Emily Knippel
December 3, 2008
Non-Western Literature
Persepolis in the Flesh
Non-Western literature is a lesser known, misunderstood genre of literature that many people ignore. I am one of the many persons who chose to avoid this unique type of literature simply because I was under the impression that non-western authors are attempting to publish their inner thoughts, fears, and emotions to an extreme that I could not begin to understand. However, after taking this course, I now realize that non-western literature in neither scary nor complicated, but rather beautiful in its own individual way.
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel The Complete Persepolis is by far my favorite novel of the semester. Although it may seem less complex than some of the other, more intense novels such as Gabriel Garcỉa Màrquez One Hundred Years of Solitude or Uzodinma Iweala Beasts of No Nation, Satrapi’s novel expresses biographical information about her life that one could not help but be drawn to. This beautiful graphic novel is a compellation of different day to day events that take us through main character Majane’s (Marji) life as a young adolescent in Iran, her teenage years studying in Austria and eventually into her adult life. This diary-like format with vivid pictures and minimal words creates a life within each page, a rare quality in books, specifically in western literature. I truly appreciated Satrapi’s story and believe that this would be an excellent book for a high school English classroom.
Although it was very difficult to choose only ten pages of text, I have decided to focus on her adolescent years which were discussed earlier in the novel. Throughout the entire novel, specifically in the first few sections, I felt a very strong connection to Marji. I like Marji, always felt that I was an adult trapped in a child’s body. Marji constantly commented on how she could not wait to be an adult and make her own decisions; as if her parents were simply imprisoning her from something better. However, as Marji (and I) quickly found out, what seemed as an undeserved imprisonment was none other that an attempt to keep her safe from the dangers of the outside world.
In the section entitled The F-14s, Marji and her father were working in her father’s office when a group of fighter jets flew past the office windows. Marji, excited, believed that the jets were simply army fliers taking their planes out for a spin, however, Marji’s father quickly corrected her, explaining that they were Iraqi fighter jets passing by after bombing their country’s capital, Tehran. Marji became enraged as Satrapi illustrated her as standing in an aggressive, closefisted position. This is a very powerful and deep illustration that I found quite memorable.
After reading this particular section, Marji’s drastic change in emotion immediately reminded me of my experiences with 9-11. Although I was only thirteen and did not really understand what had and was going to come of that awful day, I, like Marji, was quite enraged and ready to fight back. In later pages of this section, Marji, still enraged, asks her father whether he will be fighting. When he abruptly answered: “What are you talking about? Of course I’m not going to fight. Why should I fight?”(Satrapi, 81), I was not surprised to read of Marji’s disgust over her father’s lack of patriotism as well as her utter lack of reality. She is constantly trying to be an advocate for the war, no matter who she offends. With that said, in the final pages of this section, Marji is given a big wakeup call when asked in school to write what the war means to her. After Marji presents her political and historical essay to the class, her friend, Paridisse is asked to come up and read her paper. After explaining that her father was killed in the war, Paridisse continues by reading a letter saying goodbye to her father. As Marji and her classmates break down into tears, she found a new understanding as to why her father was against fighting for his country. Although still enraged and supportive of the war, it seemed as though Marji took a step back when discussing the war. Death has a way of affecting everyone. In Marji’s case, death humbled her.
As I continued to read on, I could not help but to think back on all the lives that have been lost over getting a few essential items such as food. Sadly, what was once a fully stocked grocery store had empty shelves and seemed out of business. Marji’s mother explained how people are worried about the war and feel the need to stock up on as many nonperishable food items as possible. Later in this section, Marji and her mother actually witness two women fighting over a box of rice. Disgusted, Marji’s mother scolds both of them, explaining how if everybody took only what is needed, then everyone would have enough. I found this section to be rather inspirational and wise. I completely agreed with her and wished that I would have the guts to stand up for something like this. To my surprise however, as the section continues, Marji’s mother asks how many boxes of rice they bought, then she hypocritically suggests that Marji and her go to the store across the street and stock up on a few more boxes.
