Literary Devices in Persepolis
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
War-torn to ShredsMarjane characterizes Iran as a country that has existed through "2500 years of tyranny and submission." It's a country that has suffered almost continuous war. In the image accom...
Genre
Persepolis was written as a graphic novel, not as individual issues. But even though individual issues weren't printed, the chapter structure of the novel mimics the episodic way it might have been...
Writing Style
Different writers have different writing styles. Jane Austen gets right to the point, while Faulkner could go on and on and on and on…Oops. Where were we? That's right: writing styles. We'll have...
What's Up With the Title?
Persepolis sounds pretty exotic, huh? We would like to go to there.Unfortunately we can't. Well, we can, but it's just not the same as it used to be. Persepolis is the ancient capital of Iran, but...
What's Up With the Ending?
At the end of Persepolis, Marjane divorces her husband and returns to Europe. But she's not fleeing her life in a Lifetime Original Movie way (no crying in the shower here)—she's leaving to regai...
Tough-o-Meter
We love looking at pictures, especially when they're as fun and well-drawn as the art in Persepolis. But there are words to read too. The good news is that the words are just as easy on the eyes as...
Trivia
You haven't made a good movie (or written a good book) until your work is denounced by an entire country. Iran denounced the film version of Persepolis in 2007. Congratulations, Marjane.
(Source.)...
Steaminess Rating
The Iran portions of the novel, at the beginning and end, feature little to no sex at all. It's amazing they reproduce at all, what with being forced to wear black clothing from head to toe. (It's...
Allusions
Karl Marx (2.14; 9.2)René Descartes (2.14)Ashraf Darvishian (5.2)Charles Dickens (5.2)Johanna Spyri, Heidi (20.6)Mikhail Bakunin (22.1; 22.10; 26.14)Jean-Paul Sartre (22.12)Simone de Beauvoir (22....