1984 Persepolis Quotes/Justification

Themes (what she is -Totalitarian -Lack of

portraying about __, government freedom/repression
example : totalitarian Big Brother Forced to wear veils and
government leads to loss -Mass surveillance have bears, no freedom
of humanity) Telescreens, constantly of speech…
watched and listened -War
to Iran vs Iraq
-Violence -Religion
Bombing Islam, talked to god
Vaporization when she was little,
Public executions pushes the plot forward
Two minute hate -Immigration
-Lack of Immigrated to Austria to
freedom/repression run away from war,
Telescreens, constantly explores he experience
watched and listened as an immigrant
to -Modernity
Newspeak She tries to imitate
Thought Police European people’s
-war manners
Eurasia vs Oceania -Family
-love/lust She loves family and
Winston and Julia they love her, strong
-Betrayal connection
Winston and big -Betrayal
brother Anush betrayed the
O’brien and Winston country
- -Totalitarian
Governement
Islamic Regime
-Mass surveillance
The women that
stopped her because of
her Michael Jackson
sweater, and the
neighbours
-Violence
Bombing
Fire in movie theater

Techniques Irony: “War is peace. Hyperbole: authors use

Freedom is slavery. hyperbole to create
Ignorance is emphasis. in her comic
strength.”Orwell uses strip Satrapi uses
it to show how exaggeration to help
manipulation and distinguish and
control can restrict emphasis characteristics
one’s freedom and more easily example :
privacy. Its purpose of “and so I was lost,
this slogan was to push without any bearings ”
the population of she exaggerates the
Oceania to have death of her uncle as if it
contradictory was the end of the
thoughts, having a world. This shows the
name in the book 1984 reader that Anoosh was
“doublethink”. very important to her
Metaphor: Orwell Juxtaposition : Satrapi
used metaphor and use juxtaposition to
simile to create a dark imply disparities
and grim atmosphere between age, gender ,
in the book. He class and to depict
compared some different perspectives
elements from the and/or gazes on the
atmosphere to other issue of the veil in this
dark things making comic strip we often see
that grim atmosphere eastern and western
used to portray the ideals juxtaposed to one
harm of totalitarian another example : “
government. “He was Deep down I was very
a lonely ghost uttering religious but as a family
a truth that nobody we were very modern
would ever hear.”It is and avant garde ” “rule
used to show how the number six : Everybody
narrator compares the should have a car. Rule
words of a ghost to the number seven: all maids
writings in the diary of should eat at the tables
Winston and “In this with the others “ her
game that we’re family owns a Cadillac
playing, we can’t win.” and has a maid who
Here Winston had doesn’t eat with them.
given up all hope to Imagery:satrapi’s whole
overcome the party’s novel is based off of
control by saying life in imagery, since it is a
Oceania is an graphic novel; however ,
unwinnable game. there is specific text that
Allusion: the book of can cause a reader to
1984 alludes to nazi imagine what is
Germany led by Adolf happening with or
Hitler, and Russian without an actual image
communism with examples : “Ma’am, my
Stalin. For example, mother’s dead, my
the concept of big stepmother is really
brother watching over cruel and if I don’t go
the people of Oceania home right away,she’ll
strongly resembles kill me… she’ll burn me
Hitler’s rulership. with clothes iron….
Orwell uses Allusion to She’ll make my father
connect his work to put me in an orphanage
actual events without ” “after marching and
stating them, such as throwing stones all day,
stalinism. He also by evening they had
references Germany aches all over, even in
led by Hitler once their heads ”
again in chapter to, Tone: Marjane Satrapi
when speaking of the uses different types of
“child spies”, who are tones throughout her
sent to make sure no comic to captivate the
one is betraying big reader’s attention and
brother. and to make want to
Foreshadowing: know more examples:
George Orwell uses “BBC said there were
foreshadowing to 400 victims…the people
show the reader or the knew it was the shah’s
audience the fault” This quote creates
dangerous things that a serious tone which
will happen to the captivates readers and
protagonist in the makes them want to
future. In chapter 4 in read more.satrapi
book 2, “Of all the creates a humorous tone
horrors in the world- a when the widow of the
rat!” It was to create dead man cries out ,
claustrophobic “The king is a
environment and killer!”when he actually
foreshadowed with died of cancer.
what they will torture Irony: Satrapi uses this
him with. So his device to show the
biggest fear. “Traitor contrast between reality
