Persepolis is Complete

Now that I have viewed the film, I can get a better understanding of what Majane Satrapi went through and how other people in the film were affected by emotions. As Majane's life passes by, she becomes more aware and more mature as she gets older by the events that occur that affect her family and the country she lives in. She lost many people she cared for including her uncle with gave an everlasting effect on her throughout the film. We see how the regime took control of Iran and how many innocent people were punished. Marjane learned to become independent and let go of her past to try and better her future.

My impression of Marjane is that she is a kind hearted girl but gets influenced to easily by her family and peers. She hangs out with the wrong people that gives her the idea to make bad judgements. She still is family oriented but slowly separates from them physically and emotionally. She had to leave them to be free from Iranian control but then she does not speak to them for a long period of time. So when they are reunited it is a little awkward being that they do not know what she looks like or even what she has gone through. By the end of the film, Majane is liberated from her past and forbidden to return to Iran as her mother tells her so this we can see that she is her own person ready to take on the rest of her life and make her own decisions. (Mason Roessler Post 21)

The Complete Persepolis

In the movie "The Complete Persepolis" there was a lot of emotional tyranny going on. It almost seemed like the main character, Marjane could never win. Things seemed just to go from bad to worse, as many close to her died, her city was being bombed and she always feared for her life. She was allowed no individual identification, she could never express herself and she acted out in ways that got her thrown out of school and into some major trouble.

Marjanes struggle I felt acted almost motivational to the reader. It made you read the story of her life and realize that nothing is impossible, and that where there is a will, there is a way. You can make it through anything if you just believe in something. She struggled enormously throughout her life, but always found a way to make the best of the situation she was in.

-Cali (last post)

Graphic Novel Within the Film

After viewing most of the film and completing the book its hard to say which one I like better. If the novel wasn't graphic then I would most definitely choose the film because it allows you see what the author is trying to portray. However, because Satrapi choose to write her story in a graphic novel form it allows for us as readers to really imagine and view what is happening. It allows us to learn about difficult topics in a lightened setting.

The only thing that the film really has over the book is that you are able to pick up on sarcasm, characters attitudes and body language because they are moving and actually speaking the dialogue instead of a person just reading it off the page. I really enjoyed both the book and the film and I don't really read much except for when it's for classes, but this novel I could see myself reading outside of class. It had an interesting topic that is still in our current news and the way the author presents it is easy to learn from. (Shawn Parkhurst, Last Post!)

Film vs Book

I really enjoyed the film. I like how she made serious times, less serious with humor. The humor in a way always lightened the intensity of what was going on. I think the film explained everything, and instead of the book it like showed her true emotion. I would rather watch a film, then read a book because you can feel and hear emotion through a film and not reading. You can get some emotion from readings but not as much in the film. That is how I personally feel. I really hope we can finish watching the film, because it was very interesting. (Nicole Butzke, Post 22)

Changing Stereotypes

Satrapi's use of sarcasm in both the film and graphic novel bring lightness and comedy to some very heavy topics and help her . After 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, many nations and people generalized their opinions of the small fundamentalist group that planned and executed the attacks, to describe all Muslims of the world. Marjane's ability to exaggerate the appearances and feelings of others, as well as her own appearance and feelings humanizses the characters and enables her audience to better relate to them. In doing so, she is able to seperate Muslims and those from Iran from the small fundamentalist groups that gave all Muslims the negative stereotype. By making this clear separation, she is able to portray how the majority of citizens of Iran are in fact victims, and not murderers. She is able to show how all of the nation suffered. By showing this she enables her audience to empathize with a nation they once had looked upon with disgust and disdain.
Cailee- #

Motion Picture or Graphic Novel??

Similar to Sarah, thus far I am unable to decide whether I enjoyed reading the book more than I enjoyed watching the motion picture. This is the first instance where I have experienced this kind of dilemma; I have always preferred the book over the movie based on it. This is normally because the movie is lacking in details. More specifically, I feel I am unable to gain insight about the characters' thoughts and feelings in a movie version; whereas in the book, these elements are abundant. The thoughts and feelings of the characters' are an integral component of any story, therefore when a movie is lacking in these areas, it becomes difficult to extract the same meanings and insight that the book depicts.

