Which social groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced in the text?

Outline: * Show how Marjane Satrapi grew up under oppression during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. * Give and explain evidence of how the author presents that different social groups were marginalized/silenced. * Show how Marji and her parents shared the same beliefs when making reference to the regime. The graphic novel Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, explores her childhood years in the middle of the Islamic Revolution. Situated in the commotion of the overthrowing of the Shah's regime, and the war with Iraq, the reader learns how secularists, nationalists and even Muslims marginalized, excluded and silenced the modernists in Iran during the Islamic …show more content…

In the chapter “The Bicycle,” Satrapi presents issues of faith and belief. Marji’s innocence is evidenced in her shifting set of values, as they are influenced by her teacher and become related to political ideas. The political propaganda permeates her rhetoric as she exclaims: “Maybe I’ll be even better as Fidel Castro!” (p.16). On the one hand, this sequence shows how Marji perceived the conflicting ideologies at the time, and how she deals with them playfully because of her youthful innocence. However, this change could also represent her frustration at the social division and the oppression she suffers for it, in this way forcing her to renounce her faith. Not surprisingly, because of these decisions, God does not visit her that night, perhaps because her moral values have been tainted, and deviated from her loving nature.
As the novel progresses, however, these inner ideological conflicts are unimportant matters when compared to the horrors the poor population suffered. In the chapter “The Key,” Satrapi clearly distinguishes the different social classes, through the imagery of children from different social groups (p.102). Satrapi juxtaposes two different frames on the same page in which one portrays children at war with a key around their neck, (the key represented the poor people) dying in minefield explosions. Meanwhile, Marji is at a party with her friends. The contrast belittles Marji’s