Question

In Persepolis 2, the narrator’s facial expressions remain the same in each of the panels. How would you describe the narrator’s faciel expressions? How does this consistency help reveal the author’s point of view?

Answer 1

Answer:

She wants to be able to express her individuality through clothing and personal style, as she is starting to come into her own self whilst slowly turning her back to the regime. When Satrapi gets caught for her “punk” clothing on the bottom right panel on p.132 (Satrapi 132), she is ultimately released — an outcome that symbolically foreshadows her eventual freedom from Iran, the veil and the ideologies it represents at the end of Persepolis.

Despite its negative connotations, the veil has physically and metaphorically guided Satrapi to her eventual freedom. Despite her initial state of conformity, at the end of her journey in Persepolis, Satrapi is no longer metaphorically ‘veiled’ or blinded by disinformation or deceptive ideologies behind the regime as she is able to think freely and critically for herself. The wearing of the veil itself has caused Satrapi to realize how important it is to express and embrace individuality, rather than choose to be defined by patriarchal and conformist ideologies at the hands of another.