It is difficult for a motion picture to portray these fundamental components that comprise the book. Where an author can narrate a characters complete reaction to an event, person etc; a character in a movie can only use his actions and dialogue to portray this same reaction. However, in the motion picture, "The Complete Persepolis," Marjane is able to narrate her own feelings and reactions. She is also able to better depict the reactions of others through her narrations and through the animations. Her use of sarcasm and exaggeration enable Satrapi to clearly illustrate her thoughts, as well as the thoughts of other characters. For example, when Marjane catches her boyfriend cheating; she uses sarcasm in her images and word choice to literally paint a picture of her feelings to the audience. She portrays him in the the exact opposite way she did earlier in the motion picture. Instead of being romantic and loving, he becomes a disgusting, lazy pig. This exaggeration helps the audience to understand her feelings at this time in a way a movie cannot. Instances like this help the audience to gain insight in order to better understand the important themes of the film.
Cailee J- #

Majane's life on the big screen

After reading the comic book version of "The Complete Persepolis" I got the full picture of what was going on in Iran and how the whole country viewed what was going on. When Marjane moved out of Iran and into Europe for the most part you could see her thoughts and words, but could not really get the way she sounded. You had to use your imagination as to how she sounded in her expressions.
Putting things in motion for the comic book into a movie really helped to get a better picture of how Satrapi wanted things displayed in my mind at least. I could see the way she really sounded and the humor she involved in her story. It didn't really change much from book to movie just made it easier to understand the actual tone of the story.
Post 1 Kevin Ostempowski

Marjane in motion

I feel as if the movie did an excellent job of portraying every single aspect about Marjane. It may have even done a better job than the book itself. Usually it is nowhere even near close to that being the case, but since the book was a graphic novel in the first place, it seems as if the movie had to do a better job, because it puts more motion into play. This leads to many more observations being made about characters reactions and emotions.
Not only does it lead to more observable characters, but now their emotions dont have to be exaggerated as much in order to get the point across. What I mean by that, is that in graphic novels and comic books the emotions on the characters face, and their over all posture presents their feeling to the reader. Usually, in order to assure that it is clear what emotion the character is feeling at the time they make their expressions extreme. In the movie however this is not necessary, because the characters can show full movements, giving them opportunity to be more natural and subtle about how they actually feel while still easily showing what's actually going on in their minds.

Which is Better?

This is one instance where I actually can’t decide if I like the book or the movie better. Usually I always side with the book, mostly because I find that it has more detail than the movies. But in this instance, both the movie and the book have positive and negative qualities.

The book is wonderful. I loved it, once I got into the storyline, and got used to the different style of the graphic novel. I actually feel that the book was better as a storyline. It seemed to flow better, even though the stories were the same in the movie. I expect movies to have some sort of transition between the different scenes, but this movie really seemed to jump around. This jumping around during the scenes could be Satrapi reminiscing about her childhood. Memories like that never seem to flow in a coherent manner. We are just observers looking in on a woman’s memories of her traumatic childhood. Another thing I liked about the book more than the movie was more detail into her adolescence and young adulthood. I feel like the movie really focused on the details in her childhood, and not so much her time in Europe, and her time in the university. The book was more detailed about her life, while the movie, like most movies, had to cut things out, most likely for time reasons. Another thing I like about the book is that the still images of all of the soldiers, and other frames where it is one figure used over and over are more dramatic as still images. The movie takes away a little bit of the striking quality of the still images.

I also like the movie better than the book for different reasons. As a design student, I really liked the fact that they left the childhood memories in black and white, while the present Satrapi sitting in the airport is in color. It gives a sense of drama to the war scenes from her childhood, while also lending an idea of Satrapi not remembering them in all their detail. She remembers what happened in them, but not well enough to remember the colors of the scene. This happens to everyone. Memories tend to get foggy or faded after long periods of time. I like that they brought that idea into the film. It really gives a sense of reality to the whole thing. Another thing that I liked about the movie more than the book is that the movie allows the characters to become more real. The characters are now able to move around, and show better facial expressions. This allows the audience to better understand exactly how the characters are feeling. In the book, we can get a general idea of how the characters are feeling, but the animation allows Satrapi to show minuscule signs in the facial expressions of the characters that really tell us exactly how they are feeling.

So far the movie has done a good job of imparting the story line, and I can’t wait to see the rest of it!

(Sarah Jaworowicz, Post 23)

Motion Picture Novel

"The Complete Persepolis" was an enlightening book that displayed the harsh conditions in which Marjane Satrapi had to endure while growing up the Middel East. To read about the events that took place was one thing, but to actually view it in movie format helped to bring more life to the story. The characters are now given a voice and can represent their feelings in a more direct demonstration opposed to the novel. The movie itself seems more interesting and eventful, and really allows for Satrapi's character to be more clear. The actions taken forth by many of the characters bring more raw emotion and allow for the events in the story to be expressed with greater detail. The horrible actions that took place in Satrapi's country really show that her life was full of twists and turns, and it must have been hard to endure the strict limitations that were placed upon the woman such as always wearing a veil in public. The military factions and the jailing of innocent people were terrible situations in which Satrapi dealt with on a regular basis. I cannot even fathom having to witness something like that each and everyday. I think the movie does these events justice, because it actually shows what happens with sound and detail, rather than simply reading it and not understanding what is happening.

