Literary Devices PERSEPOLIS

Symbolism
Satrapi uses visual symbols throughout “Persepolis” to convey complex themes. For instance,
the veil symbolizes the repression of women and the loss of personal freedoms under the new
regime.

“The year after the revolution, the veil was made compulsory for women in Iran. We
resisted as long as possible. But the day came that we had to wear it. We took our
scarves and tore them in two. We put the two halves in our school bags. Once in the
street, we put our scarves over our hair…In the afternoon, as soon as we’d leave school,
we would take off our scarves. This small gesture was our way of opposing the veil.”

In the excerpt, the tearing of the scarves represents the unwillingness of Marjane and her
classmates to accept the veil being forced upon them. It’s a symbolic act of quiet defiance
and protest against the loss of their freedom to choose. Even while being compelled to
physically wear the veil, they resist its meaning by splitting the scarf in half – fulfilling the
letter of the law while rebelling against its spirit of control over women. The donning and
removing of the torn scarves becomes a symbolic daily ritual reasserting their opposition.
Through this vivid symbolic act, Satrapi illustrates the tensions over Iranian women’s rights
and freedoms in the early days of the regime.

Juxtaposition
The graphic novel format allows Satrapi to place contrasting images side by side,
highlighting the two opposing political groups.

“While fundamentalists kept increasing their demands, the Marxists, who still occupied
an important place in public opinion, lost ground. The regime found an ideal
opportunity to finish them off. The universities were closed for two years while the
Cultural Revolution took over the education system.”

In this passage, Satrapi juxtaposes two opposing political groups – the fundamentalists and
the Marxists. She explains how as the fundamentalists became more extreme in their
demands, the Marxists, representing more progressive leftist ideas, lost influence. This sets
up a juxtaposition highlighting the stark ideological differences between these two factions.

Flashback
Satrapi employs flashbacks to provide background on Marjane’s uncle Anoosh.

“One day as usual I came home around 4:00 p.m. My parents were not home. I opened
the front door, and I found my grandma sitting in the dark. I turned on the light. She
had her veil in her hands, and she was crying. She told me that my uncle Anoosh had
been executed. My uncle was a kind man with broad shoulders that inspired trust and
respect.”

After initially mentioning that her grandmother told Marjane that Anoosh had been executed,
Satrapi then includes descriptive details about Anoosh’s appearance and demeanor through
Marjane’s childhood memories of him. This quickly establishes an emotional connection and
illustrates why his death is so painful, before returning to the scene of learning the tragic
news from her grandmother.

The brief flashback to happier times is a compelling literary technique that brings the reader
into Marjane’s experience of initially hearing about her beloved uncle’s execution. By
departing from the chronological narrative for a paragraph to highlight memories of Anoosh,
Satrapi underscores the shock and grief of this revelation before continuing with the story.
The contrast between Marjane’s nostalgic vision of her uncle and the awful fact of his state-
ordered death also implicitly criticizes the injustice of the regime. This further demonstrates
the power of flashbacks to enrich and enhance a narrative.

Irony
Satrapi often uses irony to underscore the absurdities and contradictions in political and
social situations, such as the humorous yet poignant scenes of Marjane and her friends trying
to procure banned Western music and clothing.

“The year after the revolution, the veil was made compulsory for women in Iran. We
resisted as long as possible. But the day came that we had to wear it. We took our
scarves and tore them in two. We put the two halves in our school bags. Once in the
street, we put our scarves over our hair…In the afternoon, as soon as we’d leave school,
we would take off our scarves. This small gesture was our way of opposing the veil.”

The irony here is that although the girls are compelled to physically wear veils, they resist
and rebel against its meaning by tearing their scarves in half. They technically comply by
covering their hair with torn scarves, thus fulfilling the superficial letter of the law
demanding women wear veils. However, by willfully damaging their scarves, they also
subvert the spirit and intent of this law that aims to control women and deny them the
freedom of choice over their attire.

Satire
“Persepolis” uses satire to critique both the Shah’s regime and the fundamentalist Islamic
government that followed, as well as Western perceptions of Iran. She criticizes the Iranian
government regarding its dealing with Iraq during the war.

“In 1980, Iraq took advantage of the chaos in Iran to attack us. We were not prepared
at all. While the army was trying to organize, the radio announced they needed
volunteers at the front. So, a lot of young boys enrolled. Our neighbor’s son died at the
front at age fourteen. His mother was devastated. She used to cry all day. The public
gardens were filled with mothers crying for their dead sons. Other mothers knitted
socks and packed food and cigarettes for the soldiers at the front. And the fathers were
congratulating each other on the honor of sacrificing their sons for the country.”

This passage uses satirical elements to criticize the Iranian government’s handling of the war
with Iraq. By dryly stating that “a lot of young boys enrolled” after hearing a radio call for
army volunteers, Satrapi highlights the absurdity and horror of children being sent off to
fight. The devastating image of public gardens filled with grieving mothers whose young
sons have been killed further drives home the critique.
Visual Devices
Marjane uses symbolism, metaphor, and repetition to create a whole body of power images to
tell her unique memoir, and share her experience.
Repetition of the figure and action are used to create a sense of unification. The cropping of
the image shows us a small segment of something much larger. In this example, the cropping
of the image at the sides prevents the viewer from seeing all the girls in the class. Instead it
allows the viewer to imagine this event spanning far beyond this one classroom, taking place
in all schools across Iran.

The same can be said for the image of the massacre.

Here we see the visual contrast between the characters and the protesters. The repeated figure
and action force us to not view them as individual people, but as a single entity.

Marjane also uses metaphor to make complex ideas understandable to the viewer. In this
example, the people all tied up together on the bike to represent the drive behind the
revolution. She says “the revolution is like a bicycle. When the wheels don’t turn, it falls."
Marjane also uses metaphor to depict the policemen blocking the entrance to the theatre.
Their dark and enlarged bodies create a visual wall between the fire, and the people trying to
put it out. Notice the repetition of the police figures as well?

Finally, symbolism is used to help the viewer relate to Marjane's experience. When her uncle
Anoosh in first introduced, his head is surrounded by wholly light. This godly light shows us
how highly Marjane thinks of him.

Marjane also surrounds her head with celestial light to symbolize her state of mind when she
wants to become a prophet.
These visual devices help us to relate to Marjane's experience, and create a far more visually
interesting memoir.