"War always takes you by surprise" : blog prompts for "Persepolis"

Hi everyone!

Major props for Annie for writing her blog prompt already. Thanks for your intriguing thoughts!

For the others, here are a few blog prompts for you to digest on. Write on them, write through them, write about them if you want, but more than anything, thanks always for the discussions you guys bring to the blog.

Here they are:

- How do the images and style convey emotional depth or trauma?
- What is unique about the individual story within national story/landscape? Is this memoir political?
- Think about the theme of parallelism (i.e. in emotional/social political disruption, adolescent/rebellion within the context of a disrupting country in revolt)
- More on the style and imagery of the art: what do you think about the fleeting moments into surrealism (the burning theatre, the cut up prisoner, the magic carpet ride, etc.) and how they complement/supplement the black-and-white visuality. What does this accomplish?
- Tension between past and present, and the theme of childhood: is this a Bildungsroman story?
- Class conflict, modernity vs. fundamentalism
- Mythical idols in families (the grandpa as a prince, the uncle who was in prison, etc.)
- The abandonment of faith (religion, "God" in the narrator's dreams, etc.)

Please bring an excerpt of your blog to class!

~ Melissa