Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

                The duology of Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi are memoirs of the author; starting with Persepolis writing the experience of her childhood in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war and its transition into an Islamic Republic. The sequel, Persepolis 2 is about her moving abroad to Austria and her experiences there, then returning to Iran; experiencing culture shocks in both countries. In my opinion, the sequel reveals more of Satrapi’s change in character. I also noticed how peer pressure and living in a conservative society also caused a change Satrapi’s character, which is what I had focused on while reading both stories.

                Peer pressure and living in such a conservative society definitely had an effect on the protagonist, who is also the author, Marjane Satrapi. The first book, Persepolis began when Satrapi was a pre teenager, and later developed into her becoming a young teenager. During this age, many people are given into peer pressure, which was evident in Satrapi’s character throughout the book. Growing up, she wanted to hang out with the older girls and skipped class. Also during the transition into Iran becoming an Islamic Republic; kids like Satrapi were told to lie to people that they followed Islam, prayed and etc. Satrapi also fell into this to save herself from getting in trouble with the “religious police.”

In Persepolis 2, the effect of peer pressure on Satrapi’s character was quite evident compared to its prequel. After moving to Austria to stay safe from the war going on back home, she was alone in a new country, a new way of life. The only people she knew there abandoned her. She later fell into a friend circle, but then led her into smoking and selling marijuana/weed. She began taking lovers, smoking cigarettes, eventually being homeless, etc.; things she would have never have imagined doing in Iran. After returning to Iran, Satrapi fell into a culture shock as she did when arriving to Austria. This did not look like the country she considered her home. Satrapi was also embarrassed to face her family since many would think she had accomplished so much while living abroad, which in her eyes was the opposite.
               I think that I preferred to put myself in serious danger rather than confront my shame.                                  My shame at not having become someone, the shame of not having made                                    my parents proud after all the sacrifices they had made for me. The shame                                    of having become a mediocre nihilist.

The people that she came across back in Iran also treated her differently as before. They considered her too “western.” During this experience, Satrapi quoted:

I was a westerner in Iran, an Iranian in the west. I had no identity. I didn’t even know anymore why I was living.

It was easily shown throughout the sequel, how much Satrapi was changing and how much the change took a toll on her.

                From the beginning of the first book, Persepolis to the end of the second book, Persepolis 2, Satrapi went through many different stages in her life. Her own mind caused a change and her outside surroundings also had an effect on the change of her character. 




                                                        Works Cited
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003. Print.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return. New York: Pantheon, 2004. Print.

Non-Fiction Reading Response #2

The article, “Growing Up: Saudi” by Karen Elliott House in the latest edition of Upfront magazine is about, well the title gives away what the article is about; growing up in Saudi Arabia. This article was one that intrigued me the most in the entire issue. What interested me is how the younger group is able to adopt western culture in such a conservative and different society compared to ours.

                It was interesting how the younger generation is able to be so “western,” despite how conservative and how it is quite strict there. Well, honestly, it isn’t that strict there. I’ve visited Saudi Arabia for religious purposes and I was really expecting it to be quite strict, when it really wasn’t (well maybe when I was chasing my brother down around the Holy Mosque and I got a bunch of odd stares. I’m guessing it’s inappropriate for a woman to run out in public…). But then again, I was only there for 6 days. I found it also quite interesting how much the country is progressing industrially after discovering oil, while still sticking to Islamic law, which is what the government is somewhat based off of.

                Overall, this was quite an interesting article. Yes, the many restrictions and rules could cause some to raise eyebrows, but one needs to keep in mind that Saudi Arabia is a conservative country and its government is also based off of religious beliefs. 

Poetry Response

       “No change can come if those who are impacted the most by discrimination are not willing to stand up for themselves.” (Salbi)  Poems can be about anything. They can be about an apple, the sky, how one is feeling or issues in the world. I was reading the poem “I, Too” by Langston Hughes and noticed something that I interpreted as something the speaker is trying to teach. The speaker is teaching the reader to overcome discrimination.

            The first two stanzas tell that the speaker is discriminated due to his color:

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes, (Hughes 1-4)

The speaker is sent to the kitchen whenever people are over due to his skin tone. He is being discriminated. The speaker isn’t being treated equally compared to everyone else in his surroundings because of the color of his skin.

            But the speaker is teaching the reader to not let the discrimination affect them in any way:

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen," (Hughes 8-13)

In this stanza, the speaker shows that he will not let anyone or anything affect him and bring him down in any form. He will not listen to anything that one says to him. The speaker is teaching the reader to do the same when they are discriminated in any way.

            The fourth and fifth stanzas are giving a sense of hope to the speaker and reader.  These stanzas show that things will get better:

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America. 

It shows that the speaker will ignore what everyone says and eventually, the people who discriminated him will soon feel bad for what they did to the speaker. And that the discrimination that the speaker has gotten will stop.

            Reading this poem reminds readers that things will get better. No matter how hard things are, one will be able to overcome it. The speaker was having a hard time due to being discriminated for being “the darker brother” (Hughes 2), yet was able to ignore what others said and overcame it.

Monday Muses

Prompt- Rant about something that drives you crazy. 

