Persepolis is a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi that portrays a story of a youg teenage girl.
What part of the graphic novel gives the example of White's definition of the way people tell a story? White discusses that there are ways people tell a story. They can choose to leave stuff out in their story.
There is an example of White's idea of how a story is told, on page 12 in Persepolis. It is an example of how a person can see how society sees a certain event going on in life and misunderstand what they might believe due to outside influence telling a story to someone else. Because of this, "Marji"realizes that she does not understand what is really going on in her country. She is in a room full of older people talking about the king and how he is a killer. They are all laughing and she does not know what to do. She then laughs awkwardly and alone. The last part of the panel, she is saying to herself that she does not know anything and that she must read to understand.
Persepolis is a story that the writer Satrapi actually lived and wanted to portray her experiences living in Iran. Because the story is a first person account of what she experienced, Satrapi can choose to leave things out of the story. She could have even have left things out subconsciously, knowing that it would not work well with the way she wanted her story to go. White explains that people tell stories like this to make sure they get their point across without outside opinions/facts misleading the story.
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While I agree that she clearly would have to leave stuff out, I would argue that it was more done for pacing and similar techniques instead of trying to propagandize (maybe too strong of a word) her memoir. my sister-in-law grew up under the islamic regime in iran. many of the things examined in persepolis have been echoed by her. this is telling because when my sister-in-law tells her story, she is not speaking ill of her country. she does not harbor any resentment towards her homeland (this may sound strange, especially after living in the US for long, but one must remember, in schools she is taught from an early age to love her country without question. she had no knowledge of the holocaust or iran hostage situation or even the details behind 9/11. it is simply not taught or reported.) anyway, my point being, her narrative is still accurate, even with certain omissions.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the author has the ability to decide what to leave in and what to leave out when telling a story. I think this is very important when that story is a reflection of something that actually happened. I think that memory also plays an important part in such stories becuase some things are going to be remembered as more important than others, or more relevant to the message the author wants to get across to the reader.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to note that the text itself comments on narrative as well. Not unlike Maus, this is a narrative with other narratives embedded (from her family members and other characters), but even those are told through this text, so there is a degree of separation. Further, the characters themselves bring up issues with historical narrative that are presented in White's article, one of which is the idea that you mentioned. So while there are inevitably things left out, just as there were in the stories that are "told" by the other characters in the Persepolis, Satrapi still takes the fragmented (reality) and combines it into the ideal or whole (narrative).
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