Narrative & Visual techniques in "Persepolis"

Satrapi’s Persepolis, an autobiographical graphic novel, doubles as an intellectual adventure story in which the reader can inject his/herself as a peer or a friend of the narrator. The narrator’s presence is strongly felt, and her use of iconic, simplified characters helps a reader with an entirely different background, like me, follow easily and learn on the way. Three details that struck me the most within her illustrated short stories were her skillful use of dialogue, narrative framing, and light/dark contrast. 

From the beginning of the novel, the reader is aware that the narrator is telling us a story from an unknown position. We know that she is telling us about her childhood, about the past, so all of the panels are to be viewed as simplified flashbacks. We also know that all her characters are being portrayed in the way that (1) she remembers them and (2) she as a child perceived them. She makes sure to remind us of the contrast between reality and childlike understanding as exemplified in Moscow, where we are given both the dialogue of the scene, as well as little Starapi’s childish thoughts (i.e. “Holy smokes! Laly’s dad hasn’t been to the U.S.S.R.) (Satrapi 57). I enjoyed her masterful use of dialogue to tell the stories through a plurality of voices. Along with the visual characters, she simplifies (or possibly shortens) the language used in her story without sacrificing its impact and discussion of more complex topics and concepts. 

Another technique that Satrapi utilizes is that of narrative framing. I’m not sure if this is exactly an official literary term, but what I mean by ‘narrative framing’ is her way of speaking for her characters while also allowing them to speak for themselves. This reminds me of Bakhtin’s heteroglossia, which he uses to discuss the polyphonic nature of a narrative--the presence of multiple, contradictory voices within one text. When reading Persepolis, the reader can easily sense the almost violent contrast between differing ideologies being discussed through various voices. For example, in The Sheep, Strapi’s character overhears her family & friends discussing moving out of the country and what to expect for the future of the new political atmosphere. Here, she notices all of the different points of view they have--her extended family and friends fearing the worst and moving, and her uncle believing everything to be okay--and ends up confused  (Satrapi 64-69). 

The last technique I will discuss is Satrapi’s use of light/dark visual contrast in order to portray emotion. Instead of using the contrast to portray good/evil, she primarily places a half & half light/dark contrast on the faces of characters who are experiencing negative emotions like regret, pain, pessimism, and loss of innocence. Two instances of this, which I think are one of the most powerful, occur in The Water Cell  on page 25. Here, Satrapi’s mother reminisces on her father’s imprisonment and experiences regret, saying “All his life he was in pain.” The second image is directly under the first, portraying little Strapi herself in the same contrasting ‘light’ saying “I want to take a bath.” I think what is meant to be portrayed here is both the weight of the topic--how it essentially opened Satrapi’s eyes to the horrors of prison--and the resemblance between Satrapi and her mother without using vivid detail. I see this as Satrapi bringing the focus to the resemblance without overshadowing the broader concept being discussed--which is part of her goal to educate her reader about her childhood. When McCloud discusses in his Understanding Comics that, to put specific images into centralized focus, the cartoonist may add intricate detail to a previously simplified icon, Satrapi instead uses repetition of image (light/dark facial ‘lighting’). I really liked this detail. 

Noticing that intricate detail is not a central technique used in Satrapi’s novel, I wonder if things like her use of contrast replace its function. But being that this particular use of contrast is specifically used on certain characters in negative situations, it can be argued that it is more effective when tied to the individual character instead of the entire narrative. Either way, I believe it plays an important role in communicating the heaviness of the issues and events in history discussed, as well as the multiple points of views that create tension in the narrative. 

----   ----   ----

Bakhtin, Mikhail M. “Discourse in the Novel.” The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: U of Texas P, 1981. 259-331. 

McCloud, Scott. “The Vocabulary of Comics.” In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. 24-45.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. New York: Pantheon, 2003.