Satrapi's Persepolis makes use of visuals to elaborate her point. Accompanying the text are pictures that Satrapi utilizes to explain emotions and situations that text would be difficult to relay. She uses light-hearted humor to counterbalance the grueling situations that arise throughout the entire graphic novel. Throughout the course of the novel, the Author and main character, Marjane, is subjugated to violence and witnesses the horrors of the Islamic Revolution first hand. A picture that particularly stood out to me, takes place on page 72. During this time all the universities have just been closed. Their thinking behind this was that the education system strayed from religious teachings. They believed that "...everything needs to be revised to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam." This upsets Marjane incredibly, as she wants to go to collage and study chemistry. In the next panel she explains that "I wanted to be an educated, liberated woman. And if the pursuit of knowledge meant getting cancer, so be it." This panel image depicts an old Marjane laying on her death bed. She is old and wrinkled what she says (what looks like with what might be her last breath) "It's I who discovered the newest radioactive element." This panel alone is a great incite into the character or Marjane. She appears to always have the highest of ambitions, from when she was a six year old girl, throughout the novel and into adolescence. Her desire to succeed and gain knowledge makes her a unique child, and is well portrayed in this single panel.
In Short, Marjane's use of pictures to depict her story, opens up a new world or story portrayal that we would miss out on otherwise. The text explains and educates, while the pictures describe and show. While I don't agree that many books should be graphic novels, this story wouldn't feel the same if it wasn't. The emotion told though the pictures, gives us the second half to the story that we would be clueless to without.
No comments:
Post a Comment