A revolution and a war, told by a girl who understands only half of what she sees — and a reader who understands more.
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Ten items. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Read the sentence, guess the meaning of the word in bold, then reveal.
Same method: guess from the sentence, then reveal.
Three words you will need to discuss the child's view. Guess, then reveal.
Read each part. After it, answer the quick check from memory, then discuss one question.
For many years Iran was ruled by a king, the Shah. By the late 1970s many Iranians were angry about his rule, about the secret police and about the gap between rich and poor. In January 1979 the Shah left the country, and after months of protest and uncertainty the monarchy was replaced by an Islamic Republic.
The change was a revolution: people from very different groups — students, workers, religious leaders, left-wing families — had demanded the end of the old order, and at first many of them celebrated. The family at the centre of Persepolis, who held left-wing, educated views, is among those who hope for a freer country.
In the book, Marji is about ten years old when it happens. The first volume shows how an ordinary child feels the revolution: not in speeches, but in what changes at school, on the street and at the dinner table.
1. What happened in Iran in 1979?
2. Who had demanded change before the revolution?
3. Through what does Marji experience the revolution?
1. The Shah left, and the monarchy was replaced by an Islamic Republic after a revolution.
2. Many different groups — students, workers, religious leaders and left-wing families.
3. Through everyday changes: at school, on the street and at home, not through speeches.
Soon the hopes of many people, including Marji's family, turned to worry. The new regime introduced strict rules about behaviour and dress. In schools, girls had to wear the veil, and boys and girls were separated. Books, music and parties that had been normal were now dangerous.
In September 1980 Iraq attacked Iran, and a long and very costly war began; it lasted until 1988. The state used propaganda to encourage young people to fight, and it called those who died martyrs. The book shows young boys being given plastic keys said to open the gates of paradise.
Not everyone believed these messages. At home, Marji's parents tell their daughter a different story from the one she hears at school, and they sometimes take risks to do so. Her uncle Anoosh, a former political prisoner, is arrested again and does not survive. This is where the book's lightness stops and the grief begins.
1. What changed in schools after the revolution?
2. When did the war begin and end?
3. Who tells Marji a different version of events from the school?
1. Girls had to wear the veil and boys and girls were separated.
2. It began in September 1980 and lasted until 1988.
3. Her parents, who tell her what they really think at home.
Marji is curious and stubborn. She argues with her teachers, tests the official story against what she hears at home and sometimes holds imaginary conversations with God. Her questions — direct, sometimes funny, sometimes devastating — are how the book makes sense of an enormous subject.
But the book has two voices. One is the child, who is often naive or bewildered. The other is the adult author, looking back with hindsight, who chooses what to draw and what to leave out. Often the child sees only part of a situation, and we, with the adult's help, see more.
That gap between what the child understands and what the reader understands is where much of the book's irony and feeling lives. It lets Satrapi write about political violence without a lecture: a child's question can do the work of a whole essay.
1. How does Marji react to the official story at school?
2. What are the two voices in the book?
3. Where does the book's irony come from?
1. She questions it and compares it with what she hears at home.
2. The child, who is often naive or bewildered, and the adult author, looking back with hindsight.
3. From the gap between what the child understands and what the reader understands.
When a child narrates, there are always two people reading the same scene: the child, who sees part of it, and the reader, who may see more. The Two Levels of Knowing helps you say exactly what is happening in that gap.
Each sentence describes an imagined moment in a story with a child narrator. Where does it sit on the grid?
1. Dramatic irony — the reader knows more than the child, and the contrast creates tension.
2. Shared understanding — both understand together; no gap between them.
3. Mystery — neither the child nor the reader has the information yet.
4. Hidden knowledge — the child knows more than the reader about this world.
5. Dramatic irony — the reader sees the seriousness the child misses.
6. Shared understanding — narrator, child and reader all understand together.
7. Mystery — the source and purpose are unknown to everyone.
8. Hidden knowledge — the child holds knowledge the reader lacks.
The child is not the author. A moment of irony may come from the adult's choice to draw it that way, not from the child. Always ask who is controlling what we see.
Moments move. A scene can be mystery on one page and dramatic irony on the next once we learn more. Place the moment on the page you are analysing, not the whole book.
Do not call a narrator unreliable too fast. A child who sees only part of the picture is limited, not necessarily dishonest.
A narrator's meaning is rarely certain, so strong writers use careful language: it suggests, it may be, it could be read as. This is not weakness. It shows that you can tell evidence from opinion.
Choose the word that fits the cautious style of analysis.
1. The child's calm voice (suggests / proves) that she does not understand the danger.
2. The empty gutter (may / must) be intended to make the reader supply the missing event.
3. The caption gives the year as 1980, so we can state that the scene (takes place / may take place) in 1980.
4. Her question (appears to / will) be innocent, but it exposes a contradiction.
5. It (could be argued / is proved) that the author uses simplicity to avoid exoticising her characters.
1. suggests (an interpretation, not a proof)
2. may (an interpretation, not a certainty)
3. takes place (the year is given — a fact, so no hedging)
4. appears to (a careful reading)
5. could be argued (a cautious frame for an interpretation)
Each claim is too strong for what the evidence shows. Rewrite it, using one hedging word or phrase. (Model answers are suggestions; any careful version is fine.)
1. The drawing proves the child feels no fear.
2. The empty panel means the author wants us to feel guilty.
3. The child's laughter shows she is stupid.
4. The adult narrator is lying about what happened.
1. The drawing suggests the child feels little fear.
2. The empty panel may be intended to leave the reader uneasy.
3. The child's laughter suggests she does not yet understand the situation.
4. The adult narrator may be selecting and shaping what happened.
Choose the sentence that should NOT be hedged. Write the number.
1. (a) The caption names the year. (b) The caption might name the year. (c) The caption may well name the year. →
2. (a) The panel could possibly show a street. (b) The panel seems perhaps to show a street. (c) The panel shows a street, drawn in thick black lines. →
1. (a) — the caption actually names the year; that is a fact.
2. (c) — what the panel shows is visible; hedge what it means, not what it contains.
Now say three sentences about a narrator you know — a book or a film — using suggests, could be read as and appears to.
Now use the grid and careful language on your own material. Choose a task, start the timer, and talk.
Describe an event from your childhood that you only understood years later. What did you see then, and what do you see now?
Choose a scene from a film or a book with a young narrator. Place one moment on the grid and explain the effect.
Tell us about a time you were told one thing at school or work and another at home. Which did you believe, and why?
Argue for or against this claim: a child narrator is the most powerful way to tell a story about war.