Persepolis
It was difficult to pick just one passage from Persepolis that affected me, but the one I that got my attention through personal experience within this comic book entitled “The Sheep”, (Marjane, 69) her father says,” Anoosh has the right to only one visitor and it’s you he wants to see”. The difficulty, for me, is understanding why would anyone in their immediate family, or a friend have a child visit them in jail or a prison without thinking of how this would affect a child’s mind.
I don’t know if it is because it was a natural or normal thing for children to attend visits with people in jail, but in my opinion the affects of a child could be unimaginable. Though this comic book theme of a true story is based on a child’s life through her own eyes, I have realized that a child, this child, Marjane is so delicate in the mind that she is a sponge consuming as much information as possible. Is her parents, family, or friends influencing her growth in a positive or negative way? It seems as we continue her reading she is losing faith in god and her family?
As I continued on in the following passages (Marjane, 71)Marjane writes, “Everything will be alright”. God: “Marji, what seems to be the problem”? Marjane, “Shut up, you! Get out of my life!!! I never want to see you again!. Get out! This group of passages obviously shows how Marjane has lost her faith in god, and that her visit with her uncle clearly affected her mentally and emotionally. I believe she blamed God for some part of what was going on. She blamed God at the moment she most likely saw the newspaper with the headlines reading: RUSSIAN SPY EXECUTED, with her uncle’s picture on the left hand side of the headline.
Marjane has been so affected by this war mentally and emotionally that visiting her uncle could and most likely do more damage to this child or any child put in that situation. I for one has had the experiencing of visiting family in a prison when I was young like Marjane. I still am affected to this day seeing all those prisoners in emotional pain and sadness expressed on their faces. I believe that being put in that position can traumatize a child who was not able to understand their surroundings and the situation they were put in.
Till this day I have the fear of having someone leave me or hearing the words, “they are on vacation”. It is a devastating issue to be involved in and for Marjane, though mature in most ways might be affected later on in our reading of “Persepolis”. I could be wrong, but I am just guessing that there will be some connection to this scene in our future reading assignments. We will soon see shortly if there is any connection from this scene and into future scenes in this very interesting book.
3 comments:
I completely agree with you. Why an adult would want a child to visit them is beyond me. Maybe the uncle really loved his niece, but he should have thought of the psychological effects the visit could have had on Marijane. I also think that the visit affected her so strongly that she lost her faith in God. It is never easy to loose someone you love, especially if you are so close to them.
That part in the book was actually one of my favorites. I thought it was very touching that Anoosh would choose Marj as his last visitor. I also think she was very proud to be the last person Anoosh got to see.
I understand that in America it might be a horrific event for a kid to visit their family in prison (It wasn't really a big deal for me) but in the book the family always makes it seem like a heroic act to go to jail or prison. So the way she perceives him being in jail would be different from an American's view.
Throughout the book there are so many problems with how the government runs and changes every so often, her parents are also very against this government & Marj even strikes, that Anoosh going to prison and dying for his country is a good deed rather than one of a criminal. Obviously she would be very upset that Anoosh died but I think she views it differently then if an American's uncle got the death sentence.
Lastly I think her lost faith in God would have happened even if she didn't go to the jail or eventually.
Dear my classmate, I agree with you about not should traumatize child about the sad things. but while it is a war in any country especially in your city that you live, everybody involve either all children.It is the fact, I was in Tehran on that times ,we had eight years war most of these years war was at many cities like Tehran and others, Iraqi's planes bombarded in Tehran. Marjane could understand all kind of horrible sound that came from all enemies plain. nobody can feel except those who are in that horrible situation.
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