In simultaneously representing the Iranian culture as a whole and herself individually, Satrapi faces the challenge of narrating both macroscopically and microscopically in Persepolis. This is even more of a challenge for Satrapi particularly in light of her family's progressive views and actions. As we discussed in class, Marji is stuck somewhere between new and old, religious and secular, future and past. This internal struggle can be represented also in Satrapi's narrative ability to encompass both the scope of an entire culture along with a young girl's perspective.
Pages 6-8 in particular shed light on how Satrapi weaves in both the cultural life of a family and the inner dialogue of her younger self. In these two pages, the reader actually learns quite a bit about Iranian culture and Islam itself especially given that there are merely 15 slides. Additionally, we gain insight into how Marji views her role in this culture.
It is clear that Marji comes from a well-off family (they have a maid, drive cadillacs, etc) for whom she cares greatly, and we learn that she is raised to hold her own personal set of beliefs: though she is female, Marji is determined to be the last prophet of Islam. This is where the reader first witnesses Satrapi's narrative ethic in representing cultural ideals alongside Marji. The past prophets scoff at Marji's wish to be a prophet simply because she is female; a woman prophet in this culture would be absolutely unthinkable. Additionally, Marji shows that she does not necessarily care about religious conventions (at least as a Muslim) in wishing to include Zarathustrian traditions. In doing this Satrapi not only gives insight into Marji but also sheds light on the history of Iran.
Based on these slides, I believe that Satrapi does achieve the balance she aims for as a part of her narrative ethic quite effectively. She continues to do so throughout the novel, but at times she does seem to segregate these aspects more significantly, either to the benefit or to the detriment of her audience.
I really liked this post. The way you first talked about Marji being stuck between new and old and her internal conflict. The addition of talking about the perspective of the culture versus the perspective of the young girl is also a great reference to the story.Using pages 6-8 to show insight into Iranian culture given its short nature.
ReplyDeleteThe comment in the next paragraph about how Marji although female is raised to have her own personal set of beliefs is especially accurate and clearly shows an example of the conflict described in the introduction. Through the story and choice of images we can get a good feel for the balance Satrapi is going for in telling her story. The balance between both the author and her protagonist is felt and leads for a lot of contrast brought out from this.