Week 6 Rough Draft

Rough Draft

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, is a comic book novel about her life growing up in Iran. It was difficult for me to understand because I was fortunate enough to never experience war during my childhood. Though this novel is told by a child’s perspective, I did on the other hand feel like I was seeing her life through her own eyes in this autobiographical novel. Marjane, a child who fights for what she believes in, though her actions seem rebellious, does get her into trouble.  For example, most of us were rebellious and still are till this very day. Though I might be older, at a young age, I was very rebellious towards my parents. I remember at one time I was a Marjane Satrapi, especially during my teen years. There are many memorable moments a child experiences before they hit adulthood such as their first date, puppy love, and looking your best for senior prom. For Marjane Satrapi, she was unfortunate to experience things that most American young girls do. Marjane experienced other things differently. Her adulthood occurred faster than most young girls along with her rebellious acts. I hardly ever hear a young child speak of themselves as the next prophet but for Marjane she started out believing in God and wanting to be a prophet. After seeing war and oppression she becomes a rebel and questions her faith and her social implications.

As I read page after page in this novel at times I found myself shocked at what Marjane had to go through as a little girl in Iran during the Revolution, and how she rebelled against multiple things. For me I could only, at that moment, think of rebelling against my parents for the silliest things that make me look back and laugh about now how immature and selfish I was back then. I still apologize to this day for how I acted and treated my parents when I did not get my way, or get what I wanted when I wanted it. How thoughtless and careless I was, to not see the importance of life, family! Marjane on the other hand, like I had said before did not grow up as a “normal” American girl who experienced “normal” things as a young girl. She lived in a country during a Revolution. Yet in the end she became a strong woman, independent woman, who fights for what she believes in no matter what life throws in front of her. She deals with it in a child’s way at times but everything in the end makes her who she was then and is who she has become now.

Persepolis beings with Marjane in school at the age of ten years old and she is wearing a veil. The year is 1980 and she is with a group of other girls, all wearing the veil, lined up from left to right. It was at this time the girls who attended this school were obligated to wear the veil, though she hated it, it was the rule. Wearing the veil for Majane was confusing; she did not know how to react to this. Marjane says, “I really didn’t know what to think about the veil. Deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde” (6).

Marjane’s deep passion for religion and believing so much that she was the last prophet; she says “I was born with religion” (6). By the age of six years old Marjane says, “I was already sure I was the last prophet” (6). She would have multiple conversations about her future as the last prophet with her imaginary friend, whom in the comic strips within the novel, looks likes God. Marjane identifies herself as the next prophet and yet her family is not spiritual or religious. Her family’s faith lies in the political ideology. Her faith is slowly lost as she confronts the political issues in her world. When she begins to hear stories of torture and imprisonment from her family members. She decides that since she can not hold onto her faith due to the Islamic regime coming into power, she breaks loose from her imaginary friend and her faith.

I am the youngest of four children, and I cannot imagine anything more horrible than being in a world within an environment where my country was dealing with Revolution. I believe the author’s decision to tell her own personal story through the eyes of a child and the experiences she had in childhood allows us to see how a child, during a time of war, was able to grow into a strong woman with opinions of her own and quickly leaves childhood into adulthood at a young age. For example, when Marjane was in the basement, she takes out a cigarette that she had taken from her uncle, and like the people of Iran rebelling against the government, she to rebelled against her mother. She lights her uncle’s cigarette and coughs right after inhaling, but does not give in so she continues to smoke the cigarette. At that moment in the novel, she says “With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye.” This is the very moment Marjane leaves childhood and enters adulthood.

Marjane’s boldest statement of rebellion was smoking that cigarette in the basement. This was only the first step into adulthood, but soon after she acted on her independence when she met her Uncle Taher who is ironically dying from cigarettes. In order for his son to leave the persecution of the Islamic regime, Uncle Taher sent his son away to Europe to save him from this turmoil surrounding them. Marjane’s cigarette smoking experience did in her mind prove that she was now an adult. The cigarette, a cigarette, I believe is the symbol of freedom but is also a way of destruction since it took her Uncle Taher’s life along with the stress of the war going on around them.

There were many times that Marjane had to fight for what she believed in. By smoking she achieved the first step into adulthood by kissing her childhood goodbye. This was her right by gaining freedom but she also encountered situations where she found herself fighting for her freedom.

Week 4 (Questions for first written assignment)

What is feminism?
How is feminism used in this book?
How are feminism and Marjane connected?
What things or experiences occurred in the book that reflect feminism?


I do not know how to start this essay, I am stressed. I think that I have to re-read Mrs. Knapps articles online on her blog on the steps necessary to complete this assignment. Ugh, the stress and anxiety of writing a paper that hopefully meets all aspects of this assignment.


