Nick Lovell
L376
Konrad
12/7/20011
Blog 4
Persepolis in the Classroom
As a future teacher, I see many ways in which Marjane Satrapi’s memoir, Persepolis could be a highly beneficial teaching tool in classrooms full of adolescent students. It is no secret that most American adults know next to nothing about Iranian culture, let alone our children. Most adolescents are only exposed to the views of Iran provided by heavily biased American news sources that only aim to make Iranian people sound like mindless, evil terrorists. Bringing Persepolis into the classroom could be a great way for students to get a realistic look at the true nature of Iran through the eyes of one its own people.
Persepolis does a marvelous job of showing the ways in which Iranian and American kids really are not so different. For example, we see Iranian kids just being kids when Marjane is playing with her friends, and one of them reveals that his family is moving to America (Satrapi 63). One boy is excited about the move and says, “But America is terrific! You’ll finally see Bruce Lee in person!” (63). We also see here that Marjane is a regular little girl. She expresses that she is very sad to learn about her friend’s departure because she has a crush on him and even says, “It was the end of the world!” (63). Furthermore, Marjane’s interest in fashion and pop culture can be seen when she dons her denim jacket, sneakers and Michael Jackson pin (428-429). Marjane also shares her childhood dream to become a chemist like Marie Curie (73). Scenes like these help adolescent readers to recognize the characters in Persepolis as actual people who they can relate to.
Persepolis is also a fantastic way to show how difficult the lives of Iranian people were during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi shows seemingly endless examples of the ruling government’s oppression of her people. One of the major modes of oppression came in the form of clothing restrictions. This can be seen when women are first forced to wear the veil, and when the women in the Guardians of the Revolution nearly arrest Marjane for wearing the denim jacket and sneakers, which her parents had to smuggle into the country in the first place (5, 132-133, 128-129). Satrapi makes it clear that government attempted to control nearly every aspect in the lives of Iranian citizens. In one instance, the government shuts universities down to restructure the curriculum in a way that heavily favors Islamic beliefs (73). Even throwing a party was a punishable offense, deserving of lashes (105). Most American, adolescent readers would be shocked to read about such harmless freedoms being ripped away from innocent people.
Another very important aspect of Persepolis our students could learn from is the horror of war at the doorsteps of the Iranian people. As the fighting escalates, Marjane sees the effects of war all around her. This is shown when the people living in her building must turn the basement into a bomb shelter, and again when a neighboring house is destroyed, along with the family inside (103, 141-142).
We live in a great time for a book like Persepolis to be taught. American citizens are increasingly distancing themselves from foreign cultures and accepting ignorance when it comes the lives of those living outside of our borders. Persepolis could serve as a fantastic history lesson about a part of the world that students are rarely exposed to, while also stressing the importance of realizing that people everywhere are just as human as we are.
Word Count- 590
