Assignment 10: Reading the Multimodal Narrative

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

Persepolis is a dialogue heavy autobiographical graphic novel about the main character's evolution from a child to an adult living in Iran during the 1980's. Marjane witnesses the drastic change from a more democratic environment to an oppressive dictatorship. Among some of her recollections, Marjane recounts the hostility for simple pleasures like certain articles of clothing, music, alcohol, parties, and other everyday things most people take for granted. Recreational forms of entertainment and socializing were deemed “decadent,” and were forbidden. As social oppression grew, the progressive views of her family affected her perspective of the political landscape. Not only do you see Marjane mature from a child to a teenager, you see the evolution of her attitudes towards religion and politics. The main character is based on Satrapi herself, so the dialogue feels as if she is engaging the reader directly in real time.

The graphic art style is simple in terms of character design and color. The characters are simplified in a semi-cartoon fashion, but visually have emotional weight because of the high contrast black and white giving each scene intensity. There are humorous moments, but the majority of content is poignant and ominous given the emotional evolution of the main character. The detail and shape is reminiscent of Russian nesting dolls. Color-wise, the graphics resemble the pop art styling of Andy Warhol with high contrasts between light and dark tones.

As for the layout, each little moment is given a smaller box for that particular action or piece of information. This is to create a sense of movement within the still imagery, and to convey continuous action so the story feels fluid. This graphic novel would serve well as storyboards for an animated adaptation.

As an artist, Satrapi definitely has an Auteur’s Voice. Her graphic novel is unique and insightful, and her perspective is engaging and sympathetic throughout. The art style matched the sobering mood of her story perfectly. Most graphic novels use color to hold the reader’s attention, but the high contrast black and white matched the serious tone of a young woman trading her idealism for realism perfectly. It's as if the reader is watching a historical documentary. I would highly recommend this graphic novel to anyone looking for strong imagery coupled with fascinating and heartbreaking stories told authentically from an author’s perspective.