Persepolis, lesson 8:The push to go ‘home’

L.O. Understanding what makes Marjane return to Iran & analyzing Marjane’s

development

Starter• Discuss how this first

panel (p.235) & the title of the chapter (‘the Veil’) already foreshadow what will happen on the final panel of the chapter.

Emotional overload - task• Using emojis of your own creation, depict all the

emotions Marjane goes through on pages 235, 236 & 237 of the novel

Retrospect• When Marjane looks back on her life

she can put Markus’ behavior in proper perspective.

• Comment on the following panel – cover the extensive voice over (and ‘voice under’) as well as what the images tell you – what is she showing us exactly?

• What does this panel tell us about the kind of novel we are reading?

Satrapi’s words:• “Human beings have a lot of problems identifying

themselves with other human beings who don't resemble them exactly. But there's something about drawing that means that anyone can identify to a drawing. I mean, people can identify themselves with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.”

• Did she manage to make you identify with her (former self)?

Can you do it? Confession time!

• Satrapi gives us the honest confession of her hard time on the street and her shame in going back without having lived up to her parents’ expectations. The panels on pages 240-246 show us how tough her life was and how ashamed she felt.

• Think about the hardest / most embarrassing moment in you teenage life, make a drawing that shows us this moment and / or how you felt. Use the tools you have seen used in Persepolis emanata / voice over / graphic weight, amplification through simplification etc

Emotional overload part 2• People sometimes say ‘there are no words to describe…’; one

of the most emotional panels in this chapter, however, becomes most effective because it has words but no images.

• Describe how Satrapi creates an effect in her audience in these 2 panels.

Going home• The final panel (splash) of

the chapter ‘The Veil’ shows us Marjane before she leaves for home.

• What can you tell about how she feels about going home by looking at text, colour and expression?

• How does this link to the two cultures / countries she is torn between?