GLOBAL DISSENT AND ACTS OF REBELLION THROUGH MARJANE SATRAPI'S GRAPHIC NOVEL: PERSEPOLIS

Marjane Satrapi's The Complete Persepolis is a coming-of-age graphic memoir that tells of the author's experiences growing up during and after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Initially published in two volumes in America (and in four books in France), the first half of Persepolis is a memoir of Marjane's girlhood, growing up under the new Islamic regime and the Iran-Iraq war. In contrast, the second half presents her experiences in exile in Vienna at fourteen years old, her eventual return to Iran at nineteen, and her decision to leave Iran again at twenty-four. Persepolis is not just a graphic novel but also an autobiographical comic strip description of the youth of the revolutionary and war-torn Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi. Satrapi's drawing style is simple, the characters are essential, and the scene rarely contains details. Many drawings resemble woodblock prints, and Satrapi effectively uses black and white. Clothing, backgrounds, and various information can be black or white, creating an effective and strong contrast.