This excerpt from Persepolis exemplifies Marji’s feelings toward her

grandfather. In the layout, Marji’s mother tells about how her father was in
pain all of his life. In the first panel, a memory of him is given with a flashback
where she is playing happily with her father. This happy moment is reflected
with a white background. However, in the next panels, almost all the
background color changes to black since Marji’s mother starts to tell about the
tough times her father goes through. These sad and painful times are
highlighted with a dark background. In the third panel, Marji’s mother’s face is
shaded black and this signifies how the regime has affected her to lose faith,
hope, and innocence. The use of emanate, and teardrops, clearly reflect her
despair and sadness towards her father.This visual contrast between dark and
light is also seen in the sixth panel in the middle. After Marji hears about her
grandfather’s difficult times passed in prison because of the brutality of the
regime, she wants to “take a bath”. Indeed, she wants to empathize with the
feeling of being in a cell filled with water, just like her grandfather. This sad
news causes Marji to lose faith in the regime and everything related to it.
Therefore, in panels 3 and 6, the graphic weight is used to appeal to the same
feeling of mother and daughter towards Marji’s grandfather. Although Marji’s
father asks to play monopoly with her, she rejects politely and wants to take a
bath and be alone. In the eight panel, God pays her a visit to comfort her; but
his question “what are you doing?” is left unanswered. This shows no how
much Marji needs help on her religious side, she can not find the energy to
answer God. In the last panel, Marji is portrayed all naked with wrinkled hands
and a sad expression on her face. The main reason behind this is that she tries
to feel the same physical and emotional pain. (page 25)
Page 18

This excerpt from Persepolis illustrates/reflects the conflict between the

modernists and the fundamentalists after the Islamic Revolution. On the top
splash panel, a group of protesters is seen shouting the slogan “Down With the
King! (1)”. On the white background, the protesters are seen in black in the
foreground. The contrasting usage of black and white symbolizes the power of
their protest against the king, asking him to leave the country. The protesters’
eyes are all closed with their feasts up which emphasizes how they are strong-
willed to protect their freedom and individual choices. Satrapi portrays this
feeling by giving a similar look on their face and body postures. All the
protestors look united and confident in their ideology. The second and third
panels are equally the same size and easy to make a comparison. On the left
side, the soldiers with their powerful weapons in their hands are ready to shoot
the modernist innocent citizen. To emphasize that, Satrapi uses a dark
background with black silhouettes of soldiers to symbolize the negative effects
of the government. However, on the third panel, the protesters are throwing
rocks, a weak attack. They are depicted as light against a dark background. The
use of graphic weight on panel 3 clearly demonstrates a deep contrast between
the wrath of soldiers and the innocent civils. While Satrapi uses an action-to-
action transition in the first three panels, the last two panels take place after
some time. With the change of time and place, Satrapi uses a scene-to-scene
transition. In these last two panels, Marji ironically wants to play Monopoly,
an American game, with her parents. This clearly underlines the fact that Marji
still does not understand the reality, the violence in the outer world. She is not
mature enough to understand the situation. This layout depicts the tension
between two sides of the country in a vivid and touching way where the
struggle against the government is strong but powerless.