Marjane Satrapi

Pantheon Books




Dear Ms. Satrapi,

My name is Dillon Nguyen; I am currently attending East Los Angels College (ELAC). I am taking English 057, as of the moment we are reading one of your novels Persepolis. At first I thought it was a book based on Tehran and their wars, but converted into a children story book to help them understand better. Eventually as I started reading I became hooked onto it, there many information that I had never learned before.

I liked the way you thought of writing this book, as in with pictures basically like a comic book, it was very entertaining and very knowledgeable. There were chapters that made me teary a bit; it was like a “tear jerker” moment. At some point in the book, it made me felt frustrated because of how some people can do such abominable things. I didn’t like the fact how people were divided into groups such as two groups of men; one with bushy beard were addressed as Fundamentalist and people with mustache were called Progressive men. Same goes for women; the Fundamentalist woman that were completely covered and the Modern woman that only wore the veil. I thought that it was idiotic for people to be divide into these groups and also the fact that women had to cover up or they would be consider “hoes”. As I was reading this book, I felt lucky to be born in the United States, from reading this I learned that not everyone is fortune enough to live a happily life. In the chapter the Key I was shocked to find out that the government in Tehran had to trick young unfortunate kids into joining the army. I wasn’t able to relate to this because I am not born into an impoverished home, I was never given the option to join the army and risk my life to go to heaven, but even though I still get the sad feeling, knowing that kids in other countries had to go through this. I believe that people aren’t supposed to be base on how they dress or their poverties. We are all the same; there are people that have religious beliefs but none of their beliefs states the difference in each other based on their outcome or their dressing attire.

As throughout the book it taught me to be aware of social statuses and difference race. I enjoyed reading this novel because, the way you wrote it made it very entertaining to read and at the same time it was very insightful. Thanks to this book my eyes are open and I am more conscious about these things. This was a great experience and when I have the time I will surely pick up Persepolis II

Sincerely,
Dillon Nguyen