World History 125: Marjane Experience Of Being Iranian
HISTORY 125: INTRODUCTION TO WORLD HISTORY
SECOND PAPER ASSIGNMENT
Due on Tuesday, December 5
Please write a three-page (roughly 750-1000 words, double spaced in a normal 12-point font such as Times New Roman) essay on the question below, based on the movie Persepolis (directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Statrapi; Sony Pictures Classics, 2007).
For context, please use lecture and the relevant sections of the textbook. DO NOT USE ANY OUTSIDE SOURCES. Use SPECIFIC examples and evidence from the film, the textbook, and other class material to construct your argument, and make sure you cite your sources properly. Please see the updated Essay Grading and Advice document for more details on this.
Question:What are the most striking ways in which Marjane experiences being Iranian over the course of the film, and what do those experiences demonstrate about the larger history and context of the era?
Some angles for thinking about this questionFirst, to get a sense of her experiences of being Iranian, think about specific events, relationships, information, and incidents shown in the film: • The history of her own family and relatives and their experiences of the political upheaval of the era (going all the way back to her communist, Qajar prince grandfather, mentioned briefly). • Her relationships with those different family members (grandmother, parents, uncle, especially). • The cultural changes she experienced over the course of the Revolution. • The complex place of westernization and western culture in Iranian history • Her experiences of exile and outsider-ness as well as inclusion and community as an immigrant in Vienna. • Her marriage and efforts to carve out a life in Iran.
Then, consider how these specific experiences (and others that seem important to you) might reflect on (or serve to illustrate) her sense of her identity as Iranian—her understanding of what Iran is or was, and of it means to be Iranian. Note that this would usually be implicit and implied rather than directly stated.
Finally, select the two or three themes that emerge from your consideration of those experiences that seem most important and interesting to you, and build your paper around those. Essentially, identifying and explaining those themes is a major part of your thesis for the paper.
Marjane Experience of Being Iranian
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Marjane Experience of Being Iranian
Experience is a lifelong endurance that people go through meeting people and events that change views and perceptions. Some people face traumatizing experiences due to rebellion. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an animated feature film that reveals the experience of a young girl in the turmoil and war tone Iran nation. The title of the film gives the context of the movie since it associates with turbulence in the history of Iran. She provides the framework of a constant feud that sets the scene for the novel in the art of war. Marjane in the film gives eighteen years of experience as an Iranian during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Marjane in the movie became part of the political, emigration and experienced bloodshed in the country. Marjane Satrapi experiences moral growth as she faces feudalism in modern and past Iran, relationships of the family and abandonment of faith when she conforms to the reality of high tension between the glorious past and the present in Iranian Revolution.
Marjane exhibits numerous experiences as she grows up in Iran from her childhood age to become an adult. In the process, she questions authority and develops her unique opinions through the life she experiences. The Iranian Revolution becomes a hardship in her life experience, and at the time she boards a plane, she becomes an independent woman.
The first aspect of experience that Marjane faces is the forced tradition during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. As a young girl, Satrapi has her ambition in life. She strives to live her own life but the society at the time of war forces people to abide by the rules lest you face the consequences of breaking the law. Satrapi is tone between doing what she wants and what the society and the government expect her to do. At one time, Marjane decides to live a teenage life with new styles. However, she gets restrictions from the authorities especially the guardians of the revolutions, who say, “What do I see here? Michael Jackson! That symbol of decadence?” Satrapi then replies, “No it’s Malcolm X, the leader of Black Muslims in America.” The guardian replies by commanding her to lower the scarf and calls her little whore. As a result, Satrapi lies to escape the consequences. Such expression of lies reveals her individuality.[, Zachary Steele. Persepolis 2007, Animation Movie for Kids. YouTube. /watch?v=fgE3p_TkepE Accessed Nov. 1, 2017.]
Secondly, Marjane is unable to comprehend the extent of injustice due to the conflict of social classes. She experiences tension from the moment when she notes that her father drives Cadillac and her family can hire a maid while at the same time talks of equality and consciousness regarding the social classes of people. Iran nation has both wealth and po...