The Viel Sparknotes
Who People Are
Are people what they love or what they are told to love? The Viel written by Marjane Satrapi asks this question in her comic strip based on her own life in Iran. During “The Islamic Revolution” in Iran in 1979 plenty of transformations took place (343). Differences happened in Iran that Satrapi did not feel comfortable with. Similarities hold between her life and that of many children in every land. Revisions happen in a child’s life that have no relationship with that child being content and nothing to do with what they love in life. Therefore, I feel that children often lose what they love being as a result of what they are made to believe because of people in power and the society those powerful people rule over.
Before 1980 Satrapi wore no …show more content…
veil and played with the boys. It was a natural feeling for her to be around her friends, boys and girls alike, but this adjusted when the social climate became based on old religious beliefs.
These beliefs were not natural for her and her friends. It was a Cultural Revolution that created this change for her in Iran. This Cultural Revolution came from the heavy hands of adults who stated they wanted nothing other than to rid the Iranians of western influence. It was a strike against freedom of thought. It was a strike against being who she wanted to be. For a person to be told who they are and what they crave in life is wrong, is no different than that person being placed within a prison of their own mind.
Satrapi noticed the effects of this Cultural Revolution on her mother, who was photographed by a German journalist protesting to keep freedom in Iran. The photo made it into the European newspapers and one magazine in Iran. But instead of being praised for standing up for what she believed in, she was ridiculed into hiding her true self, similar to how the veil hid women’s individuality at that time (345). She was forced to be somebody else by people who seemed to believe they were helping their fellow Iranians to be free from the oppressive West and its capitalistic decadence (344).
People from birth onwards are often pushed to become an adult that their inner child would never recognize at one point or another in their lives. They become a person that they may or may not desire to be in order to suit the environment that they reside in. Satrapi speaks of being born with religion. This is a burden that was created by adults who wanted to have a civilization based on cultural order and unification. Unfortunately religion forces children into molds as soon as they are made to decide what their future should become. They come into life being lied to. The age old lie of being told they can be whatever they choose. But in reality, there exists pre-set molds; one could even call them chains, awaiting children as soon as responsibilities become a priority to authority figures. This can come in all types of forms depending on the society. For Chinese children it starts early on. Satrapi had an inner battle happening between her religious side and her modern and progressive side (346). This story shows that depending on who is at the top and how the culture is set up, a person is forced to become what is allowed in that society. This in my opinion limits people’s minds and true happiness. It hurts growth and understanding. Something that children have naturally, but eventually if they become unlucky, in which vast numbers are, it is bred out of them little by little. The breeders who seize these responsibilities are institutions, government, and religion.
Satrapi was stuck in a gender biased society that favored men over women (346). This is a worldwide problem for women wanting to live their dreams. Although certain lands have progressed further than others, it still is by no means as fair to women as it is for men. Satrapi, in her oppressed state of mind found the only thing she could run to, which was God. God did not judge her unlike the adults, who ran her country, and when she told her teacher that she wanted to be a prophet similar to Jesus, she was ridiculed for her choice (348). Only her mother and father made her feel comfortable with her dream. She made this her dream to save her family and herself. This is similar to the way children want to become superheroes. They want to save people from oppression, the oppression they feel from adults and society, and free themselves from the hardships of living in a society controlled from the top. Adults, both of those that are parents and the leaders of society, forget what it’s like to be a child early-on. These leaders seem to secure it as part of their job to forget this because they take steps to cause being content in life an impossible dream for an enormous amount of the population. That is, unless the child is one of the few lucky ones. But this type of child would likely be a child of the select few leaders and wealthy estate holders. This elevated child would be one of the few who can live their dreams for as long as they love if their luck holds.
People must fight for their dreams everyday if they want to hold onto them. They must fight for them and find a way to materialize them into something that society can accept. Satrapi may not have become a biblical prophet, but she did in many ways achieve her goal by creating her popular comic strip to tell stories. She has become a force of change that people notice inside and outside Iran. She is giving justice to those who can’t speak for themselves, loving those that need to behold and read that their lives matter to another as much as it matters to them, and she has used her wrath to stab the hearts of those who oppress others into being what they have no wish to become (349). Her comic strip was turned into a film and this would never have happened if she hadn’t fought for her dreams every day in secret (350). People can still have their dreams if they fight strong enough for them, even if it’s not what they initially thought their dreams would become. Even having a piece of a dream is preferred over losing it all at the request of society or someone that has no idea what or who the individual dreamer is.