Upon viewing the film, I noticed that all the events that took place in her early childhood were in black and white. I thought this was interesting, because it showed how long ago Satrapi's childhood must seem to her, like looking at photographs of one's grandparents from the 1930s. She seemed to grow up so fast only leaving her past behind with memories of the war and the death and destruction that had embodied that portion of her life. As she grew older, the film transitioned to color, thereby representing the present day, and almost like it was a fresh new start to her life. Her present life is free from war and the military that had destroyed much of her early childhood. She is now an adult woman and ready to start a new chapter in her life.
(David Roberts, Post 23)

Marjane's vision

I enjoyed the novel a lot I thought it was very enlightening to what has gone on in the middle east through the eyes of someone who lived there. I don't know if I'm a visual person or media loving person, but I'm enjoying the movie more. I feel it pushes the envelope but in cynical way that makes it funny. Actually seeing the characters moving around and giving them a voice instead of reading the words on a page I think make more of an impact. You get more of an understanding of what the characters are going through and see more of the connections between each other.

I've never really been a fan of reading a book and then watching the movie on the book it never usually works out. I'll be honest when I saw we were watching the movie I was quite surprised that in an English class we'd be watching a movie on a book, but I'm glad we did. I loved that fact they kept many of the frames from the novel especially the scene where they black out a whole picture after she saw her friends bracelet. Overall great movie good book but either way enlightening.
Thomas Moss (final post)

Film vs. Graphic Novel

Well I would much rather read a graphic novel rather than a regular book when it comes to a topic with this level of importance because a graphic novel has pictures which convey meaning a lot better than words a lot of times. I did really enjoy reading Persepolis as a graphic novel because it definitely changes your viewpoint about Iran as a country and the citizens that live there. Since we started watching Persepolis as a movie today I think I am enjoying the movie more so than reading the graphic novel. The movie shows more of what is going on in Iran rather than just what Marijane is going through. The movie conveys more emotions than the book did. The movie shows more of Iran in general than the graphic novel did but I feel like the movie is missing parts of the story that the graphic novel had. These parts may be small but all parts seemed important within the graphic novel. I can't think of an example off hand it just seemed like we got to the point of her leaving Iran very quickly and missed a whole bunch of events in between. Still I am enjoying the movie and am glad we are not only reading the graphic novel but also watching the movie.
(Kelcey Summers 22)

what they say

In Persepolis, we discover a problem that seem to be contagious around the word, that is people like to say "what they say." Marji spaghetti incident at her boarding house with the nuns. A lot of times in society we base our whole ideas of single groups of people by what they say. So who's they? they are the people who say kill them all when one person or small group does something terrible to them or there people. they are people who if you do not act a certain way, you are consider a savage. we have all these racial or ethical slurs that just separate us from each other. This is general cause by our standard of what we or what we were taught was right. And a lot of time we take those over board. For example Marji was a little piggish in eating out of a pot But because the nun did not consider it proper conduct she associates it with some one not having education. What if we set aside these petty views? would not we open away to cross the boundaries of the world

One piece of hair

Persepolis has many different angle on which we can see the revolution and its development. First off the veil, The way in which to control woman in a close society. The use this to bring women to submission in order to gain control over one person instead of treating them as people. It also put blame on women by saying the because one stand of hair show you can cause a man to sin. Which just covers up the issue of lusting towards other woman, which men should take responsibility for them selves on how they think and not blame it on something stupid as woman hair. I think this way of life really put conflict in Marji life because of her free spirit. She was more open outwardly but society told her to keep everything in. when governments or people start doing this freedom to express and equality go out the window and darkness is throughout the land.

Persepolis 2

I find that the main character marjane her situation in general, is harder to relate to than her character. Her as a character the struggles and changes she goes through as she grows up can easily be related to our childhood. Going through the different stages, different trends. Although her childhood was a lot more restricted then ours, with the rules she had to live with.
She couldn't even go out into public without being completely covered or risk getting arrested. I would never be able to live with that, I felt like every one of her rights as a human being was completely taken away from her.

Cali Simmons (Post 14)

Persepolis

In the novel Persepolis, its the story about a young girl growing up in an ever changing world. She has to deal with rules that only seem to only increase in reinforcement. From being forced to wear a vail, and cover ever inch of her body. To face threats such as terrorism and bombing to having her very own family taken from her. Even being sent away to be away from all the danger and be forced to live on her own without her parents.
I couldn't imagine being sent away from my parents just like that to live in a different country, a completely different world with people who aren't even related to me. I don't think under those circumstances i would be able to adjust.

