Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

Is it their skin color? Their language? Their appearance? Or maybe the tragic occurrence of September 11th? Over the years, Muslims have rapidly become subjects to one of the many groups that are strongly stereotyped throughout the West. Whether it is religious, physical, traditional, or even affected by disdained feelings against them, Muslims suffer from all kinds of stereotypes. This occurrence, however, is clearly recognized by a Muslim author named Marjane Satrapi. In her graphic novel, Persepolis, Satrapi illustrates her story of living in Iran as a discreet revolutionist child going against the Fundamentalists’ throughout the Islamic Revolution. Proving Iran’s image of having connections with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism false, Satrapi successfully sheds light upon her subversion to Western stereotypes about Muslims through the use of three illustrative strategic dichotomies. These creative dichotomies include the color usage of black versus white, the significance of big images versus small images, and the illustrative facial expressions of Iranian Fundamentalists versus Iranian Revolutionists. When one first encounters the visual dichotomy of black and white, one does not immediately recognize the significance that black and white colors can have upon an image. Marjane Satrapi illustrates numerous images using only the colors black and white in her novel from the very beginning to the end. At first, it is not too obvious that Satrapi is using the colors in significance for a deeper meaning, but as one keeps reading, the significance becomes very apparent. On page three of Persepolis there are two different images that aid in demonstrating the illustrative dichotomies Satrapi uses on black color versus white color. In the first image Marji, is pictured sitting at a black table with her hair wrapped in a black vile due to the strict rules of the Fundamentalists’ throughout the Islamic Revolution. Her skin, her clothes, and the background of