Persepolis 
Kyle Gates
Professor Jesse Dobson
English 1301-008 (Gate)
15 September 2014
Persepolis
In the novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, there are many different themes that you could look at and decide to analyze. I decided to look at four different themes that are brought up throughout the novel. In the novel there is a lot of talk about the contrasting regions of Iran and everywhere else in the world, politics and religion, and warfare.
In Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood, the concept of contrasting regions is explored by Satrapi when she talks about what it’s like to grow up in Iran, and to be misunderstood no matter where you go simply because of where you came from. The country of Iran acts like it hates Westerners, but a lot of its citizens envy Western culture. The main reason for the hate that Iran lashes out at Western culture is because we dismantled the old regime that they had, which happened to be a democracy. Western countries, mainly the United States and the United Kingdom, were blocked from buying Iranian oil by the former presidency, so they replaced the president with a Shah who would allow them to buy oil from Iran. Because of this issue people in Iran will stereotype westerners in ways that we stereotype them, by what they wear and what we think we know about that culture. There are some cultures in the world that will stereotype other cultures. For example, when I visited Tanzania and Zanzibar, a lot of the African kids believed that the American kids from our school were all very wealthy. In their country, most people do not have running water or air conditioning, so what we see as normal things that we need and have in a house, these people do not have. Because of this, we seem extremely wealthy because we have things that they cannot afford to have. Some people in Iran may make it seem like Iran hates westerners, but Satrapi notices quite a difference in living in Vienna than she does in Iran. In Vienna, Satrapi
Professor Jesse Dobson
English 1301-008 (Gate)
15 September 2014
Persepolis
In the novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, there are many different themes that you could look at and decide to analyze. I decided to look at four different themes that are brought up throughout the novel. In the novel there is a lot of talk about the contrasting regions of Iran and everywhere else in the world, politics and religion, and warfare.
In Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood, the concept of contrasting regions is explored by Satrapi when she talks about what it’s like to grow up in Iran, and to be misunderstood no matter where you go simply because of where you came from. The country of Iran acts like it hates Westerners, but a lot of its citizens envy Western culture. The main reason for the hate that Iran lashes out at Western culture is because we dismantled the old regime that they had, which happened to be a democracy. Western countries, mainly the United States and the United Kingdom, were blocked from buying Iranian oil by the former presidency, so they replaced the president with a Shah who would allow them to buy oil from Iran. Because of this issue people in Iran will stereotype westerners in ways that we stereotype them, by what they wear and what we think we know about that culture. There are some cultures in the world that will stereotype other cultures. For example, when I visited Tanzania and Zanzibar, a lot of the African kids believed that the American kids from our school were all very wealthy. In their country, most people do not have running water or air conditioning, so what we see as normal things that we need and have in a house, these people do not have. Because of this, we seem extremely wealthy because we have things that they cannot afford to have. Some people in Iran may make it seem like Iran hates westerners, but Satrapi notices quite a difference in living in Vienna than she does in Iran. In Vienna, Satrapi
Cited: Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis The Story of a Childhood. New York. Pantheon Books 2004, print