RA #2 PERSEPOLIS

Rhetorical Analysis: Persepolis

            In the book of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi wants the audience to view her side of the story of what the child is like growing up in Iran. Marjane Satrapi the author of Persepolis targets the audience of what life is like born and raised in Iran. Marjane writes how a young child growing up in Iran see’s other countries different from their country. From society, freedom, cultural beliefs, clothing, etc. She also writes about how global threat may occur and eventually war breaking out. Marjane tells how Iranian people see America and western societies far different from each other as Iranian women aren’t so free to do what they please in wearing other cultural clothing and how Iranian society works very hard to earn a little and how much they struggle to survive. The author tells the story of how a child growing up as a new generation Iranian hoping to make a change.

            Multiple occurrences occurred at the poverty in Iran as the rules in Iran isn’t equal to the rights of the people. For example as Marjane talks about a nanny babysitting. Falls in love with a boy next door. The parents who hired the babysitter found out about the letter and went over to speak to the neighborhood boy. Explaining she was the nanny and not her daughter. “Because in this country you must stay within your own social class.” (Marjane 37). That rule was for everyone in Iran at that time. The father acknowledging there was a war going on with the Americans. The mother could care less about what’s going on, but she didn’t know what the circumstances were. It is now harder to get into America without revealing yourself as a terrorist or so. A lot in Iran changed and the community were trying to find a way out of the country to be safe from being bombarded. As the little girl attended school, she was causing problem that she had to switch from schools to schools. Eventual she ended up going to a foreign country to learn French and start all over. The parents made a decision to have her live with her mom’s friend in another country. Not because of her problems with the schools but to live a safe and happy life.

            What I like about this book is how interesting is was growing up in Iran and reading all the possibilities that deprive people of their youth and dignity. At that time living in Iran. People had to struggle to live their lives and still end up not making much to raise a family. So many problems happen that war in the end was initiated from America to not solve the problem in Iran but to ease the peace. But for how long the war may be it is not said. Iranians live easier lives now a days but in time government might change it’ way of how Iranians may live their lives peacefully. Not to mention the love and marriage in the Iranian culture which you must marry someone from your own social class. You should be allowed to marry anyone you truly love.

RR #2 Persepolis

In the book Persepolis, Satrapi tells a story of how war broke out in the 80’s in Iran. People fear of being bombarded from oncoming missiles from another nation. In Iran, rules were set out to people to keep Iran’s believes intact. Clothing should be appropriate to the public and has to be bought within the town of Iran. Any other type of non-cultural clothing will be place in disciplinary action. One of the concerns were with women’s clothing, women in general had to wear a black cloth over themselves and not show anything else but there eyes out in the public. If a piece of hair or part of clothing is shown, disciplinary action may take place. Men had to be conservative and wear a black top and jeans, they may have their facial hair but it is not required. As for music, it has to be kept quiet if being played in the homes. Reason for being playing low volume is to not attract attention and confiscated.

That wasn’t one of the problems Satrapi had to face in Iran. Satrapi had issues with her parent’s as she didn’t like, nor want to participate in Iran’s beliefs. But Satrapi would always hear her mother yelling at her and fighting with her. Satrapi could think of herself listening to the dictatorship of her mom running her mouth off to her. She wanted to be different amongst everyone else and didn’t want to wear a clothing over her head and covering just about everything about her body. She wore cloths from other countries and sneakers but was accused of not following the rules of Iran, she listened to music and had trouble listening to the teachers at school. She received a warning but she repeated wearing jewelry the next day. Satrapi was expelled for refusing to not wear jewelry. Satrapi even argued with one of the teachers because of the topic the teacher said wasn’t true to what Satrapi had been through on that topic. (Example) The teacher said “Since the Islamic republic was founded, we no longer have political prisoners.” Satrapy’s argument was “You say we don’t have political prisoners anymore. But we’ve gone from 3,000 prisoners to 300,000 under your regime.” (Marjane 144). At the end of all the complaints from Satrapy’s schools. The parents had no choice but to send her out of country to another school where she could be safe from the war and she would have a good education at a foreign school living with her mom’s friend. The family said it’s for her own good and would eventually see her again in six months.

Satrapy’s life was hard living the way she was supposed to be raised in a proper way in Iran, Everyone was forced to dress in a cultural style and no other. Women and men should be free of what to wear regardless of what culture you live on or what beliefs must be promised outside of their house, be able to listen to any genre of music, and be able to be open minded. In Iran, no one should be judge if they want to be different than everyone.

White Revolution

Iran

“White revolution”

In 1960 Mohammad Reza Shah became a popular leader of a peasant revolution in Iran. The White Revolution began the beginning of the Iranian Revolution that will erupt in the later years. The Shah made promises then made the people believe in him. The shah gave Iranian people hope in the event of receiving votes for himself, in a run to be leader. “These points are new in Iran and revolutionary, but in 1963 the whole activity of the nation has been directed at the implementation of one or the other of these programs.” (Yahya 171).
In 1963, the Shah announced a package reforms as the White Revolution. “It’s an attempt to turn ancient despotism and its subjects into a modern country and a socially just nation.” (Yahya 4). It challenged to man verse land, modernization verses traditionalism, secularism verses religion, the settles verses the nomad, and the village verses the city. The White Revolution’s package includes privatization of state factories, female suffrage, land reform, and a literal corps of young educated people to address the problem of illiteracy in the countryside.
One of the controversies was land reform. The Shah wasn’t interested in the land reform but in the industrialization. What Mackey said “The clergy resisted the land reform all because of a threat to take ten thousand villagers that helped finance the clerical establishment and its religious mission, and second, because it hit land owning families from which a large percentage of the upper echelon of the clergy came.” (221).
 In The modern Nations in Historical Perspective, Yahya mentioned “the White Revolution never constituted a real revolution. It represented an exercise in political expediency dictated by the man who sat at the top of Iran’s social order. The old aristocracy, the [thousand families], opposed the White Revolution because land reform eroded their wealth and position. The middle class dismissed it as nothing more than a political palliative design to impress the Western press and an American administration.” (171-172). But the Shah ignored all of them as a regret. He dismissed the landowners in the shah’s new political order. He refused to placate the middle classes with real political reform, losing most allies. The White Revolution put the Shah and the guardians of Shiism over its two celebrated elements land reform and the initial steps towards the emancipation of women.
In the end, a boycott emerged by the National Front, a program broadening and augmented changes in the country. What the people wanted is what the promises the Shah made. If the Shah hadn’t lied to the people, none of the chaos and war would occur in Iran, people in Iran would be able to live a prosperous life with Shah as their leader.  

Works Cited

·         Axworthy, Michael. A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind. New York: Basic, 2008. (242)

·         Armajani, Yahya. Iran. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972. Print. (171-172)

·         Mackey, Sandra, and W. Scott. Harrop. The Iranians Persia, Islam, and the Soul of a Nation, with a New Afterword by the Author. New York: Plume Book, 1998. Print. (221)