Persepolis Reflection

“War always takes you by surprise” (Satrapi 81). Imagine sitting in your office on a normal day; you know that your country is potentially at war, but you just have not seen it with your own eyes. Then, BOOM, right out your office window you see giant air planes and you are taken by surprise by war. This situation is similar to what happened in the story of “The F_14s” with Marjane and her father; shown by a few different panels on pages eighty and eighty-one. The Complete Persepolis is a graphic novel that tells the life story of Marjane Satrapi. It starts with Marjane in school, kindly describing herself and the difference between her and others. It goes on throughout the novel telling different stories of her uncle, her grandfather, her parents, and herself. From her parents going to political rallies to her uncle’s crazy stories to her making her own stories. The novel is focused around social activism and the Iran and Iraq war. On page eighty, with there being nine panels; the first panel is Marjane and her father sitting in his office, the next panel symbols an explosion with BOOM written in it. The next few panels are showing fighter jets flying. On page eight-one there are ten

“Above all, Iraq launched the war in an effort to consolidate its rising power in the Arab world and to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state” (Iranian Chamber Society). This war continued for eight year, which during this time Marjane grew up elsewhere due to her parents not wanting her being involved with it, also with how she was already acting. War didn’t just take you by surprise, but in a way made you tougher. When in war with a neighboring country it was difficult to be ‘free’ because the government was always on the ‘look out’ so, people were taken by surprisingly new rules. Including, but not limited to, the