and her family gained after hearing the story of how Ahmadi was tortured and this further illustrates of Satrapi is able to generate sympathy in characters in the novel. Satrapi’s style is creating a vivid and descriptive visual representation to further demonstrate the torture that Ahmadi faced to show how bug of a deal this was. This visual representation further addresses the emotions gained after hearing and being able to visualize the dark imagery of the torture of Ahmadi.

Satrapi generates sympathy in characters with the use of a childlike understanding of the world. On page 8 panel 5, there is an image that displays one of Marjane’s friends reading a letter to a classroom about her father. This piece of evidence is important when describing how sympathy was showed in characters because with the use of word choice, Satrapi is able to illustrate how Marjane was a child and was innocent, because children resemble innocence to due to being young. Marjane has little text when trying to make her friend feel better about the situation. With the use of speech bubbles, one can interpret that because Marjane is a child and innocent due to her response being short when trying to make her friend feel better about the situation with her father. In addition, the graphic novel term face can represent that Marjane was sorrowful which is represented by her saddened face in the panel. . Satrapi’s tone was remorseful because her friend was reminded of her father when reading the letter to the class. Marjane gains much sympathy after hearing the letter and attempts to help her friend feel better. Satrapi’s style is creating a child’s viewpoint on how she addresses her friend trying to make her feel better. In my opinion, this betters my understanding and helps me better visualize the sympathy gained in Marjane although she may not have been able to interpret much due to her innocence.

To conclude, Satrapi is able to depict sympathy in the format of a graphic novel which, as stated earlier, is defined as a narrative work in which the story is told to the reader using sequential art. The Islamic Revolution also plays a role in characters experiencing sympathy for one another in the novel. My understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the novel was better because I learned the significance and how important Satrapi point of view of her life is because it shows the way Iranian people live everyday and how the Islamic Revolution has affected the people of Iran. With the use of frames and drawings with minimal text, Satrapi is able to give the reader a different type of textual interpretation. Satrapi is able to communicate this different type of textual interpretation with the use of black and white background and due to each page of the novel having six to eight panels demonstrating her childlike understanding of the world. There are many other ways and formats that can describe how sympathy in the novel is gained. Satrapi is able to best generate sympathy in characters in the novel with the use of visual representations, dark imagery and with the use of a child-like understanding of the world.

Word Count: 1259