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Nichole Cordero
Professor Gifford
Eng 50 T/Th
20 October 2015
Growing up Iranian
Words can only be descriptive to an extent, they are searched for to best define what is
being put in place for a reader to use their imagination. Although through images every little
detail that was stated can be left unsaid, providing the author a chance to have the reader think
the way they want them too, imagination does not have to go far off into wondering what was
taking place, connecting to the writers point of view. Within the book Persepolis, author
Marjane Satrapi best describes her everyday life growing up during the reign of the Shah to the
Islamic Revolution and her surrounding situations more effectively by representing her
experience with imagery. Satrapi depicts abuse of power through visual rhetoric to educate the
reader about the impact of leadership on ordinary citizens and the skewed notions of truth within
Iran.
In order for Satrapi to educate her audience about her childhood experiences, she takes
the reader on a journey and list of events throughout the book to tell the reader her point of view
on what really goes on within Iran. She knew her surroundings to an extent and based her book
off on her parents, relatives, neighbors, and media which informed her on the events that were
taking place. Hillary Chute states that "Persepolis at once comments on the insufficiency of any
representation to "fully" represent trauma and also harness the power of the visual to represent an
important emotional landscape..." By creating the book through imagery, Satrapi was able to
grab readers attention, allowing her to get her point across to those who stereotype Iranians just

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from watching the news reports that falsely show the downside of her country. Through the book
she depicts her deep concern for the well-being of her country at such a young age, as a child one
should not have to worry about such concerns because they are supposed to have that care free
attitude. In Persepolis, she shows what she was thinking as a child when she heard the disasters
that occur in her country by putting images that describe the imagination of what was going
through her mind. For example, when she overheard the conversation about a prisoner of war
who got chopped into pieces, she shows an image of a body laid out and cut at a clean and even
ratio (Persepolis, 52).
During her time in Iran, Satrapi encounters a not so typical lifestyle a child should go
through. She uses the power of images to create a visual representation of her everyday life as a
child who hears about young poor boys being brainwashed, Persepolis page 101, and who are
utterly devoted to what the military was promising them; "the afterlife is even better than
Disneyland..." When matter of fact was showing the depth of how far the military would use
their power to get more numbers added into the military. Hillary Chute states that ...drawings
are more effective than the realistic pictures would, makes you stop and think what that
experience would look like (102). As kids are being blown up, Satrapi cannot help but try to
imagine realistically what went down that day, it is drawn with a drastic like shading to depict
explosions while showing the children with their arched backs stating a form of torturous
experience (Persepolis, 102). The reader than feels connected to the authors emotions that had
occurred, and when viewing these images they now can than think of how catastrophic the event
was while she draws the reader into what her world consisted of growing up in Iran.
With this in mind, the military is meant to keep the people within their own country safe
but does just the opposite by corrupting their own citizens and using them for selfish gain in the

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war. Politics want nothing more than to push their fundamentalist ideas into the country of Iran
and by doing so they used it in a means to corrupt the minds of young boys entering the war at
14 years old. Satrapi states that she "believes there are ways to solve the world's problems.
Instead of putting all this money to create arms..." She included this for the reason of educating
the reader about the unjust system Iran held, their own citizens could not trust their military. It
portrays her pacifism by drawing out other ways that this type of controversy could have been
handled differently in her views. As much as peace could've been discussed about, it was not
acceptable for Iranians to agree on any terms, the religious leadership wanted to conquer and
win. Although this caused great controversy between citizens that wanted to put an end to the
ruling of those in religious leadership.
In other words, the larger picture that Satrapi is trying to convey was that Iran was in a
downward spiral if they kept up their actions towards the people and government. In the
beginning of the book we can see how even the Americans and British were involved in the
Shahs reign and the Islamic Revolution. She wanted to show how it was the influence of others
who caused Iran to downfall very quickly just as soon as one turns greedy for more power and
money. She narrates this part with her father telling her the story about how the Shah came into
power. With little influence, the Shah was quick to have interest in taking the role as leader of
Iran. Americans were also involved to an extent within the Islamic Revolution, Satrapi shows
how the Americans would not take the Shah in refuge when all they want is oil from their
country. Her world was hectic, but she was soon get used to that everyday life.
In the final analysis, ...we can see that visual arguments supply simple, minimalist
support (Blair, 52). Satrapi provides the reader with plenty of information from her experience
during the Islamic Revolution by giving the audience insight to help them as they read to better

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understand the situations that took place in Iran and hopefully change the minds of those who
thought wrongly of Iran. Satrapi was successful in educating her audience with her book because
it helped inform them that not all people from Iran agreed to what was happening in their
country. Thus, giving the reader different aspects of the situations that Iran was facing.

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Citation
Blair, J. Anthony. "The Rhetoric of Visual Arguments." Argumentation Library Groundwork in
the Theory of Argumentation (2011): 52. Print.
Chute, Hillary. "The Texture of Retracing in Marjane Satrapis Persepolis." WSQ: Women's
Studies Quarterly 36.1-2 (2008): 92-110. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003. Print.