The graphic novel Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, recounts her childhood and early adulthood in the time of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war that inevitably followed. During the revolution traditionalists attempted to refine what it meant to be an Iranian in fundamentalist Islamic terms in order to go against the ways of the West. Marjane Satrapi writes this story about how Iranians tried to deal with changes in their everyday life and how it changed the way they lived. Before exploring the nature of the revolution of 1979 in the novel, it is important to understand the historical roots. From 1925 to 1941, the administration and government of Iran under Reza Shah were quite influential at their positions. Due to industrialization and urbanization, new social classes emerged which consisted of the working class and the middle class. All the while, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 led to new development in which Britain and the Soviet Union formed an alliance. This alliance was built upon the strategy of transporting supplies from the Persian Gulf to the Soviet Union, which was opposed by the ruler of Iran who refused to drive the Germans away. The refusal of the Shah to get rid of the Germans prompted the British and Russians to the extent that it led to the arrest of the Shah and taking away the control of Iran’s oil resources. The year of 1941 was a large turning point for the Iranian Pahlavi dynasty as the invading parties dethroned the existing governing body of Iran and the regime under Reza Shah collapsed. His son Mohammad was the new constitutional monarch on September 16, 1941. He followed the reform measures of his father calling it the ‘White Revolution’ in 1963. This term referred to the reform policy which included reforms of the legal and educational organizations, land reform, the extension of voting rights to women and the elimination of illiteracy. These developments angered the religious leaders of the country, they unanimously showed their disapproval. The main reason the opposed the developments was due to the Shah’s policy of Westernization and secularization of the nation. The religious leaders saw the modernization of the state as a symbol of disobedience of the religious law and preaching. They made their dissatisfaction apparent by setting up small industries, thus making the markets lose their hold. The markets signified ‘the social, financial, political, ideological, and historical links with religious establishment.’ This suggests that the uprooting of the markets, which was the bread and butter of the traditional middle class, had a strong influence of the clergy. The Shah turned a deaf ear to the protesting
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By knowing and understanding the history it helps to understand the basic structure of the graphic novel Persepolis. There are two main dimensions in the novel, the social aspect and the religious aspect. During the revolution, the clergy were becoming authorities whose goal was to stress the importance of religion. They opposed the anti-Islamic regime and its capitalistic nature, which led them to unite. You can see this unity in the book through the demonstrations that Marjane talks about wanting to go to. She talks about wanting to go more than once in the novel, stressing that she wants to be a part of something important. “QUOTE FROM NOVEL” (in-text
By knowing and understanding the history it helps to understand the basic structure of the graphic novel Persepolis. There are two main dimensions in the novel, the social aspect and the religious aspect. During the revolution, the clergy were becoming authorities whose goal was to stress the importance of religion. They opposed the anti-Islamic regime and its capitalistic nature, which led them to unite. You can see this unity in the book through the demonstrations that Marjane talks about wanting to go to. She talks about wanting to go more than once in the novel, stressing that she wants to be a part of something important. “QUOTE FROM NOVEL” (in-text