The one thing that I am confused about that I need to investigate on more is does the thesis come before the introduction or does the thesis lie anywhere in the essay? And also I started to think twice if I should write a feminism essay or a reader response essay but now that I think about it I am leaning more to writing a reader response essay.

What were your feelings after reading the opening chapter of this

book?

What parts of the book made you smile? Explain what connections are there between the book and your life? Explain.

What is the most important word in the book? The most important passage? The most important event or feeling? Who shouldn’t or shouldn’t read this book? Why?

What are the best parts of the book? Why? What are the worst parts? Why?

These are some questions I found that readers usually ask themselves. What I would like to know and would like to write about is what is the role of women in this greatly written factual story? I would like to compare the various women in this book. I want to seperate Marji, Marji's mother, maid and grandmother and see how they are as individual women int his society of Iran.

Im not exactly sure yet what I want to write about burt I hope I will soon, ughhh the stress of writing and getting blanks is a killer.

Week four - #4 Blog entry

Marjane Satrapi as a young girl

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi who was obviously born and raised as a strong girl genuinely believed in fighting for what she believes in. Sometimes her actions seem disobedient, and they get her into trouble somewhat frequently.

Towards the end of the book Marjane experiences once again rebellion. After a bomb hits the street where Marjane lives, she finds out from her mother, who is safe, that her friends home had been struck by the bomb in her neighborhood. The bomb had actually hit the home of her friend Neda Baba-Levy. When walking past the damage of her friends house, she notices a bracelet, and what was attached to the bracelet which made Marjane gasp. Her friend was dead.

This caused Marjane's life to take a new turn. She was now fourteen and became more of a rebel and nothing scared her, even her teacher and principal could not control her. One day at school Marjane was confronted by the principal if I recall correctly about wearing jewelry, she rebelled, which caused her anger to hit the principal. Then once again Marjane rebels her religion teacher who is telling the class how the Islamic regime no longer has political prisoners. Marjane quickly argues with the religion teacher that her uncle had been executed by the regime and that the number of prisoners has increased from three thousand to three hundred thousand under the regime. She is quickly backed up by her fellow students who applaud her, which in return angers her religion teacher. Of course her father is proud for what his daughter Marjane had done though it did in the end cause her to get expelled. Her mother on the other hand says “You know what they do to the young girls they arrest? ...You know that it’s against the law to kill a virgin...so a Guardian of the Revolution marries her... and takes her virginity before executing her.” (145).

I do not know exactly what I feel might happen, but I do have some concerns about her actions and how she goes about being rebellious in a country that takes drastic measures in punishment. I have a feeling that there might be some good in Marjane’s reactions, but with good comes bad and negative after maths. I think for the safety of Marjane, her family might actually pick up and move all their things to another country by getting a fake passport or get a visa for them to leave for the safety of their daughter and family. A bomb just went of right next to their home, so things are hitting closer to home the more in depth in the book we get, and now Marjane is having a harder time in school which might cause her to face some difficult consequences which can hurt the family badly. I think as Marjane grows and enters adult hood she will be a strong woman with strong goals in life. She has had a rough, yet rich childhood, but with the war and seeing family die or move away has affected how Marjane is growing into a young woman.

Reading is overwhelming and confusing at times...

I am the type of person that needs to have complete silence and one hundred percent attention when I am reading. Most likely if my mind is not set on what I have to do I struggle trying to juggle a hundred things going on in my brain. Sometimes I have a lot of issues when I am being distracted by household duties that need to be done or the kids constantly saying "mommy", "mommy"! I lose all concentration and I get distracted easily. It is hard being a mother, a part time employee as a leasing agent, a full time student, a fiancé, and a volunteer at my kid’s school and after school sports activities they are in, but I try my best to make it all work.

I am sure that there are a lot of people who have some sort of difficulty when it comes to reading assignments. Either they are lazy because they hate reading, or they cannot grasp what they are reading in order to make sense of everything. I notice that when I do read I also have the issues trying to understand and grasp the story that I am reading. I tend to go blank and forget what I just read, or I don’t understand some words and I have to take out my handy dandy dictionary to try and make sense of everything. It is difficult and time consuming but I know I will soon figure out how to make it all work, since it is a necessity being a student.

The way I try to overcome my difficulties on my negative reading habits is by trying to read when all the kids are in bed or when all the kids are in school. I also try to keep myself on a daily schedule so that I do not overwhelm and stress myself out by procrastinating with school, work, kids, and after school sports with the kids. I do find myself taking my daughters to football and cheerleading practice while I am sitting in the stands with my laptop or any reading material I need for that week or that class assignments.

