Persepolis -- Draft 1

The graphic novel Persepolis is a graphic representation about the Iranian Revolution through the eyes of a little girl names Marjane Satrapi. This story was developed into a movie that closely resembled that of the graphic novel. There are many characteristics of the graphic novel and how it compares to the movie.
The graphic novel used simple images with great dialogue to tell the story. The novel was in black and white leaving much of the detail to the imagination of the reader. Leaving room for the reader’s imagination to go to work allows the reader to feel a part of the story. Like all comic books, Satrapi used the framing to her advantage. She used larger frames to emphasize importance and grab the reader’s attention. A lot of the frames that took up an entire page were dedicated to show imaginary images that were usually in Marjane’s head. The novel is split up into chapters to inform the reader what he/she should be looking for in that section. For example, the chapter F-14’s title was used to let the reader know that the importance is placed on the F-14’s that bombed Iraq.
The movie is a good representation of the graphic novel. The movie starts out in color and moves into black and white when talking about the past. This allows the reader to easily differentiate between the two time periods. The movie adds more scenes and makes other scenes from the novel shorter. This makes it easier for the reader to imagine what Marjane was going through. The movie is also portrayed in simple images in order to leave a lot of the imaging up to the reader. The grandma plays a key role in both works because she is the anchor for Marjane. She is always the person that Marjane goes to for advice and is always on Marjane’s conscience. The movie and the novel greatly represented the moments when the feeling was somber or happy. By the overall demeanor of the dialogue the reader knows what the tone is supposed to be.
Both the graphic novel and the film inform the reader about the Iranian Revolution in a different perspective from that of the history books. Marjane achieved her purpose to show people that all Iranian people aren’t crazy radicals. She showed a different side of a Revolution that had many world-wide influences. The film accurately portrays what the novel was trying to do. Even thought the film left a few elements out, it still accomplished the overall purpose.