As a freshman here at TCU, we were required to participate in the Common Reading. This year, the common reading was Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis. This novel reflected Satrapi's experience as a child living in Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Overall, I think that her work was extremely unique and showed a new perspective of the Iranian Revolution. In the opening statement of her book, she mentioned that she wanted to give the reader an insight of Iran beyond the stereotypes. She wanted to show that Iran wasn't just a place that held US citizens hostage or constantly was trying to rebel against Western ways, but a place full of culture. She wants the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the government system in Iran at the time and not generalize Iran or Iranian's as all being the same, all being Islamic or all agreeing on the type of government system. I thought the illustrated aspect of the novel definitely enhanced the overall meaning and interpretation of the text. There were many pictures that depicted war, conflict or distress that added emotional appeal and made us as reader be more open to Satrapi's experience as a child.
Beyond the novel, I think that Satrapi's work definitely has made an impact on how the Western world sees the Middle East and particularly Iran. She not only wrote Persepolis, but directed the movie and therefore was really able to control what we as an audience are seeing and perceiving and overall promote a greater understanding for her culture. We are able to get a more diverse perspective through her work that will overall benefit us when writing and editing for the media.
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