Persepolis: A New Explanation of God (Revised)

     Do you believe in God? There are a lot of people in the world have faith in God. They believe God is the master of our whole world and they honor him. However, in Persepolis, written by Marjane Satrapi, the main character Marjane shows us the perspective of God in a little girl's mind. The book told stories from the author's childhood in Iran by using many pictures and drawings to express her thoughts. By acting like her conscience in Persepolis, God supports Marjane, comforts her, and makes her learn to judge the wrong and right things in her life. 

     God is a very kind and peaceful figure in the book. God is very tolerant. When Marjane shouted at him about her uncle Anoosh's death, God wasn't mad at Marjane. Marjane is actually struggling with herself. She is mad at that she cannot do anything to help Uncle Anoosh to get out of the prison. She is indeed upset but could do nothing. He always gives Marjane supports whenever she needs. For example, he supports Marjane's dream. The picture shows that God holds Marjane like holding a baby and says: "Yes you are celestial light, you are my choice, my last and my best choice." (Satrapi 8) In fact, Marjane definitely cannot talk to God like that. God is created by her own imagination. It is the voice from her inside world. The talking with God every night is actually the communication between the girl people see and the real person she is. She needs to be the person she doesn't truly want in the day, but she can be herself when she talks with God at night. God in her mind gives her strength to continue doing what she truly want. She will not be controlled or changed by anyone. God gives her a strong support to her dream and every decision she makes. 

     God comforts Marjane to make her feel better when Marjane is confused by things happened in her society. He gives her a shoulder which Marjane can rely on. He gives her a harbour where Marjane can feel safe and does not need to be nervous about anything that happens in her society or life. For instance, when she hears about people who are put into the jail are tortured and die from it, she starts imagining the scenes in her head and tries to play games about it. However, she is overwhelmed. She is scared and doesn't know what justice is when she cries to her mother. She said: "The only place I felt safe was in the arms of my friend." (Satrapi 53) God can give her relief. She doesn't need to pretend or worry about anything. When she is sacred, confused or even gets lost, she goes to find God. God will clear up all these unpleasant things. In God's arms, she totally relaxes herself from the environment around her and feels safe. 

     God is the person who Marjane turns to when she meets problems in her life. She is only a child. She gets confused easily by all kinds of phenomenon that appear in her life. Instead of asking anyone else, she asks God to find the answer that she can accept to eliminate her confusion. That is her voice from her inside world. The God inside her always can teach her to Judge whether the thing is right or wrong. When her teacher asks her what she wants to be when she grows up, she says she wants to be a prophet. Her teacher finds her parents to tell Marjane's abnormal dream, her parents say they do not worry about it. Although they seem support Marjane's dream, they still worry about Marjane's specialness. They ask Marjane what she wants to be in the future. Instead of saying that she wants to be a prophet, she says she wants to be a doctor. Her parents get relief. However, Marjane feels guilty toward God, because this is not what she truly wants. She wants her parents to not worry about her so she pretends she wants to be a prophet. She cheats herself. At night, God questions her about her dream, she finally confirms her dream and promises that she will let no one know about her dream. God makes her know clearly what she truly desires. 

      For Marjane, God is her friend, her family, her teacher, and a real her. Because he questions her and supports her, Marjane is inspired to be always true and honest to herself. God is a very important figure in Persepolis who supports Marjane, makes her feel comfortable and helps her make the right decision by acting as her conscience. God will accompany Marjane throughout her whole life and reminds her real desires. 

Work Cited

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of A Childhood. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2003. 

Say Goodbye to My First Marking Period

It's nearly the end of the first marking period. It is the time I need to go back and do the work of self analysis. I recall back for goals I set up at the beginning of this marking period. I have three goals: the first one is never being afraid of writing; the second one is reading more English books, and the last one is speaking English more fluently. 

I think I'm pretty satisfied on achieving the first goal. I use to be really afraid of writing because every time when I get a writing assignment, I have no idea how to start it. Sometimes I feel like I have many ideas and things that I want to write about, but I just can not write it down. There is no specific direction or clue for readers to follow. All the things in my paper are just a mess. It is totally unorganized. So I start fearing to write. Usually when I get the writing assignment, my headache comes with it. However, I changed my attitude to writing through this marking period. The teacher teaches me how to brainstorm, make a list and map before I start writing, which I think it is very helpful to organize my ideas. Then I know how to creat an outline which leads me to put all my ideas into an ideal form. I think all these methods help me a lot in writing a paper. Although sometimes I still feel it is hard to write a paper, at least I feel I may over come it and have some sort of thoughts to start it. 

My second goal is reading more English books. I really love reading when I was in China. I am obsessed with some Chinese books, and I did read a lot of books. However, I find out that recently I didn't read a lot of books neither Chinese nor English. I think it is probably because English is a totally new language for me so I do not know it very well. Also, I'm not very good at English so it did not quite as much as Chinese interest me. So I set my goal of reading more English books to know more about English and American culture which will help me greatly in my future life in America. Besides those books that my teacher asks me to read, I go to the library and ask the librarian what book is suitable for me, as a English language learner to read. The librarian suggests me to read a science fiction called "Life as we knew it". This is a very good book that when I started to read, I was attracted by the plots and could not help myself from keeping reading it. I already read one hundred pages till now. I think one thing I need to improve is my speed of reading the book. Although I know I need time and read more books to improve this. 

