How would Persepolis have been different if Satrapi had not made it a graphic novel? What would have been different if her story were told as a traditional story and was not illustrated? On page 236 you see Marjane's boyfriends (at the time) mother screaming at her. It is not a major event, but it is however very detailed and shows a lot of emotion. The image states, “And the time when his mother meanly told me off...,” you don't really get much from what she is saying. The mother has a lizard tongue and very sharp teeth. This image shows how Marjane sees this woman and how marjane feels about what she is saying. We do not know exactly what the woman said to marjane but we can infer that she was frightened. If this part of the book was written in words and had no illustrations we would not be able to conclude what was happening and we would not be able to really understand how she was feeling. A larger event that happened in the book was when Marjane was getting married. On page 317 Marjane's mother walked upstairs after the wedding and locked herself in the restroom. The caption on the image tells that her mother is very sad about her getting married and that she had hoped her daughter had gotten a better life, “I have always wanted you to become independent, educated, cultured .... and here you are getting married at twenty-one. I want for you to leave Iran, for you to be free and emancipated.” but the image is much more detailed even though it doesn't have words you really see how she was feeling. I feel that if Satrapi had written this book traditionally and it had not been illustrated, it wouldn't have been such a good read. You wouldn't be able to see and feel the emotion she was trying to convey.
For the past week now we have been reading a graphic novel, The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui. The book is about the authors life, but has a strong focus on her family and their past. The build up to chapter seven (page 210) was very interesting. Thi puts a huge emphasis on her father, and how he was raised. There was one page I found very interesting, but a little disturbing. This was page 29. In the second box from the top is a family photo - showing all of the characters, but two of the sisters are colored in black as if they were no longer part of the family. As I kept reading I found that two of Ma’s (Thi’s mother) daughters had past away. Overall I really enjoy the book but I am still unsure about how I feel about the eerie story line.
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