Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis: A Story of A Childhood

By: Marjane Satrapi

“One can forgive but one should never forget” (Satrapi, 2003, p. 2)

Genre: Nonfiction, Graphic Novel, World Literature, Memoir

Lexile Level: GN380L

Summary: Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Her story is told through black and white comic strips. During her life in Tehran between the ages of six and fourteen, Satrapi saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the success of the Islamic Revolution, and the effects of war with Iraq. She tells of her childhood experiences through comics. The result is an extremely personal, political, and original story of growing up. It shows the reader how we carry on in the face of adversity and introduces us to a little girl we can’t help but love.

Please click here to view my selling tool, an infographic on Persepolis.

Standards:

AASL: 1.1.1 Follow and inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects and make the real world connections for using this process in own life.

1.1.7 Make sense of information from diverse sources by identifying misconceptions, main and supporting ideas, conflicting information, and point of view of bias.

Common Core Standards: CC.8.R.I.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CC.7.R.I.2 Key Ideas and Details: Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their developments over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

Learning Goal: Students will compare and contrast the comic strips of Persepolis to photographs of the Islamic Revolution. Students will write a journal entry portraying the thoughts and feelings of a child living in Iran during this time.

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will compare and contrast the text of Persepolis to the historical events of the Islamic Revolution.
2. Students will assess the comic strips of Persepolis and find three comics that relate to three real photographs from the Iranian Revolution using pictures from this website.
3. Students will write a journal entry from the point of view of a child living through the Islamic Revolution in Iran. They will describe the feelings, worries, and daily life of someone living at that time.

Learning Outcome:

1. Students will be able to identify the real-life events that Satrapi describes and draws in her comics to actual photographs from the revolution.
2. Students will write a journal entry describing the thoughts and feelings of a child living during this time.