Language A: literature Internal

Assessment Student outline form

Global issue:
War forges traumatic experiences for anyone involved in a variety of ways, causing detrimental
effects to the individual.

Works chosen

Work in translation: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Work in language A: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Notes for the Oral (maximum of 10 bullet points):

● The second panel atop page 272: The icon in the center is a very faint, indistinguishable outline
of Marjane, recognizable only by the direction of Satrapi’s writing. The graphic weight of this
figure is that of a purely white figure against a purely black background. The text
accompanying is her stating that she was nothing, for she was a westerner in Iran and an
Iranian in the west.
● The seventh panel on page 272: In this panel, the figure of Marjane is pictured having a face of
dissatisfaction. Rather than a sadness in finding herself this suicidal and depressed, we find her
frustrated that her attempt is not working.
● The first panel on 273: This is representative of her straying from normalcy and her desperation.
The fifth panel on 273: The text is the most important aspect of this panel, which also shows this
desperation when she’s disappointed in her survival.
● The seventh panel on page 273: Marjane tells her therapist of her attempt on her life. The entire
bottle was enough to kill an elephant (juxtaposition);it was divine intervention that saved her.
O’Brien uses a metaphor when describing Bowker, saying he was folded in with the war
● The symbolization of the characters of Max Arnold and his father in this passage work to build
Bowker’s feelings of isolation from his community.
● At the end of this passage: This vivid imagery goes to show just how much he is struggling
emotionally, and how isolated he is as well, as he douses himself in the lake in order to feel
warmth and to taste comfort, things he is lacking from fellow humans.
● He chooses to call the fireworks going off as he is standing in the lake a pretty “show,” and
O’Brien’s diction in this instance goes to construct the venir that is this comforting lake-town,
and the falsehood of the solace it provides
● To conclude, the issue is shown through Marjane Satrapi and Norman Bowker, who both either
attempted to or successfully took their lives in real life aside from the novels to which they
belong. approaching her suicide attempts as well.
● Bowker displays a similar lack of motivation or sense of purpose through his inability to find a
job or continuing study at junior college, and spending his days driving around town in thought
and playing basketball at YMCA, as war and watching his friends die, and more specifically, the
guilt surrounding the death of Kiowa, acted as a divide from reality, making the information
that he studied at junior college seem insignificant in comparison to the gaping hole of
depression and uncertainty that war has left with him.

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