Emotion In (and outside of) Persepolis

It is a testament to Marjane Satrapi's skills that when I first thought about how she conveys emotion in Persepolis I was not sure how she did it.  I know she does, because I felt very emotionally invested in the book, but I was also so absorbed in the story that I did not notice that I was becoming emotionally attached.  I think she mostly conveys emotion through facial expressions and tears drawn on the faces of characters, but because  the characters in Persepolis are likable, empathy is a lot more possible and probable than in unlikable characters.  The story tells us that the characters are suffering, and because they are so likable and their suffering is so evident, we cannot help feeling for them.  The characters are very emotional, and we can see their emotions through their facial expressions, body language, and sometimes through the captions.  Satrapi seems to emphasize the aloneness of the characters during intense sadness through the use of space, which reinforces the impression of sadness.

As a child, Marjane has a close relationship with God, but when she is not allowed to go to a demonstration with her parentsshe is first angry.  In the middle panel on page 17, we see her mouth turned down in a frown and her eyebrows are little slashes.  She says to her parents, "Sure when it's all over."  It is clear that she is bitter about being denied the privilege of going to a demonstration with her parents.  Two panels later, her father is carrying her to bed and she is still begging to be allowed to go to the demonstration.  Her eyes are closed, but her mouth is open in a way that suggests she is crying and perhaps even having a tantrum.  In the final pattern, there are tears on her face as she lies in bed and she is asking where God is..  The caption at the bottom of the frame says simply, "That night he didn't come" (17).  The drawing is very simple:  Marjane is alone in bed, but  she looks *so* alone.   Her bed takes up most of the panel.  The room is dark, and there is one sliver of light to the left of the center of the frame, which seems to be light from the hallway; the door has been left open, but just a crack.  Her eyes, on the other hand, are open wide and her eyebrows are raised, giving her an appearance of innocence.   

Satrapi portrays innocence with wide eyes and raised brows again on page 132.  After Marjane buys a black market Kim Wilde tape, she walks down the street with a song in her head.  She is smiling, but she is stopped by women from the Guardians of the Revolution.  They both have turned down mouths and eyebrows that look angry in their v-shape.  Throughout all the panels on page 133, their mouths are turned down, even when they are open with speech, and their eyebrows are slashes.  The facial expressions are the only expressions we get from these women because body language is not possible; their bodies are too covered to express much.   

For me, the most emotional scene takes place when Marjane's parents are taking her to the airport as she moves to Vienna.  The fifth panel on page 151 is twice the size of the other panels on the page, which makes it the main focus.  Marjane is alone in the backseat of the car.  Her eyes are again very wide, and although her parents are in the car, she is so surrounded by space in the back seat that she seems a bit removed from them.  Her mother's eyes are small; they seem to be closed.  They are turned down, as is her mouth.  Her father's eyes are also closed and his eyebrows are raised.  There are tears on his face.  On the next page, all the panels are the same size.  In the middle panel we see Marjane's mother trying to make light of the situation by smiling and raising her hand.  She tells Marjane that they will come visit her in six months.  Marjane's father's eyebrows are raised and he is looking down at Marjane.  She is looking up at her mother, but her mouth is turned down and she does not seem to be buying the happy act her mother is putting on.  The caption tells us that what she had feared was true, that they might "come to visit, but we'd never live together again.  In the next panel, the whole family faces forward.  All of their eyes are wide and their eyebrows are raised.  It seems that the idea of them not living together again has hit each of them and they all find the idea sad.  When she cries, her mother says, "No tears.  You're a big girl," and of course, we see tears on her father's face in the next panel.  The next page is perhaps the most emotional in the book.  Marjane is watching her parents watch her leaving.  In the second panel, her eyes are not even defined as such.  Her head is angled down, and there is a single line where her eyes and/or eyebrows should be.  There is nothing in the panel but her and her suitcase.  The caption tells us she had to turn around one more time before leaving.  The final panel takes more than half the page, giving it more weight than anything else that is visible on the two open pages.  She stands in the airport with her hands and face against the glass.  Although there is distance between Marjane and the "camera," her eyes look big and her mouth is open and turned down, giving her a look of both sadness and surprise.  She looks much smaller than the adults who surround her, making her look very alone once more.  Her father faces forward, but his face is in shadow.  His head is down and his eyes are closed.  Her mother, who seems to have collapsed, is in his arms.  There is light on her face, but her mouth looks small and is turned down.  Her eyes are closed and her right arm hangs down.  There are two people outside the airport who have turned to look at Marjane's parents.  The caption is small and at the bottom right of the frame.  It says "It would have been better to just go" (153).  She is sorry to see her parents' pain, and her facial expression shows a kind of shock.  Because her father's face is so shadowed, it feels that we are witnessing a very private moment of severe pain.  The people who have turned to look at her parents both have very wide eyes and raised brows.  They are the only other people we see outside the airport, with the exception of part of someone's body leaving the right side of the frame, and the scene is intense enough to have drawn their attention.  Satrapi really conveys the heaviness of the sadness of the moment in this frame.  The drawing is relatively simple and simply heartbreaking.