On the other hand, certain people would say that they didn’t fight for their dreams in this way. They would say that they became what they envisioned themselves being ever since they can remember. This could be true. If a child wanted to become a doctor or a lawyer or something else that society readily accepts my argument would fall on blind eyes and deaf ears. Becoming something that a person loves is wonderful, and if becoming what society adores is what a child aspires to, consequently my argument is not for them. This is the child who did not fall out of love with what they wanted, but they still must fight to form their dream into a reality. Nonetheless they had much greater support from society than someone such as Satrapi would receive. Exceedingly, parents are overjoyed to hear that their child’s dream is to become a doctor, but if that same child mentions that they want to become a prophet or an artist type, their parents and peers would give them negative input to convey that it’s not an acceptable idea and not stable.
Another meaning of the word stable is a building that houses livestock, usually horses. This could be what adults unknowingly represent when they use the word stable. To be stable is to take a societal role in the typical workforce as a workhorse.
In conclusion, I want to drive a point home, and that is all people come from different lives and cultures. Those environments mold our dreams and therefore our mindset. But I make no mistake in saying that if a child wants to become something that is not allowed by social norms, that they must fight tough battles to keep their dreams alive. Therefore if a child wants to become what they love, they must not allow society to shape their minds into something that they hate or sedate themselves into being what they never would have become if given half the chance. Children are made to believe that the adults around them and on television are honest and care for their future and wish them satisfaction in their lives, but this is a lie. Children get molded to fit a preformed lifestyle that they had no choice in and if they knew it was their fate to swim in these waters and had a choice in the matter, some might have chosen not to be born. The magic of being a child dies as a result of adults becoming stuck in a place that was created generations ago by lineages of people who wanted nothing other than complete control over the masses. This is why children must keep their dreams alive and never back down no matter how hard the struggle is ahead of them. Every inch a child takes to keep their dreams alive is a mile of happiness.
Are people what they love or what they are told to love? The Viel written by Marjane Satrapi asks this question in her comic strip based on her own life in Iran. During “The Islamic Revolution” in Iran in 1979 plenty of transformations took place (343). Differences happened in Iran that Satrapi did not feel comfortable with. Similarities hold between her life and that of many children in every land. Revisions happen in a child’s life that have no relationship with that child being content and nothing to do with what they love in life. Therefore, I feel that children often lose what they love being as a result of what they are made to believe because of people in power and the society those powerful people rule over.
Before 1980 Satrapi wore no …show more content…
veil and played with the boys. It was a natural feeling for her to be around her friends, boys and girls alike, but this adjusted when the social climate became based on old religious beliefs.
These beliefs were not natural for her and her friends. It was a Cultural Revolution that created this change for her in Iran. This Cultural Revolution came from the heavy hands of adults who stated they wanted nothing other than to rid the Iranians of western influence. It was a strike against freedom of thought. It was a strike against being who she wanted to be. For a person to be told who they are and what they crave in life is wrong, is no different than that person being placed within a prison of their own mind.
Satrapi noticed the effects of this Cultural Revolution on her mother, who was photographed by a German journalist protesting to keep freedom in Iran. The photo made it into the European newspapers and one magazine in Iran. But instead of being praised for standing up for what she believed in, she was ridiculed into hiding her true self, similar to how the veil hid women’s individuality at that time (345). She was forced to be somebody else by people who seemed to believe they were helping their fellow Iranians to be free from the oppressive West and its capitalistic decadence (344).
People from birth onwards are often pushed to become an adult that their inner child would never recognize at one point or another in their lives. They become a person that they may or may not desire to be in order to suit the environment that they reside in. Satrapi speaks of being born with religion. This is a burden that was created by adults who wanted to have a civilization based on cultural order and unification. Unfortunately religion forces children into molds as soon as they are made to decide what their future should become. They come into life being lied to. The age old lie of being told they can be whatever they choose. But in reality, there exists pre-set molds; one could even call them chains, awaiting children as soon as responsibilities become a priority to authority figures. This can come in all types of forms depending on the society. For Chinese children it starts early on. Satrapi had an inner battle happening between her religious side and her modern and progressive side (346). This story shows that depending on who is at the top and how the culture is set up, a person is forced to become what is allowed in that society. This in my opinion limits people’s minds and true happiness. It hurts growth and understanding. Something that children have naturally, but eventually if they become unlucky, in which vast numbers are, it is bred out of them little by little. The breeders who seize these responsibilities are institutions, government, and religion.
