Literature Analysis Essay on Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Introduction

In the past decade, the Western population has increasingly become inclined to perceive Iran as a hotbed of terrorism. However, this stereotype is reinforced because the majority of Westerners largely misunderstand Iran and the circumstances that formulated the current situation. The novel by Marjane Satrapi titled Persepolis gives the reader a detailed view of Iran by narrating the events that characterized her childhood which coincided with the Iranian Revolution. The various frames in the novel are used to communicate several themes such as the similarities and differences between the Iranian culture and advertisements, women oppression, and connection between religion and government. On that account, this paper analyzes how Satrapi uses visual rhetoric to communicate with her audience and present ideas.

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One of the key themes in the novel is the oppression of women. Satrapi depicts this theme in the chapter "The Veil" which shows a connection with advertisements on the oppression of women. In the chapter, the author explains her life in the 1980s by use of an image dated in 1980, the year when a law requiring women to wear the veil was enacted (681). The frame preceding the enforcement of the veil details that The Islamic Revolution was the primary reason behind the passing of the law on the veil (681). By looking at the two frames, the reader notices that the passing of the law on veil was due to religious factors. With men in the government tasked with enforcing such laws on women, it depicts a sense of control that the men are seeking to gain. Similarly, women are oppressed in society through adverts that constantly tell them how they look and how they should look. Most of these adverts that target females are sexual in nature. A good example of adverts that oppress women is that shown in Dolce & Gabbana whereby men surround a woman lying down and one man is seen to be on kneeling on her. Jean Kilbourne elaborates this idea in "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence" and says that the need for dominance is because men do not want to appear as "pussy-whipped" which is a creation of a culture that demeans men who establish meaningful intimacy with a woman (461). Thus, the veil and advertisements are representations or expressions of male dominance over female and how females are vulnerable at the hands of males. Hence, sexual adverts and the veil reinforce the notion that men are more powerful than women.

Although the veil and sexual adverts oppress women, they do so in contrasting ways. On the one hand, the veil covers a woman's body and hair. On the other hand, adverts depict women wearing revealing clothes in an attempt to show off their skin and slim bodies. The motive behind the objectification of women as sexual objects in adverts is the societal standards of what is acceptable as normal. As a result, the societal standards make the adverts to push the limits and increasingly reinforce the stereotypes on the role of a woman. While adverts stem from societal norms, Satrapi is keen to note that the veil is pushed by religion and the government (681). Satrapi points out that this shows the power and extent to which Islamic ideologies have on female bodies. Growing up in a radical family whose parents subscribed to Marxist principles, Satrapi found this phenomenon troubling, threatening, and restrictive which in turn led to a loss of sense of self. To illustrate this idea, Satrapi uses a black and white image to show the lack of individuality but still manages to individualize each character in the images. For instance, in the image below, the figures are humans, each with unique character, and still, possess individuality traits despite putting on the veil. Satrapi's main objective in this image is to dissect and refute the stereotypes and demystify the constructs of the identity of her characters by underscoring that every woman is unique. Satrapi achieves this goal by depicting their restrictive appearance and then adding specific character differentiations.

On a quick glance, the girls seem to be identical. However, on a deeper look, the reader sees that the girls have different eyes, different noses, and different hairstyles. That unique characterization of the figures reinforces her argument that the girls are unique and different each in her own way. Here, Satrapi consciously deconstructs and constructs individuality in an attempt to show that the resistance of Iranian women has been fruitful. There are common stereotypes of women wearing a veil who are dehumanized and viewed as identical and indistinguishable. However, Satrapi refutes these notions by presenting a new perspective of Iranian women and making them to viewed as similar individuals to Western women.

As Iran moved away from Western influence, capitalism ideologies were dismissed. In addition to the enforcement of the law on the veil, other reforms carried out after the revolution included segregation of schools by gender and closure of bilingual schools (682). That is well captured by the frame with a government official who says that the reason for the changes was because "They are symbols of capitalism" (682). The reforms instituted are contrary to the tenets of adverts. In the Western countries, adverts are pillars of capitalism because they call on the public to purchase the product being advertised. However, Satrapi notes that the changes pushed people to protest against the reforms.

Satrapi effectively uses visual rhetoric to illustrate events that Marji encountered but did not comprehend. One of such events is shown on page 14 where a large building with people is on fire. The image shows people running towards the exit and those on fire appear to as if they are turning into ghosts going up to the sky. This frame represents the tragedy at Rex Cinema where 400 people were burnt alive. In her article, Chute describes this image as a "child's-eye rendition of trauma" (99). Chute continues and states that the image is "clearly a child's image of fiery death" (100). That picture shows the reader Marji's state of mind. She could imagine the tragedy but did not fully comprehend it realistically. Even though Marji did not fully understand the event, she was able to imagine how the victims were terrified as seen by the horror in their faces and those that did not manage to escape were burnt alive and turned into ghosts after dying.

The use of visual rhetoric enables the audience to understand and move together with Marji as she grows and matures from the start to the end of the book. In the first pages, Marji imagines everything she hears and reads. The reader sees her unique imagination as well as how she processes everything she learns. For instance, Marji reads a couple of books and starts to imagine the debate between Descartes and Marx on their philosophies. The debate appears to be in a childish way as one of them throws a stone at the other to show his argument is right. As the reader delves deeper into the book, the images that show Marji's imagination and those that are used seem realistic. The last image is seen in the chapter titled "The Dowry" which illustrates Marji's imagination. In this chapter, her mum counsels her against speaking out her mind given that Iran's leaders are religious extremists. Her mother narrates what happened to Niloufar, a young virgin who was arrested for being a communist. Since it is not allowed to kill a virgin, Niloufar was forced to marry one of the guards who took her virginity then executed her. The frame on page 146 shows Marji on her bed lost in thoughts about Niloufar. Unlike before, Marji is not imagining about the bad things that happened to Niloufar as narrated to her since at this point she is able to comprehend all that happened. Instead, she appears unable to bear to fathom all that Niloufar had undergone and so she thinks about her in the state she had last seen her wearing a dress and smiling.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the application of visual rhetoric by Satrapi enables her to communicate ideas such as oppression and how religion is used to hold women down. Satrapi shows that similar to advertisements, the veil is used to oppress women sexually and portray them as sexual objects. Also, visual rhetoric enables Satrapi to deconstruct and construct the notions and stereotypes about veiled women who are perceived as indistinguishable and oppressed by the Westerners. Satrapi uses visual rhetoric to show individuality and uniqueness of character for each woman. Also, visual rhetoric enables the reader to follow the growth and maturity process of Marji hence understand and relate with the story.

Works Cited

Chute, Hillary. "The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapi's" Persepolis"." Women's Studies Quarterly 36.1/2 (2008): 92-110.

Dolce & Gabbana. Advertisement. 26th March 2019. Es.advertolog.com..

Kilbourne, Jean. "Two ways a woman can get hurt": Advertising and violence." Rereading America, Cultural contexts for critical thinking and writing (1999): 444-464.

Satrapi, Marjane. "The Veil" & "The Bicycle." Persepolis. From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader. 2nd ed. Eds. Stuart Green and April Lidinsky. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2012. 681-695. Print.