I do not think that Marji agrees with her dad that "politics and sentiment don't mix". She is so devoted towards her country and her independence as a woman is much stronger and makes her father’s statement seem anything but not true. She has a very good relationship with her mother, father, and grandmother and their opinions meant a lot to her. When the problems turned dire in her country she started to feel and think separately from her family and wanted to make changes and be apart of the revolution. When her father decided to stand down and take no part in protest anymore she thought wasn’t as patriotic as she was, but then she realized that much more was going on and that he didn’t let his feelings get in his way thinking straight. Her grandmother and mother seem to be extremely independent according to the dialogue and in the comic. I definitely think she got her strong personality from the women side of the family. He mother was very emotional throughout the whole attack. She just wanted the safety of her family and friends and just go with whatever changes and rules were make, but not Marj. She wanted her opinion heard and acknowledged. The bond between the family helped then tremendously through the war. I think that is why Marj was so involved with the news and what was happening around her. Satarapi’s grandmother meant a lot to her and made her feel at ease. She would give her advice and tell her not to ever forget who she was or where she came from. When Marj moved to France she was afraid to let people know the she was from Iran. The war had reflected Iranians as ‘crazy’ par say. Eventually she was over the down grading that people were doing and finally stood up for herself because she felt so strongly about her country. At the beginning of the book I could tell that Marj was a strong individual and wanted to stand out in the crowd. She was the one that always gave her opinions in class and outside of class. Politics and sentiment to go together because a person is going to do what the feel is right to them and the feelings they have can alter the decision they make. Even though her father said politics and sentiment don’t mix, he knew that it happens and nothing can put a barrier between them.
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I agreed with your statement, especially th one about Marji's mom. I think that her mom was torn between trying to teach her daughter self control to maintain her daughter's safety and letting her emotions drive her into an emotional standoff with the government. I feel that she would have been much stronger, maybe even her father to, if she had not been in their home and so influenced by them. I personally liked reading about her grandmother's loving strength and think that I would have admired her had I known her. I really liked all of the insight you had in your blog.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the women in this story. I like the way Satrapi develops the female characters in Persepolis. Despite being the most oppressed characters in the story (forced to wear veils and having very few freedoms), they are some of the strongest characters. Without her grandmother's advice, I highly doubt Marji would have grown into the same woman she is at the end of the story. When she lives abroad she is, at first,very tentative about telling people where she is from. However, as the story goes on, you see that she takes her grandmother's advice and takes pride in who she is and where she comes from. So, despite how much danger and oppression come as a result of politics in this story, the emotional and sentimental connections Marji has with her family keeps her strong and helps her grow into a confident, proud woman.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you here. Marji’s inclination to let sentiment intertwine with politics does help her to be passionate in her protesting, but it also distances her from her father’s perspective. Her mother and her grandmother, although they are different in both demeanor and a little in political activism, are definitely fiery, intellectual women. Though her father is as well, he seems to be more recalcitrant that the women. However, don’t forget the times that Marji’s mother and her grandmother had issues with the protests that she made in her teens and into adulthood. These are steps that momentarily distance them from Marji as well- but through these distances and disagreements, Marji forms a strong ideology on how protesting or political persuasion should truly be undertaken. Which is, of course, how she got a book published and gets to talk to Stephen Colbert.
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