I must say that I laughed after reading this section. Although the Satrapi family seems to be a humble, aggressive, but civil family, they are really no different than any other family who supports or is against the war. The book definitely expresses the moral: every family for themselves. The Satrapi family is very willing to help anyone in need, but they always seem suspicious, and definitely express a sense of hypocriticalness.
One of the main reasons that I chose these two sections is because they illustrate reality. This entire book is very realistic and down to earth, expressing realistic views about the war and the truth about what a war can do to an entire country. In the middle of section two, a few women are chatting about how many women are prostituting themselves for money and food. This was the cold, hard truth. However, these gossiping woman were verbally insulting southern women (one of which who is shopping with the Satrapi’s). Of course feeling ashamed and humiliated, the Satrapi’s left the store quickly. This is just one of the many examples shown within this section that proves my point; when war occurs; people who were once friends are now enemies. It is sad but true, and Satrapi is not afraid to express these truths within these two sections.
Marjane Satrapi is a very powerful and opinionated woman. She is very well-educated, studying many aspects of all different subjects specifically fixating on history, religion, and literature. Due to her diverse background and interesting points of view, I immediately compared Satrapi to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, specifically Spivak’s interesting topics within her book entitled Can the Subaltern Speak? in which she discusses and criticizes post-modern thought while tying in the topics of feminism, philosophical meaning, and government in general.
Like Satrapi, Spivak is also a very opinionated woman with very bold ideas about what should and should not be used within a government. Specifically discussing postmodern thought, Spivak blatantly states how governmental leaders are ignoring “the question of ideology and their implication in intellectual and economic history” (Spivak, 272).
Although Spivak is very deep and can be interpreted in many different ways, Spivak seems to be very unsupportive of government, pointing out that it is very Western, acting out through “radical political movements to romanticize the other, especially against the notion that third world peoples must lead the fight against multinational global capitalism” (Spivak, 2).
A perfect example of a radical political movement is the Iran-Iraq war. Satrapi does an excellent job of supporting Spivak’s views that the huge, overpowering government can only lead to a negative outcome. Through her book, Satrapi was able to get her message across to all who would read that what happened in Iran after the Revolution is a direct result of bad governmental choices. Many Iranian people, including Satrapi and her family, did lash out against the government through rallies, refusing to wear the veil, hosting / attending parties with alcohol, and housing criminals running from the law.
Another aspect of Spivak’s book which is also highly evident within Satrapi’s literary work is the subject of feminism. Satrapi discusses many different aspects of feminism within the society in which she lives including the veil which woman must wear at all times due to the male’s sexual attraction to female hairstyles and woman’s lack of rights in a society of powerful male figures. Within the two sections chosen however the main topic expressed is actually the lack of feminism. Both sections discuss and illustrate woman shopping for food, the humiliation of being publically ridiculed for prostitution, and the lack of individuality by wearing the veil in public. Interestingly enough however, Spivak introduces the topic of essentialism and how this topic seems to dismiss feminism as “stressed alliances among women across their differences” (Spivak, 2).
I found this to be utterly fascinating. It takes the topic of how women seem to find a sense of discomfort in uniformity, yet their natural differences make them uniform. Satrapi seems to also have found comfort in knowing that although she is very different than most girls her age, supporting a war that many people were fighting against, as a woman; she felt a strong sense of unity when protesting with her family. Spivak finishes her thought by discussing how “a person’s or group’s identity is relational, a function of its place in a system of differences” (Spivak, 3). This can also tie in the shopping scene. While Satrapi and her mother are shopping, they run into two women fighting over food. Although her mother stood up for what is right, in the end, she actually joins in acting against her initial views.
In literature, it is important to look at many different aspects of media when attempting to truly understand what an author is trying to portray. In the case of Satrapi however, she use of illustrations assists readers in visualizing what Satrapi is professing. With that said, even in the case of a graphic novel, a piece of art such as a sculpture, painting, or photograph can still enhance the ideas from within the literature.