Well... here I go!

     I am scared of almost everything. I suffer from so many phobias. It's really bad. I'm pretty sure I have a phobia of phobias (phobia-ception). I'm afraid of dogs. I'm afraid of pigeons (and I live in New York City, like how does that even work). I'm afraid of dolls. I used to even be afraid of the colors red and yellow, at least I overcame my fear somehow. 
     My biggest fear is holes. I suffer from the WORST case of trypophobia. I'm not afraid of just any form of holes, I'm afraid of those really tiny asymmetrical ones that are repeated, if that makes any sense. You can Google it if you want but beware, it's some freaky stuff. They make my skin crawl, my teeth begin to tingle or something of that sort, I CRINGE in terror. I'm getting freaked out just by thinking about it. I am about to cry. Eeeeekkkhhh it freaks me out!
     Please, tell me I'm not the only one suffering from this phobia. Not many people know that about me, but really, its my biggest phobia. If you also have trypophobia, please let me know and we'll fight through it together. 

Reading Response: A Thousand Splendid Suns

     I am currently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. This is a reread, but it is one of my favorite books, written by probably, my favorite author. So why not reread it? While reading this book, I thought to myself "what are some issues going on in the book?" Some issues that are going on in this book are suicide, forced marriage, and domestic abuse. 

     Towards the beginning of the book, Mariam, one of the protagonists, came home to find that her mother, Nana hung herself because she thought Mariam had deserted her. After Nana died, Mariam went to live with her father, who married her off to a man named Rasheed, who was three times her age. Mariam was only 15 at the time! She had no say in the marriage and was forced to marry him. Another issue in the book is domestic abuse, in the beginning of Mariam and Rasheed’s marriage, he never did anything to her, he even gave Mariam her own room instead of sleeping with him. But eventually, Rasheed began beating Mariam for small reasons like slightly undercooking the rice.

          I believe Hosseini is trying to teach the reader about some of the struggles of women in other countries all over the world. I have noticed that all of Hosseini’s books all deal with an issue that is really strong, that may or may not be happening in some parts of the world but are really important issues that we need to take action in. I have also noticed that this book out of all of Hosseini’s books deal with social issues the most.

                

Non-Fiction Reading Response #1

      The article "Where Your Cellphone Goes to Die" by Leyla Acaroglu in the September 16th 2013 issue of Upfront magazine, is about how when we discard our old electronics, such as; cellphones, computers, televisions, etc., they end up third world countries where young children break them apart for resources. Children burn e-waste in order to find things like metal wires, cadmium in batteries and gold in circuit boards. Phone casings are burned in order to separate types of plastics. The author states that, people inhale the fumes from the burning plastic. These fumes can cause damage in the bodies of children. Many governments around the world are doing something about this. For example, the European Union is planning to ship old electronics back to the manufacturer to recycle them. The US government can do something about this e-waste issue by ratifying the Basel Convention which will restrict exporting toxic e-waste. According to the article, consumers can also do something in order to lower the amount of toxic e-waste, they can repair our devices instead of replacing them, they can recycle them through reputable recycling services. The author wants the reader to know what our e-waste is quite harmful and we need to minimize it.

     This article was bias, it mainly focused on how bad and harmful e-waste can be, it really said nothing about the perks of e-waste. The author is trying to inform the reader how wrong toxic e-waste is.

    This article taught me how it's better to recycle my old devices rather than just throw them out. It also taught me where many of our discarded devices end up which makes me realize how many children actually make a living off of burning metals and plastics and breathing toxic fumes. 

Critical Thinking Reading Response

      I am currently reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali which is translated by Delphine Minoui. This book is a memoir of Nujood, a young girl from Yemen who all of a sudden was forced into a marriage at the age of 10, raped and beaten by her husband, who was more than three times her age and her battle of trying to obtain a divorce. This book is based on a true story that went around in the news all over the world. The issues in this book are actually real and quite common.
      While reading this book, I kept asking myself this: "What really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world right now? Where?" I found quite a few social issues in this book, one of the issues I found was child marriage. This issue is probably one of the biggest in this text and actually is happening probably right at this minute somewhere in the world. Nujood was married off at the age of 10 without really much of a warning, she found out days before the wedding and she had no say into whether she agreed to the marriage or not. Nujood herself didn't even sign the marriage contract, the men of her family did.
           I lived in permanent fear. Whenever I could, I would hide in a corner, lost and bewildered. Days and nights went                 by like this. I missed Sana’a and school. My brothers and sisters. I thought of Haïfa, hoping she wouldn’t be                       married off like me 
Child marriage is quite a big issue in the world because it can lead to rape and abuse, which is something Nujood dealt with quite frequently while married to her husband. Where does child marriage occur the most? In countries like Yemen, where Nujood is from, Bangladesh, Pakistan, some countries in Africa and other developing countries. 
        This text connects to people all over the world because it's something that is actually is so common, it may not be in the United States, but in other countries it is quite common. Young children are taken away from their families to get married to people much older because sometimes the family can be quite poor and a dowry and one less person can help them financially, but these kids can be abused and raped which is another very big issue.