Cali Simmons (Post 13)

A Whole New World

Marjane continues to develop further, and as she is given more freedom, she is also faced with more responsibilities and decisions to make. Even throughout all of the peer pressure and temptations, she easily refuses most of them, even though she pretends to utilize drugs. In my opinion this is more acceptable then legitimately taking part in these activities because she knows she is not supposed to do them and sticks to it. Other responsibilities she had however, was to live in boarding school and make it all the way through which she in fact did not. This is because Marjane did not choose her battles wisely.
While reading by herself and eating pasta in a pot, a nun confronts her. Even though she really isn't doing anything wrong the nun feels the need to tell her off for eating in a pot and makes fun of her heritage. This is where her responsibility should have stepped in and she should have properly chose her battle. Even though what the nun did was wrong and in complete disregard to her own feelings, succeeding in the school was of importance and had she ignored the nun and not snapped back at her, she could have made it through boarding school.

Marjane's development as a Child

Throughout the book, Marjane has developed as any child would, adapting to her surroundings and growing as she is told and born and raised to grow. However as she grows and becomes more intelligent, she comes into a fork in a path and has to start choosing what to believe and what to fight for. At first thanks to school, she begins to develop a belief completely contradictory to what her parents believe. Another reason she may have began to believe otherwise is because for her own protection her parents didn't let her come to protest rally's that they went to, which didn't help their own case very much, because it gave her no evidence.
The reason her development is significant is because this is how children are influenced all over the world. When things happen in a child's life and they wonder why, if they are not convinced of why something is the way it is, they tend to assume otherwise. For example when i was younger i would hear something from my teacher and repeat it to my parents (or vice versa) and there were often times when i was told that the other party was incorrect. Often i believed the reason that disproved my initial teachings because more than not, it was easier to make it seem like something was wrong even if it wasn't. More often however, I (as I'm sure many other children do) believed my parents over my teacher for the sole reason that they were my parents.

Breaking the Chain of Conformity

Further reading of Persepolis has revealed several distinct hardships that Satrapi had to endure throughout her life growing up, as well as the relationships that she had developed with other people. Satrapi writes in such a way that allows for the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding the scenes that represent her life. It is upon a detailed overview of the comic pictures that a specific trend can be acknowledged. This being that several of the characters that are depicted in certain scenarios all look exactly the same. It is like the characters in these situations all have the same ideals and perform the same actions, as if they are nothing more than a bunch of robots. This type of depiction can be specifically portrayed in the drawings of the military factions, in which each soldier is exactly the same as his comrades. They all act the same and live the same lives, which is not unlike how many people might view those of such backgrounds. Satrapi does not conform with this type of imagery, but rather breaks free from the mold that she is supposed to fill. She cuts herself away from the society and chooses to make her own choices without the influences of being told what to do, whereas the soldiers and extremists only do what they are told to do. They cannot think for themselves so they are all essentially the same and in unison with one another. If a group of people cannot exercise their own ideas or practices then what makes their physical appearance the ultimate distinguishing factor? This is how most Americans live by and this is perhaps why most Americans now view anyone who looks Arab to be a terrorist, which is simply wrong.

Expanding upon the idea of the extremist view and how Satrapi depicts them, this is no different from soldiers of Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone, many of the soldiers are actually children much like the soldiers who are Islamic extremists. The children are not only used as physical man power, but also to psychologically mess with their enemy. It is hard to picture a child trying to kill another person and for many adults to even point a gun at that child is almost impossible. The children of Sierra Leone most of the time are taken from other villages and drugged and told what to do. They do not have a voice and are manipulated into thinking that their actions are good and for a good cause. They try to instill a fear in those around them to feel power and kill anyone who refuses to break free. This is no different than how many Islamic extremists opperate and carry out their actions. Their message to instill fear becomes the teaching method to those around them and anyone who does not share their ideals are then the enemy. Satrapi's character is not the enemy in this notion, but rather she is the unheard voice that is trying to break the barrier. She is trying to convey her side of the story and show that one should not be afraid to speak out to the world.
(David Roberts, Post 22)

God's Help

In the beginning of the book God is a huge part of Marji's life. She wanted to be the next prophet even though she was a girl. She made her own book of rules like the Ten Commandments. Sadly only her grandma believed in her. God would always come visit her whenever she wanted him to. She would even compare God to Carl Marx imagining what God looked like. When she began to support the revolution against the new Regime God started to disappear in her life.
The one night Marji was picturing herself as different military leaders to imagine herself being a focal point of the revolution. That was the first night that God left her and didn't come back when she wanted him there because her parents wouldn't let her be a part of the revolution. As her life went on she obviously got farther and farther away from him. At one point she became a drug dealer which is the farthest in my mind as you can get from God, compared to the way she acted when she was younger. This is a major changing point in her life in my mind because that is as low as she got. She realized that she wasn't getting anywhere because of it and changed her life afterwards.
Kevin Ostempowski Post 2