Because I consistently visualized what loneliness of the Iranian people during this time specifically during the two sections chosen, I decided to use a painting entitled Two Sisters, painted by Picasso. It is a beautiful blue painting of two veiled women meeting together. As a viewer, I can actually feel the cold, loneliness of these two women; their facial expressions scream sadness and helplessness, much like Marji and her mother’s faces when walking in the supermarket and walking out nearly empty-handed.
Looking at the painting from a different aspect, one could also notice that within the painting, the two women seem to find comfort in one another as if they are there for moral support. Due to this observation, one could connect this beautiful painting to the beauty of the togetherness shown when Mali and her family walked into the Satrapi house, homeless, sad and in need of friends. The comforting look on the family’s face as Marji and her family welcomed them in with open arms is very heartwarming and memorable.
As previously discussed, although Satrapi’s novel does a beautiful job of discussing the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988, while reading this book, I constantly found myself comparing this book and the Iran-Iraq war to 9-11. Specifically within the first chosen section, The F-14s, I noticed many similarities including Marji’s original reaction to fight and the drastic change as the novel continued, the shock of Marji’s parents, much like most of our parents who actually understood what was currently happening, and Marji’s friend Pardisse, who lost her father in the war. Although most people may not know someone who died in the war personally, a little part of every American hurts when another soldier does not return home, much like the class as Pardisse read her beautiful letter to her father.
Because of this drastic change in our lives after 9-11, with the bombing of the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, as is with Iran after the bombing of their capital, Tehran, it seems appropriate to bring up the news stories published and reported in the days after 9-11 in comparison to the radio and television reports of 1980-88.
The New York Times did an excellent job of reporting the news as prompt and accurately as humanly possible within the immediate days after the plane crashes. On September 17, 2001, author Rick Bragg wrote and published a touching story in the New York Times entitled “A Nation Binds Its Wound in Red, White, and Blue”. Within this story, Bragg discusses how after that tragic day on September 11, what was assumed to be a ciaos, has turned into a nationwide community, all supporting our great country. It is no longer a subject of race, gender, or age, but rather that all who live in America are Americans and United We Stand. Sadly however, in the case of Satrapi, Iran did the exact opposite. Iranians took over grocery stores, attempted to flee their home town, and all turned against each other. As previously discussed, it was every family for themselves and their country suffered as a result.
The sad truth about war is that we are fighting against other countries and yet, in the scheme of things, we are inevitably fighting each other as well. As we have proven over the past year or two, citizens that once supported the war are now turning against our government; while our government feels the need to lie in an attempt to please, and yet as time has shown, is not succeeding, and our country is now in a state of panic. What the New York Times neglected to mention in the heartwarming story is that although most people came together for the first few weeks, and as the news slowed and the fighting began, so did the splitting of our country.
Marjane Satrapi was one of the few Iranian women of her time to get out of her suffering town, learn about the outside world, and as a result, make a name for herself. She was able to tell the story that her news anchors and columnists refused to report and she should be praised as a result. It seems as though our current publications in the West neglect to tell the real story as is in many western literary works. I can only hope that someone will take after Satrapi and write the real story of the tragedies that occurred seven years ago. Although Satrapi was ridiculed by some for her beautiful piece, if not now, everyone will appreciate it later.
Works Cited
Braggs, Rick. “A Nation Binds Its Wound in Red, White, and Blue.” New York Times
Sept. 2001: 1 Dec. 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/17/national/17FLAG.html?ex=1228453200&e
=86c5dc8d4c61ffc1&ei=5070
Picasso, Pablo. “Painting Abstract Art.” 1907. 1 Dec. 2008 http://pablo
picasso.paintings.name/blue-period/gallery/two-sisters-meeting.php
Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. Trans. Mattias Ripa and Blake Ferris. New York:
Pantheon, 2007. 80-93.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Teachiwiki. 1942. 1 Dec. 2008
http://www.readysubjects.org/teachiwiki/index.php/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak_%22
an_the_Subaltern_Speak%3F 272
Spivak, Gyatri Chakravorty. Unknown Title. 1942. Class handout. 2-3
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