Persepolis Part 1

On page 101 the panels show Marjane's cousin visiting. He is on leave from the military. He had joined right when he joined the service. The last two panels on the page show poor kids from the country who are told the afterlife is better than Disneyland. The cousin, Shahab, says the kids are hypnotized and sent to die in battle. There is disgust in the way he discusses this. The last two panels are interesting because they have black backgrounds with the outline of people being drawn in white. At this point we know Marjane's family is very intellectual. Her cousin may not share the same ideas exactly, but he is able to think rationally unlike the fanatics who have taken over. It is one more example to illustrate the government's abuse of its people. This conflict has forged an identity of rebelliousness for Marjane. Her parents raised her to question authority, especially that of her government. The war further solidifies her opposition to the government. The poems we discussed Monday share this same sentiment. "Memorial Day for the War Dead" talks about the flag losing touch with reality. At this time, Iran lost touch with reality, or its people. Once someone comes to the realization that their government does not have the people's best interest in mind then it is hard to respect them.

Intersections

In Blankets, there is a panel on page 393 that shows an apple tree and topless Raina below it. It discusses the idea of temptation and compares Raina to Eve. I like this panel, because it brings up the point of women being viewed as the original temptresses in Genesis. They will lead you to sin by making you bite into the forbidden fruit. I also like how Craig's conflicted feelings are summed up in this panel. She is beautiful and attracted to him, but he still can't view it as innocent it has to be sin.
Also, on page 540 we see the picture that Craig drew on Raina's wall being painted over. It's like he is erasing her image or memory because he has finally gotten over her.

I think all of the texts we have read so far discuss feeling lost or being afraid of being an outcast. In American Born Chinese the main character denies his ethnicity to try and fit in. He doesn't want to be on the edge of the crowd he wants to feel included. This is also the case with the main character of The Bluest Eye; Claudia. She gets angry with Shirley Temple, because she feels that the image of Shirley discludes her from society. She feels on the outer fringes of beauty because Shirley is seen as the typical beautiful girl. Claudia does not disown her marginalized skin color, but her friend Pecola is convinced that beauty lies in Shirley's blue eyes. Pecola eventually becomes dillusional, and believes she has blue eyes due to circumstances she has been through. Oranges shows us Jeannette who struggles with fitting into her small world of relgion. She battles with her inner feelings and is afraid to be different than her congregation so superficially repents. Blankets shows a boy who is already outcast by his class mates. However, he is afraid of enternal torment, because he is already living it. This results in him trying to conform to the church's teachings and cast aside his passion for drawing and a girl. All of these books have main characters that feel outcast and are trying desparately to feel a part of something...whether it is the white majority or the religious teachings they've been raised in.

Blankets

Panel 1: page 51. The whole page is taken up by a panel with a smaller panel in it. It shows the main character with his hands clasped looking up saying "At that moment I knew what I wanted..." and then the larger panel shows him dancing in the clouds naked saying "I wanted heaven." I like this panel because the smaller panel is consumed by the bigger picture: heaven. Also the clouds from heaven go into the smaller panel. It's dreamlike. He is picturing himself in heaven. I think a really interesting part in there is that he is naked. He is bullied because of his skinny body, and there is hinting at that he may have been molested in the previous pages. This can result in shame about his body, but in heaven he may see himself free of his body.
Panel 1: page 59. The bottom panel shows three images of Craig. At the top of them is "I wanted to burn my memories." What's interesting about this is that his torso is drawn out, but his face is blurred slightly in the first image, more blurred in the second, and then the third image has no recognizable features of his face and then there is a split at the top of his head with what looks like flames coming out of it. There is torment in this. Obviously someone is tormented if they say they want to burn their memories, but the pictures shows an imagined effort to follow through.
Panel 3: page 127. I like the way this panel illustrates the effort of the furnace to kick on and when it finally does the hum in the picture surrounds the room. I think it is a beautiful way to illustrate the noise and the heat of the furnace enveloping the rec room.

The first part of the book talks about being young and wrapped up into religion and what it can positively do. Craig, the main character in "Blankets" is comforted by the fact that heaven could be a place where he doesn't experience pain. In "Oranges" the young Jeannette found comfort in her religion as well. However, when both characters get older their sexuality conflicts with the messages of the church. "Blankets" goes further into their problems with the bible, but they both address what the church doesn't do for them. Dickinson's poem "Some Keep the Sabbath" discusses the same idea of a building for a church is not what works for her. This is the eventual realization that both characters of "Blankets" and "Oranges" comes to.

Are Oranges The Only Fruit?

My beliefs are rooted in the rebellion of the religion I was raised in. I was raised in a fanatical Christian sect, like Jeannette. I had unanswered questions and doubts about the religion at an early age. There was a time when I was completely devoted, but I started to question my place in the organization (especially my role as a woman). Eventually, I was excommunicated from the religion. Unlike Jeannette, I stopped believing in god. I felt betrayed. I think she had a relatively positive attitude toward god considering what she had just been through. I remained an atheist until something else extraordinary happened in my life. This resulted in the reexamination of my spiritual beliefs. Today those beliefs could technically still be considered atheist. I don't believe in a personified spiritual entity. I do believe that everything in this world is connected, and that when I stop taking that approach I become isolated. When I feel isolated my ego becomes huge, and I start to have problems. The majority of my beliefs revolve around trying to deflate my ego, and trying to be a part of instead of apart from.