Response to Persepolis
Persepolis, the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Strapi about her life growing up in Iran, was difficult for me to get into. Comics are not my medium of choice, and this one is especially simplistic and two-dimensional. The information was not presented in an interesting way; even though it is told from a child's perspective, I sometimes felt more as if the book was speaking to me as if I were a child. The progression was slow, and even the moments of the text which could have been exciting seemed dispassionate and boring. Although I found the setting--both geographical and historical--to be of interest, there were many aspects of this book which I did not enjoy. First of all, I am not a very visual person. Telling a story through a series of drawings leaves out of detail, especially as to inner thoughts, than a traditional novel would. Even though the story is told from the first person, and the world is seen through the child's eyes and with their thoughts present, the detail here is sparse. The drawings are all in black and whit
The effect is that a child drew these picture; while that might be the intent of the author, it did not appeal to me. Some aspects of the drawings are symbolic--because the details are so sparse, the reader is sure to notice whatever Marji notices, heightening the world as the character sees it and diminishing--or eliminating--everything else. Strangely, even though visual information is not my favorite, if the drawings had been more detailed and less flat, I think I would have enjoyed this book more. This would not be a negative in itself--the story does not attempt to be a lesson in history, but rather the personal and individual story if a specific girl in a specific time--but because the story is not interesting, history would at least have been a redeemable quality in the book. But things moved so slowly without really exposing anything that deep that I was left unimpressed. There isn't any attempt at depth or shading to give people shape. I read a little bit about Iranian history before picking the book back up; it made more sense but it still wasn't that interesting to read. The language could have told us more, and the pictures would have revealed the child' viewpoint from which the story is told. Details could have been included n the drawing that aren't notice by the narrator, retaining the child-like effect of the language while conveying more information to the reader, or the opposite would have worked, too. There isn't any real sense of movement, either, even in action scenes like the rally which ends in violence early in the book. At least then some of the detail could be shown symbolically if not explicitly stated. e, which wouldn't necessarily be bad, but they are also very flat. The character--and the real-life author--was also very privileged, and I often found myself wondering if she would have been able to show as much disrespect for the new regime if her parents hadn't been as wealthy and as connected as they were. I could have learned the information much faster, more in depth, and in a more interesting way by reading an encyclopedia article.
Common topics in this essay:
Marjane Strapi,
Basically I'm,
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story told,
book enjoy,
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Acceptance Essays