and Thought criminal” and how reality seems.
it's when the two Mostly referring to the
children are shouting effect the regime had on
to Winstone, it the people. For example,
foreshadows that he during Marji’s visit to her
will be a traitor. aunt, her uncle says
Personification: “If the “the stress I get from
party could thrust it’s every gunshot I hear is
hand into the past and much worse for me than
say that this or that the cigarettes”. He says
even never happened, this to his wife as a
that surely was more response to her asking
terrifying than mere him to quit smoking
torture or death”. before he dies from it.
Personnification is He ended up passing
used in 1984 to give away due to the fear of a
human characteristics bombing that happened
to the government, in his neighborhood, and
and big brother, not from the cigarettes,
showing how truly cold which caused him two
and cruel they could heart attacks. Through
be, and the control this ironic situation the
and power that they author aims to show
had over all the that the islamic regime
civilian’s lives. even negatively affected
Symbolism: people’s health,
“Telescreens, thought antagonizing it.
police, glass Allusion: Multiple
paperweight and the allusions are made.
red coral”. Most of Allusions about historical
these symbols are events are made to give
used to show the context and show that
ideology, propaganda, those events that we
the dangers behind probably only saw on tv
totalitarianism and affected her personally.
censorship. The Page 14 and 15 depict
telescreens are the “rex cinema fire”:
symbolized as mass “the shah said that a
surveillance and group of religious
propaganda, Thought fanatics perpetrated the
police is the thought massacre. But the
control on the people knew that it was
population and the shah's fault!!”. These
censorship and as last panels give context to
is symbolized as the why the shah was later
true desire winstone overthrown
had to find the real Symbolism: Symbols in
history. Also when the the novel are used to
police came to his show the repression of
place to arrest him and the regime as well as the
the glass paperweights characters (mainly marji)
got broken by it, it opposition to the
symbolizes that all his repression. “At around
desire will be forever the same time as she
lost. The red coral was had this realization,
a symbol of love Marjane smokes her first
between the two. cigarette as “my act of
rebellion against my
mother’s dictatorship."
Since she was a child she
knew she could not do
much against the
 government of her
country so she focused
her rebellion against her
well intentioned
parents. Nonetheless
the act of smoking the
cigarette is an action
against all the repression
in her life.
Color scheme: The color
scheme is black and
white to illustrate the
opposing themes that
are discussed in the
novel (oppression vs
freedom; violence vs
peace; modernism vs
traditionalism). For
exemple on the first
panel, on the third page,
the black and white is
used to symbolize the
theme of freedom vs
restraint. The veil
Marjane is wearing is
colored in black, this is
to show that she is
restrain by having to
wear the veil by force.
She is wearing a white
dress under the veil; the
white symbolizes
freedom. Her veil hiding
the upper part of her
dress shows that it is
obstructing on her
ability to be fully free.

Context -Author was in the -Author experienced - Marjane lived in the

army in India when it totalitarian government islamic regime
was a British colony -experienced life as an -He lived during the
-at the time, USSR was immigrant existence of a
a totalitarian like -went through being a totalitarian
nation girl in an oppressive government
-He was against government They were both
violence - is muslim against that type of
regime
 -Experience -autobiography so
homelessness and author went through
poverty everything that
- he witnessed war happened in the novel
-his wife died
- is not religious
Setting -Oceania, in 1984, -Iran (after the islamic Time is similar to
during a period where revolution) and Austria both
it is ruled by a in the late 1970s The places are
totalitarian different
government that went The type of
by the name of Big government is similar
Brother
Genre Dystopian Fiction Autobiographical graphic
novel
Global Issues -Mass surveillance -repression leading to
making people scared violence
of being themselves -struggles when living as
-repression leading to an immigrant
violence -
-fake news in the
media
-
Characterization Winstone Smith: Marjane Satrapi:
Protagonist protagonist
Julia Anoosh
O’brien: antagonist Marji’s parents
Big Brother Shah (before regime):
Emmanuel Goldstein antagonist
The Parsons Islamic regime:
Syme antagonist
Mr. Charrington Iranian government:
antagonist