Satrapi was stuck in a gender biased society that favored men over women (346). This is a worldwide problem for women wanting to live their dreams. Although certain lands have progressed further than others, it still is by no means as fair to women as it is for men. Satrapi, in her oppressed state of mind found the only thing she could run to, which was God. God did not judge her unlike the adults, who ran her country, and when she told her teacher that she wanted to be a prophet similar to Jesus, she was ridiculed for her choice (348). Only her mother and father made her feel comfortable with her dream. She made this her dream to save her family and herself. This is similar to the way children want to become superheroes. They want to save people from oppression, the oppression they feel from adults and society, and free themselves from the hardships of living in a society controlled from the top. Adults, both of those that are parents and the leaders of society, forget what it’s like to be a child early-on. These leaders seem to secure it as part of their job to forget this because they take steps to cause being content in life an impossible dream for an enormous amount of the population. That is, unless the child is one of the few lucky ones. But this type of child would likely be a child of the select few leaders and wealthy estate holders. This elevated child would be one of the few who can live their dreams for as long as they love if their luck holds.
People must fight for their dreams everyday if they want to hold onto them. They must fight for them and find a way to materialize them into something that society can accept. Satrapi may not have become a biblical prophet, but she did in many ways achieve her goal by creating her popular comic strip to tell stories. She has become a force of change that people notice inside and outside Iran. She is giving justice to those who can’t speak for themselves, loving those that need to behold and read that their lives matter to another as much as it matters to them, and she has used her wrath to stab the hearts of those who oppress others into being what they have no wish to become (349). Her comic strip was turned into a film and this would never have happened if she hadn’t fought for her dreams every day in secret (350). People can still have their dreams if they fight strong enough for them, even if it’s not what they initially thought their dreams would become. Even having a piece of a dream is preferred over losing it all at the request of society or someone that has no idea what or who the individual dreamer is.
On the other hand, certain people would say that they didn’t fight for their dreams in this way. They would say that they became what they envisioned themselves being ever since they can remember. This could be true. If a child wanted to become a doctor or a lawyer or something else that society readily accepts my argument would fall on blind eyes and deaf ears. Becoming something that a person loves is wonderful, and if becoming what society adores is what a child aspires to, consequently my argument is not for them. This is the child who did not fall out of love with what they wanted, but they still must fight to form their dream into a reality. Nonetheless they had much greater support from society than someone such as Satrapi would receive. Exceedingly, parents are overjoyed to hear that their child’s dream is to become a doctor, but if that same child mentions that they want to become a prophet or an artist type, their parents and peers would give them negative input to convey that it’s not an acceptable idea and not stable.
Another meaning of the word stable is a building that houses livestock, usually horses. This could be what adults unknowingly represent when they use the word stable. To be stable is to take a societal role in the typical workforce as a workhorse.
In conclusion, I want to drive a point home, and that is all people come from different lives and cultures. Those environments mold our dreams and therefore our mindset. But I make no mistake in saying that if a child wants to become something that is not allowed by social norms, that they must fight tough battles to keep their dreams alive. Therefore if a child wants to become what they love, they must not allow society to shape their minds into something that they hate or sedate themselves into being what they never would have become if given half the chance. Children are made to believe that the adults around them and on television are honest and care for their future and wish them satisfaction in their lives, but this is a lie. Children get molded to fit a preformed lifestyle that they had no choice in and if they knew it was their fate to swim in these waters and had a choice in the matter, some might have chosen not to be born. The magic of being a child dies as a result of adults becoming stuck in a place that was created generations ago by lineages of people who wanted nothing other than complete control over the masses. This is why children must keep their dreams alive and never back down no matter how hard the struggle is ahead of them. Every inch a child takes to keep their dreams alive is a mile of happiness.