MIRANDA MILLER

PERIOD 2

Persepolis
In Persepolis the author Marjane Satrapis lack of color, while overall establishing a tone of
remembrance, also helps to establish different tones in each panel or scene by contrasting key subjects
in her illustrations to make the importance of each subject more detectable to her readers.
In the chapter The Sheep, Marjane has to say goodbye to her uncle Anoosh. The solid black of
the background causes Marjane and her uncle to stand out to the reader more than anything else in
these panels. Because of this contrast Marjane and Anooshs goodbyes become the focus of the panels,
causing the reader to connect more deeply with this scene and its sentimental tone. Later in this
chapter, after Anoosh dies, Marjane illustrates her loneliness by drawing herself in the middle of a void,
a completely black panel. Using the huge black panel that isolates and almost swallows up tiny Marjane,
the author allows the reader to share the tone of loneliness as theyre also swallowed up by the big
black panel while reading.
In the chapter The Party on page 42 the country celebrates the day the shah has left the
throne. A single panel takes up the entire page illustrating dozens of people celebrating the greatest day
in their history. The page is almost entirely black but singles out the facial expressions, hand gestures,
and lively prints of the people and their clothing. Because the background is back the expressions,
gestures, and prints stand out most to the reader and become their main focus. The reader is able to
detect and connect with these spirited expressions and prints and is able to fully grasp the lively, joyful
tone of the panel.
In the chapter Kim Wilde Marjane encounters women who are guardians of the revolution
who begin to ridicule her style and interest and threaten to take her to the committee. The author
illustrates the scene in all white, even her clothing, but draws the women in long black dresses and veils.
This use of black and white gives the women a tone of evil or wickedness, standing out from Marjane
who is the good guy, or in this case the innocent girl. The use of black for these characters while keeping
all else white gives a tone of invasion; it makes the reader feel that these wicked characters who are the
only ones in black have invaded our main characters comfort zone. The contrast of the women against
everything else that is white gives the scene a tone of invasion and gives the characters a tone of evil.
In Marjanes novel Persepolis she is able to use the black and white in her illustrations to
contrast the most important subjects of her panels allowing the reader to focus on the key subjects and
fully grasp the tone they convey.

MIRANDA MILLER
PERIOD 2