PERSEPOLIS

Satrapi, M. (2004).  Persepolis.  New York, NY: Pantheon. 

Persepholis is an autobiography about Marjane Satrapi who grows up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.  Where she is the daughter of a liberal-minded family.  She has a curious and wondrous spirit, she tells about her life in Tehran from a confused child for not understanding the customs at age 6 to an outspoken and opinionated teen of 14 years old.   Her parents are involved in political protests and support revolutionaries. 

 There is prejudice, abrasiveness where she tells her daily life where she struggles between home life and public life.  In her home, she could wear and listen to anything, and in public she had to wear a vail (something she hated).   She tells very personal experiences about her family and their political views.

 Her family decides that it would be better to send her away to Europe.  She also goes through prejudice and cruelty.  This makes her furious and mad, so her passion for social activism begins. She becomes sick and homeless, so she moves back home once again to give up her freedoms.  Satrapi eventually moves back to Europe only to move back a couple years later.

I cannot imagine coming home and finding the houses of my neighbors destroyed and them being dead.   This book is written in black and white comic book images.  It shows Marjane coming of age as she becomes a girl who is headstrong, and independent.  She explores different kinds of clothes and music.  I am so grateful I live in the United States, where I have freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to dress however I chose. 

This YA graphic novel is heartbreaking and fills your eyes with tears, yet makes you laugh as you read.  Satrapi’s personal story helps develop empathy as the student reads for vicarious experiences. I enjoyed reading this book especially experiencing Iranian culture, if not for this book I wouldn’t have known what it was like in Starapi’s home.  To have been roughed up by fundamentalists hoodlums for not wearing a veil is shocking. 

Listen to a book review by History Book Mix History Book Review.

In this Interview with Marjane Satrapi by Movieweb she tells why she wrote the book.

This link contains links for resources to teach Persepolis in the High School classroom  Persepolis Resources.

Persepolis 2 picks up where the first volume ended.