My last goal is speaking English fluently. I think there is a large space left that I need to improve. I find out that my grammar is terrible when I speak with others. Sometimes, I feel like I can not find a good topic when I am chatting with my friends. I also think that when I am describing a thing or telling a story to someone in English, I find many difficulties in language. One way I think to solve this problem is to make more American friends and use more English. I also should pay attention to how others use English when they are talking. In this case, I will be able to improve my English speaking skill very quickly. 

All in all, I think I've done a good job so far. For the next marking period, I need to work on things that I have not achieve yet and were left in the first marking period. I also have to work on new goals, which I set two goals: one is to try to think things in English instead of translating into Chinese. Another one is to know more English words and less use of translator. 

Quiz on Two Countries

1. Skin gives us hope. When we are in a totally strange place or country, we are looking forward to see someone who comes from our country; who has the same skin color as us. It gives us relief and feel like we have some connections to where we truely from. The author says that "when skin is not alone,it remembers being alone and thanks something larger that there are travelers, that people go placeslarger than themselves." She is an American- Arabic girl who loves both of her countries. Her skin color always reminds her where her blood is and where she comes from. 

2. People in different regions of the world have different skin and skin colors. In this case, skin represents different cultures, different countries and different people. 

3. The poem is thankful for those travelers. Traveling can lead to cultural diffusion which mean that different cultures are mixed by those people who go traveling. It not only brings people to different place, but also bring their own cultural influences to that place. It's these travelers who make people in different place can find something similar about their hometown and feel relief. They make people all around the world seem to tie together as a big family. 

Discussing Questions

1. Why did Nye write a lot of poems about her grandmother?

2. Why did Nye say that she doesn't need to explain herself to 9/11 as an American Arabic descant?

A Seed, A Song, A Sky: A Mother's Love

This poem which is called "A Seed, A Song, A Sky" is mainly talking about her baby. Her hasband puts her baby back to her bed after she falls into sleep in his arms. Nye kneels down and touches her baby gentlly. In Nye's mind, her baby is like a small flower and a miracle. She makes wishes for her baby's future and she hopes her wishes will become true when her child grows up. She doesn't know if theses wishes will be enough for her child to face the world which is totally strange for her. She doesn't know whether her wishes can come true or not. She questions if her wishes will make her child get ready to meet the new and strange world. She hopes her wishes can protect her child and make her baby know what the world like. Her baby is the seed that she plant into this world. Her wishes form a nice and pleasant song which will accompany her child growing up and throughout her life. Eventually, her baby will become a mature, beautiful flower to meet the blue sky. All Nye wants is that she wants her child get ready to walk into  the mysterious world when she grows up with full prepared. This poem shows the author is a little bit worried about her child's future life, and it also exhibits her profound love to her child. 

Aim for Journeys

Journeys can be different. 

Follow your eyes and walk through the world: 

To see those damp new grapes in the orchard, 

To hear these prayers and let them cool you down, 

And sleep on those stones with rough edges. 

19 Varieties of Gazelle: A Way of Knowing True Arabs

What will you connect to when someone says things about the Middle East? The first word that come to my mind is "veil". In my mind, all the women in the Middle East need to use the scarf to cover their hair. For me, it is like already a symbol of all these countries in the Middle East. However, since I read poems that were written by Naomi Shihab Nye, I totally change my view to those Arab people. 

Naomi Shihab Nye is an American-Arab poet who writes a lot of poems about Arab cultures and stories. Her mother is an American and her father is a Palestinian. Although she was born in America and grew up here, she till considers herself as one of the Palestinians. One of her famous books is called "19 Varieties of Gazelle". It is a collection of poems which she writes in order to be as a response to 9.11. 

As we all know that 9.11 is a tragedy that happened on American people in 2001. The World Trade Center was hit by a plane that was controlled by terrorists from the Middle East. From that moment, people in the world are not only sorrowful, but also they have an impression that people from the Middle East are all terrorists. People are all scared by this big event, so they all assume that Arab people are scary, mentally insane, and they are terrorists. However, by reading Nye's poems in the book, I realize that the fact is not what people are thinking. The reason why Naomi Shihab Nye chooses this books to be as a response to 9.11 is that she wants to change people's tortile views toward Arab people. They are very friendly and very kind people. All these bad views about the Arabs people have are created by the government. People in the Middle East don't have fault. It's not their choice to have this kind of government. They don't get to make their politics. If you talk to those people, if you get chances to know them, you will be amazed and totally change your view toward Arabs. 

Arab people love their family. They are hard-working. For example, in the poem called "My Father and the Fig Tree", the author's father came American when he was in the college. Although he loves his country, he has to stay in America because of the war. He loves those fig trees which are very common in Palestine. For him, it is a symbol of his culture and his country. However, he cannot find a fig tree in America. He always sits on Nye's bed and tells all these stories and folktales of Palestine about fig trees. Even sometimes, it doesn't fit; he sticks in. He tries so hard to get rid of the title of "terrorists". He writes stories and poems to show the people how the Arab people really are. The author is very proud of her father and very proud that she has such a good father. 

All these things are what Naomi Shihab Nye is trying to show our people who are outside the Middle East. These Arab people are not as scary as we think and actually, they are not at all. They love their lives, their family and everything around them. They are not crazy, not insane. They hope the world is peaceful; there is no war going on. We should try to know them by ourselves instead of judging them only by an unexpectable event.