As readers, we all experience different emotions and reactions when reading novels. Writers overall are able to convey their feelings to the public and write in such a fashion that the reader disconnects with themselves and identifies with the writer. Despite this, would readers still feel the same if the story wasn’t being told in a narrative point of view? Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” and Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” exemplifies how telling their story directly impacts us in an entirely different manner rather than if it were not their own voice.
Satrapi presents us with a very serious issue yet uses irony to portray it. By turning her story into a comic, she changes the feelings of many readers, but successfully gets across her feelings of anger, fright, love, and patriotism. Despite the comic style, you could still identify with Satrapi, and many scenes were very poignant because of her narration. One of these scenes was when Anoosh was executed and Marji felt so lost yet she tried to maintain her composure by saying, “Everything will be alright”. God comes to her to ask her what’s wrong, but she doesn’t want to speak to or see him, and tells him to get out. This frame was very touching because Anoosh meant a lot to Marji and she had to cope with his death at such a young age. When Marji says, “And so I was lost, without any bearing…” it kind of made you think of yourself as her. She wasn’t lost, but you were. This connection or identification would have been much different if it wasn’t from a narrative point of view. Whenever you read “I”, you somehow automatically put yourself somewhere in the story rather than if you read he or she did this or experienced that.
“Persepolis” illustrates how patriotic one can be to their country. This is the case in many nations especially during wartime. Iran has undergone many invasions in 2500 years, and religion has even been forced upon the people. In the scene where Marji and her...