DietrichLENS5

Kim Dietrich Lit for Young Adults LENS 5  Critical: Perseopolis   When I first opened the novel, Perseopolis by Mariane Satrapi, I was really turned off by the context at first. I’ve never been someone that got into comic books and I had never read one before. Comic books were never something that interested me. However, this is a graphic novel that really interested me. I felt it was an easy read that would be appropriate for young adults. I feel that the fact that you could see the images that Marji portrayed and the people actually conversing made it easier to understand the story line. There was not any of the back and forth, “He said this, then she said that, and he responded…” which I feel took away from the monotony that occurs in other novels.  Living in the Middle East, Marji has a much different lifestyle than we do in America. From the beginning, there were people telling her exactly what she had to do with her life, and how she had to act. The revolution in 1979 brought about many changes in not only Marji’s life, but to Iranians as a whole. At first, Marji accepted these new rules for women, partly because she was so young and didn’t know any better. Though, as she grew older, she began to wonder about why she had to live her life a certain way just because the government said so. Women were viewed as property and didn’t have much of a say in how anything was run. Propaganda was displayed everywhere it could be… on TV, on billboards, in the streets, and of course, only told the people what the government wanted them to hear.  While reading a novel like this, it helped me to see that we take advantage of the fact that we live in America. No one is telling us that we have to root for the Phillies or the Yankees for whatever reason. We’re allowed to wear whatever we want and say what we think and feel. If we don’t agree with the President on an issue, we could post it as a Facebook status for all the world to see, and no one could do anything about it. We live in the best country in the world because of the freedom that we are allowed on a daily basis. Marji was not allowed to have parties with her friends that involved alcohol. However, parties happen every weekend in Bloomsburg that do involve alcohol, and although there’s the possibility of getting in trouble with the law by possible getting an underage or public drunkenness, it is still within our rights to even throw the party. This freedom is taken advantage of on a daily basis by Americans.  Though at the beginning I was disinterested in this novel, I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. I found it to be very informational and historical. Also, as I was not born during the time that the revolution first took place, it helps me to understand even what is taking place in the Middle East during this time. I felt the graphic novel approach was appropriate with this type of historical novel, but I do feel as if it may not work with every type of novel. Back to Personal Page