Persepolis Style Analysis

Cartoons and graphic novels are popular amongst children. They’re seen as simple stories that can be understood better through pictures. What about a graphic novel that uses cartoons to demonstrate a hard concept for young adults? In the book Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, the author uses a simplistic art style and varying panels to emphasize the different emotions and struggle she experienced growing up during the Islamic Revolution. The author Marjane Satrapi, wanted to demonstrate and spread her story in a way that would be easier to understand. She utilises a simple, cartoonish, and abstract art style to present her story in a way that is not too complex. Growing up, Marji experienced violence, political unrest, and was exposed to a lot …show more content…
Many of the pages in the book Persepolis have many panels that are organized in a way to direct readers from right to left and top to bottom. She also uses each page to tell a specific scene, and arranges the panels in a way that fit together. However, occasionally, Marjane uses only one panel on a page. This is featured on page 77, with only a single image demonstrating an abstract scene of her family on vacation (Satrapi 77). This emphasizes the time period and allows for a certain time period to be covered more broadly. When only a single panel is used on a page, the mood of the scene is very clear to identify. For example, the panel on page 77 features a happy mood. This is clear because the image is much larger than others so you get a good look at what is going on in the scene. Moreover, this helps to demonstrate her struggle growing up during the Islamic Revolution. Experiencing political unrest took away a lot of things we may get to have living in America. She was able to demonstrate this theme through her images. Through varying panel usage, Marjane allows for certain panels or scenes to be emphasized, which makes the emotions in the panel more