Meg's Persepolis Week Two- Feedback and Literary Feature Hunt

On page 70-71, I enjoyed the discussion on the idea of existentialism when Marji orders God out of her life. She says she "was lost, without any bearings". On page 71, you see her floating through space, lost mainly because she believed her Uncle Anoosh shouldn't have been excecuted. So, I began searching up existentialism and came across "Transcendent Theosophy".
It was developed by Mulla Sadra, a Persian philosopher. His main concept was that "existence precedes essence", and from what I have found from my studies, I believe the meaning would be that the existence of something is more important than its essence or nature. Sadra believed that since what affects us first is what exists, and then we form the idea of its essence or nature, existence comes first. This is very different from the traditional views that the essence of something is more important than its existence.
This relates back to what Mr.McGuigan always says "Do human beings have natural instincts? Is there something in our nature that causes us to do things?"
I always thought that was just English jibber jabber, but little did I know, it was actually philosophy.

I somewhat agree with Mulla Sadra and other philosophers, that humans have natural instincts (existence). I believe that religion (essence) is not either a good nor bad thing, because there have been situations between for example; racism against certain religions versus others, or religion giving people hope during a horrific situation.


(PS. I figured out how to scan books!)

On page 127, there is a symbol being used in place of something. It is the bright light bulb on the last panel in place of an idea. This light bulb is commonly used in comic books to represent when a character is thinking, and suddenly, like a light turning on, they have a plan/idea. The light bulb is also a reference to Thomas Edison, who had a great idea and created the incandescant light bulb.
On the next few panels after this idea (pg.128), I loved (and found it quite hilarious) to see Marji's parents going to a lot of trouble to disguise a Kim Wilde poster in her father's jacket. It reminded me of my parents, especially because the mother thought of the idea, and the father excecuted it in a hilarious fashion.
I also love the transitioning between the 3 panels then the tall one panel of the father.

Meg's Persepolis Week One- Feedback

Mr. McGuigan said:
I thought the idea of the devil "framing" her family on pg.43 was really interesting. Also, that her parents had their eyes closed, and she was looking straight at the audience. I definitely did not think about the eyes or Marjane.

Classmates said:
I liked Gabe's idea of this ying yang symbol for the 1st panal on pg. 6. I didn't agree completely with Geneva's idea that Marjane prefers the regular side than the religious side.

On *Fion and Alice's Blog":
"Is Marji not behaving what her private self tells her to?"

I think Marji is behaving like her private side, but in a controlled way. For example, Marji has a holy book, and follows the first three rules from Zarathustra. She also wants to celebrate Zarathustrain holidays. However, she only tells her Grandmother about the holy book. I believe this could be because on pg.6, Marjane is a little embarassed that her family's maid didn't eat with them, and that her father had a cadillac. I believe Marjane desperately wanted to become a part of the world that she didn't understand. Marjane (pg.3) didn't understand why she had to wear the veil. Also, she was seperated from her friends. (pg.4)Her mother had to dye her hair and disguise herself for being published during a demonstration against the veil. So, Marjane, a young girl, thought the most she could do was become a prophet. Later on pg.17, Marjane cries in bed without God because her parents refuse to let her go to a demonstration. This is why Marjane keeps most of the religion inside, because she is afraid that her parents won't let her.