Social Awareness Essay

          The comic books that I have read are usually about superheroes, or talking animals. However, the comic book or graphic novel, Persepolis is different. Using pictures and black and white drawings, the author tells a story of a young girl living in Iran, right at the time of the Islamic Revolution. The country is still recovering from the war with Iraq as well a brutal and protracted war between two neighboring countries, that left over 1 million Iranians dead.

            In this memoir, Marjane, the daughter of two revolutionaries is convinced she wants to be a prophet. Over the course of this story, she realizes that she wants to be a part of the demonstrations as well. She looses some of her interest in being a prophet and explores the revolution more and more as she is fed up with how her family and her are being treated, and some of the changes that are being forced upon them. For example, when she was in school just after the Islamic Revolution, the girls and boys were separated in schools and the girls were made to wear covering veils. Many were against that. They thought their children should have freedom, but they were overruled.

            The way that the Iranian soldiers treat the citizens is more than unfair. One thing mentioned in the book that I found outrageous was the child soldiers. Not only were they recruiting children to put in the front line, they handed out “golden keys” in school. The boys were told “if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them into heaven.” This is so unjust and terrible! They are basically setting up these children to think that war isn’t a bad thing, and it will be fun to serve at the front lines because “In Paradise there will be plenty of food, women, houses, and riches.” They are trading a meaningless plastic painted key for an actual person’s son. It is horrendous.

            What was sad about reading this story was that I am the same age as Marjane. And while I can’t compare my self to what she was going through, I know what it is like to be a kid. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have to hide in the basement every time I heard a siren. Or to be worried at school about your parents, and if they were safe, or at another demonstration. This story is compelling and heartbreaking, and also one of the freshest memoirs I have read because of the graphic presentation.