Persepolis Reading Blogs

 Chapter: The Veil

  The first chapters of Persepolis are very introductive, and lead the reader into a thought by showing the very naive thoughts that the girl has. It starts off by introducing the main character which is the girl and what she is living through when she was young. The chapter closes by showing how the main character desires to become the last prophet of her religion. Her young efforts seem a little bit futile because she is really young and it might be taken as something a kid wants from day to day and forgets about the next week. The little girl is born in the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. She is forced to wear a veil over her hair but she and the kids in her school don’t take it very seriously and play with the veils. She then is forced to leave her school. Afterwards, she starts thinking of a way to pursue her dream of becoming the last prophet. She has a holy book, and has long talks with God at night. By reading this chapter I came up with several questions, including: What is her name? which is not stated. At what time does the Islamic Revolution occur?  What does this veil signify? Why does she want to be a prophet when she grows up? and what is going to happen next? 

Chapter: Persepolis

The chapter Persepolis which is the fourth or fifth has the same name as the book. I was able to connect many of the final occurrences in the chapter to my personal life. The little girl is trying to get her grandmother to explain to her why her grandfather is in jail but the grandmother stalls and avoids telling the little girl. This Reminded me a lot of me when i was a kid, not the grandfather going to jail, but the asking things to siblings and getting ignored, stalled and avoided because you are too young according to their thoughts to know the truth. When you grow up you realize the truth can hurt you sometimes. Sometimes, even, you are better of living in a perfect world of falseness than in an ugly world of truth. In the story the father is not getting there and the family starts to worry. Thankfully the girls dad arrives. He tells the family how, when he was taking pictures of the hospital, he saw many dead bodies. I imagined the bodies and remembered a zombie movie I once saw and pictured the hospital in that way. It seemed like one of the longer chapters but it was really interesting

Chapter: The Passport

The chapter starts with the girl stepping out of childhood and becoming a grown up. The entire situation gets worse as the political situation as well as the ambient in the family is very tense. The main characters family decides to approach an old man by the name of Taher. The old man has suffered two strokes and has lived not the best of lives.  Soon after the girls family talked to Taher, a tragedy occurred. In the midst of a very tense environment in the country a grenade was thrown close to their apartment, which caused Taher to have another heart attack. He was sent to the hospital, but because he needed open heart surgery, nothing could be done without equipment. While trying to get a passport to send him to England before he would die, Taher passed away. This chapter is very sad in general and you can almost mourn for Taher and feel sadness and empathy for the family as they didn’t have the best of days.

Chapter: The Sheep

In this chapter Anoosh creates a strong bond with the main character. They become close freinds in a certain type of relationship used in many movies and books. He protects her, and defends her in situations presented. One evening after school, Anoosh isn't home. The main characters parents tell the girl that he had to go back to Moscow (Where he was from). After seeing the girl really sad they finally tell her the truth about Anoosh being send to jail. The main character is really sad but gets the small content of visiting him for  while. Then we are informed that Anoosh is going to be executed. He is executed, and the main character starts to realize that this is beginning of a long war. Many things happen in the chapter and they lead me to have a lot of connections. I can connect Anoosh to a certain kind of character, one like the old man in Le Comte de Monte-Cristo or a character like Serius Black in Harry Potter the prizoner of Azcaban. Neither of the characters had met the other one yet (The main charcacter meeting the old man, or Harry Potter meeting Serius Black) But, when they meet, they feel a strong connection for each other. Very friendly Then, in the book, Anoosh teaches the little girl about his life, and starts becoming very close to her. In the book/movie (Comte de Monte-Cristo) The main character learns from The old man to read and write. I can also relate to the fact that right before he is about to escape the prison the old man dies and at the end of the chapter Anoosh dies.

Chapter: The Dowry

The Dowry is the last chapter of the book Persepolis.The girl is expelled from her school and soon placed in a new one. But, after discussing with her parents and the teenager, they decide to send her abroad (to another country to study). They believe that it is ultimately the best decision that she should leave the country.  The story ends very openly and for thought. The book to me give the impression of a book one should read a second time knowing more about the subject and the Islamic Revolution to get a better understanding and to thoroughly enjoy more. Even though the last chapter ends abruptly it very enjoyabel.