Sometimes I know that I take on to much than I can handle but if I can just get organized, which I try to constantly, I can achieve every goal I set forth for myself. I also just realized right now, that I over analyze a lot of things or look deeper into something that is just plain simple. I don’t know why I do it, but I just do. I don’t see any positive in it since all it does it make my life harder and I lose precious time when I do such things. Though it may be for reading, class assignments, daily duties I have in my life, it’s just something I can’t help, but I do need to figure out how to solve this problem.  I am sure that I am not the only one who faces these issues and if you are reading this and have some ideas that I could use please don’t hesitate to comment me and let me know. Anything helps and hopefully you have some good ideas.

Group 6 - Newspaper Article - Reader Response

In Search of Common Ground Over Muslim Dress Codes

According to an article in The New York Times , Squad Mekhennet, says that the nonprofit organization entitled “One Young World,” recently met with business people, various religious and political leaders, such as Muhammad Yunus and Princess Mette-Marit of Norway. Mr. Mekhennet says that,” striking at an “interfaith” discussion after the official panel, during which four women — three of them Muslims wearing the veil, and the fourth a Hindu — tussled with two businessmen, one from Pakistan and the second from South Africa, over the niqab the veil for the face.”

A niqab is also called a ruband. Niqab is a cloth which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of sartorial hijāb (styles of clothing found in predominantly Muslim societies) . Many of has have seen women and or young children wearing these niqab's either at a social event, school, work, or in public. This was  a serious discussion brought up within the meeting which was suppose to be an “interfaith” discussion. A meeting that started out that each person was feeling  they were a part of one big happy family.

The discussion to debate war in the name of religion or to urge tolerance was cut short when all attention and discussion went to the rights of women wearing the niqab. It was said that life was hard enough, and that tolerance and common ground between different religions, but what is it with the tolerance inside their own religion?  

In my opinion women have the right to chose, not only the right to chose religion, but the right to chose how they view their religion and what they want to wear that is associated with their beliefs. It is every individuals right to chose not only their own path but daily choses that they have to make on their own, and not have anyone else be the leader in their decisions. Telling people what they can and can not wear is in my personal opinion  need not be expressed. If a woman wearing a niqab were to walk down the street or do some grocery shopping, we need to be open-minded and mutually respectful as a society to them and their religion.

This is a battle that has been going on within the Muslim community and the Islamic religion for many years. As we come across articles online, in newspapers, on the news or hear about debates of women and the Niqab, we can not help but dwell on issues and try to to establish the political and economic alternatives that Islam offers the human race. In my opinion Muslims should stop fighting one another over trivial matters, especially if these matters do not stand in the way of the fundamentals. In the end I believe that the Niqab is not required. Let women have the right to chose to wear or not to wear the niqab. How would we like it if someone controlled what we wore, or what we can and can not do? I know that I would not like this type of control at all.


Mekhennet, Squad "In Search of Common Ground Over Muslim Dress Codes." New York Times, 5 Sept. 2002 print.

Persepolis

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.

My mother never...

My mother never hesitated to put her own kids needs ahead of her own. I remember when I was younger my mom was always cleaning, re-arranging the pantry and making sure that all of us kids were dressed nicely and our hair fixed no matter if we were going out in public or just spending a day at home.

My mothers name is Rosario. She was born and raised on the island of Guam. She is the only girl in a family of four brothers, and just knowing that she was the only girl two things might come to anybody's mind. One, she was a spoiled rotten child, or two, she was well protected by her older brothers and parents. In my mom's case it was both. She was so protected that she was practically isolated from anyone outside of her family. My mother was given anything she wanted from my grandma and grandpa because she was the only girl.

My mother loves to cook. I call her the next Betty Crocker whenever I visit and see her baking up some goodies for the family and the grandkids. She is always surfing the Internet or watching the cooking channels to get new recipe's or new ideas on some new creations she has in the works for her dishes. My mom bakes the best cookies, I swear if she could bag them up they would be the next most advertised delicious cookies in this country. I for one cant cook, and boy has my mother tried to teach me but I definitely did not inherit her cooking skills. I am more of a bystander and tester, hey someone has to do it right?

The only hobby my mother has, if you can call it a hobby is her addiction to garage sales. My mom starts planning her route for garage sales when people start advertising them on Craigslist, or in their local newspaper. Her weekend routine for garage sales is this, she wakes up very early, when rooster crow, to make her cup of coffee. Then she pulls out her handy dandy map and starts charting out her course for that mornings route, making sure to not go off course she also double checks the internet using Mapquest. If you have not met a dedicated garage saler, be aware! Get out their way because they are on a dedicated mission to gain the best deals for everything that may be on their Christmas list. If you dare participate in their week long planning of that weekends garage sale, please do not interupt them while driving, do not blink your eyes when looking for a garage sale on the list, and definitely do not cut them off while they are on the hunt!

My mom just may be the next Betty Crocker, the next star on clean homes, or the next person that might tell you off for distracting her on her treasure hunt, but all in all shes my mom, and my best friend. I love my mom no matter what hat she may wear from time to time and I know that without her I would not be here.