Marjane Satrapi

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Marjane Satrapi has beautifully crafted a memoir of a young girl attempting to grow up during a national conflict alongside an unexpected style of artwork. Choosing to include illustrations in a piece of literature can be detrimental to the storyline but because the subject matter is relatively heavy, the artwork is a simplistic distraction to reiterate the focal points of the text. Having a visual aspect heightens the emotional details within the story. For instance when she talks about how she just wants to be “justice, love and the wrath of God all in one”, the picture represents how she sees herself as a balance of peacefulness and fearlessness (Satrapi 9). It is interesting to see how there are demonstrations of the casual, somewhat naïve personality of a young girl, but there are also darker aspects to her reality as well; a few examples of the more dramatic of these would be the depiction of the burning citizens in the theatre, the Guardians of the Revolution, or the dismemberment of Ahmadi.…show more content…
The visual representation of the burning of the Iranian citizens trapped in the movie theatre adds another layer of emphasis on the horror she was feeling during this time. The meshing together of faces, or souls, builds on the concept of chaos and inescapabilty within her culture. Having a childlike drawing style makes the art more reminiscent of what a child might see. Its purpose is to envision the heart of a youth’s point of view by representing a complex and devastating world in an easy, naïve manner. An appropriate example of this is when Satrapi portrays the image of Ahmadi’s body chopped into pieces as though he were made of clay. The visual of his death is the outcome of the imagination and misunderstanding of a child with no true idea of what a man cut to pieces would look like in

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