The Complete Persepolis | Chapters 9-14

How are the Islamic fundamentalists portrayed in the book? How does Marji communicate her internal conflicts and confusion about what's going on?

Marji portrays the fundamentalist men as having full beards, uni-brows. and untucked shirts, while the women are covered head to toe so that the only thing showing on their body is their face. Other men, however, are mostly clean shaven with a possible mustache and tucked-in shirts, while the women are not as covered and will have a little bit of hair falling out of the front of their veil. The Islamic fundamentalists also speak more curtly and harshly, as opposed to the people Marji was closer to, like her parents, who spoke more openly and kindly.

Marji communicates her internal conflict by, for example, portraying her rejection of God in a panel with mostly black background and by having the panel in which she wallows in despair take up an entire page. Marji also displays the conflict she faces by contrasting what she learns at home versus what she shares with her friends and their subsequent reactions. Marji is often extremely blunt with other children her age and is open to sharing her knowledge of the revolution which she has been taught by her parents. Marji will sometimes embellish her stories since she is trying to cope, but also because she wants the other children to like and respect her. Marji also communicates her confusion at that age by showing her seeking knowledge and understanding in books about revolutions and communism, even going as far as pretending to be a revolutionary when playing with her friends.

The Complete Persepolis | Chapters 1-8

Satrapi's images and drawings often convey more meaning than her text does alone. Since she is writing a graphic novel, she had a a limited amount of space for her text, so she relies on her art to speak for her instead. The larger panels will often display a scene, generally one that is a bigger picture and larger than just Satrapi's story on its own, more likely portraying the Revolution as a whole. The images are all in black and white, so the panels that are from outside what would have been Satrapi's perspective tend to mostly use black, while the other images are a stark contrast and use mostly white space. Satrapi uses text bubbles to explain thoughts from the timeline of the story, while the captions tend to be from the older Satrapi, who speaks with more knowledge of the Revolution and also knowing the effect that it will have on her and her family late on and than the timeline in the story. Together the dialogue and images work to create a complete story. Trying to understand the graphic novel without both dialogue and the images would leave large pieces of the story missing since the two are intricately woven together in order to tell Satrapi's story during the Revolution in Iran.

Perfume Chapters 1-10

1) Describe Grenouille so far; how does Suskind begin creating his character (in other words, how can you justify your understanding/interpretations of Grenouille using the text itself)?

Grenouille seems to be neglected and has spent most of his life being treated as an outsider because most people view him as different and something to be feared. His own mother cast him aside at birth, choosing to not acknowledge his presence, and then his nurses all gave him away because they believed he was too greedy. One wet nurse went to the priest and he dismissed her claims at first, but once he saw the baby and the way its nose twitched, and the priest sent him to an orphanage where his likelihood of survival was slim. The other children were also afraid of Grenouille and tried to kill him, although they were never able to kill him. Suskind sets up Grenouille to be someone who very much should not be alive at this point in his life and story, but due to a series of fortunate circumstances, he was able to survive. Suskind also often compares Grenouille to a tick, which further sets up Grenouille as a greedy and parasitical character. Grenouille also often reads as lacking empathy, most likely because he has never experienced love himself. This is especially apparent in his comparison to a tick and his general lack of emotion, except for when he spells something extremely pleasant, specifically the young girl he murders.

2) We've never really read about a main character whose chief trait is his superhuman sense of smell. What is this all about? What might we learn from this character or story? Is scent a symbol for something else?

I think the author uses scent as a way to both connect the reader more to Grenouille while also setting him apart from any other character out there. Most readers can relate to the most extreme sensations from smell, when there is a truly repugnant or delicious smell, so the readers can relate to some of what Grenouille is feeling and experiencing. However, readers do not have the superhuman sense of smell that Grenouille has, so they will never be able to truly be able to feel and smell what Grenouille has and the relation only goes so far, but this makes him a somewhat sympathetic character (not entirely, but at least a bit). Scent, so far, seems to symbolize a more primal human instinct (at least to the priest), while Baldini, someone born upper class, is a perfumer and seems to hold scent above other senses generally.