Achieving a Humanist Perspective: Persepolis and 1980’s Iran

Marjane Satrapi states in her interview Universal Persepolis: A Pro-Iranian Humanist Tale, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMwfzqEqVLk&feature=relmfu

featured on the PowerPoint, that she means Persepolis to be purely a humanist tail devoid of any political undertones. She states in a new interview with Foreign Policy here, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/07/08/interview_marjane_satrapi?page=0,2, that she “did Persepolis not as a political act, but because I had enough of all the nonsense that was being said about my country, and I thought I would tell my story as a part of the truth about my country.” She writes the novel hoping that readers will be able to develop empathy for Marji as she speaks about in her interview, Graphic Novels and her Family’s Influence, also featured on the PowerPoint. Her goal is that they will realize that she is relatable and real and that Iranians are just like everyone else despite the political situation they were caught up in and how they were forced to act. She creates this empathy that she talks about through several of her key approaches to the novel.

You would guess the basis of the novel was centrally political because of the setting but she is able to successfully create a beautiful tale that explores and preaches peace and love through these important key approaches. First the youth of Marji allows the reader to see the death and hatred present in the story and the political regime through the eyes of a 10 year old, which makes the situation pure and simplistic. It is not hard to relate to or be drawn to the innocence of a child.

Secondly, Marji’s coming of age story or Bildungsroman is told in the form of the graphic novel. As Satrapi explains in one of the featured interviews, the animation of the movie and the fact that the story is told as a graphic novel makes it tangible and applicable. She says in her interview “violence is possible because it is reduced to abstract notion.” She claims that people are able to commit violence because they cannot relate to the people upon which they are committing it. The fact that Persepolis is a graphic novel makes you focus on the character and the story, you can envision the setting being “any big city anywhere” and gives you the feeling of “that could be me”.

The third technique Satrapi used was Marji’s perspective. Marji can think for herself in a world where that is highly threatened and punished. She can make her own mistakes and she can learn the difference between the truth of the government and the truth of reality. Marji is educated. Satrapi rights on pages 98, I think that the reason we were so rebellious was that our generation had known secular schools. She has at one time attended a secular school and her ability to think for herself and define her own self allows her to fully explore aspects of love, family, and being a human being. Themes that are universally applicable despite culture and highly characterize Satrapi’s work as a humanist novel. You would believe that the setting, plot, and the fact that the novel is graphic would take away from her message but Satrapi successfully implements Marji’s youth and the resulting coming of age story, the technique of the graphic novel, and Marji’s free-will of the mind to create a character you can relate to and love and ultimately gain a humanist message from.