Graphic Novel

Persepolis By: Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi uses her life experiences to write about the Iranian Revolution, and the Iran and Iraq war, to show the struggles her and her family went through.

This photograph shows Marjane Satrapi's uncle Anoosh, telling Marjane stories about his time in prison. He proceeds to give Marjane a bread swan which is another symbol, because in prison he did not have much and he made the best of what he had such as bread and made a swan with it. The bread swan shows how someone can live their life; being sad and depressed or being happy and smiling.

This photograph shows demonstrations in the streets for those who are for the veil and against the veil. This is a symbol in Persepolis because after The Revolution, the ladies all had to wear a veil which segregated the young girls from their male friends. The women also had to wear the veil because it segregated them from the rest of the world and showed what kind of women they are.

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam By: Ann Marie Fleming

Ann Marie Fleming uses her life experiences of travelling across the world, to find out more about the history of her family and who the magician Long Tack Sam is.

This photograph is of Long Tack Sam's daughters in costumes for their father's magic show. These costumes are a symbol in the story because in order for Sam to become famous, he needs some extra effort and beauty in order for his audience to like him so he can become famous. Costumes are worn and shown throughout Sam's magical journey and are used for dance, and his shows.

This photograph is of the posters that advertised Long Tack Sam. This is a symbol in The Magical Life Of Long Tack Sam because they are used repeatedly and Ann Fleming would not have found the answers and more information about her family history without these posters.

Characters

In each story, the daughter of the families is the writer and narrator of the graphic novels. They each write from their perspective, about their families history.

Symbols

The theme that these two novels share is the theme of social class. They also share the theme of family history.

Persepolis has a theme of social class because there are many characters that are viewed from different social class such as Marjane and her family, the maid, the women who's son got a key 'to paradise'. The theme of family history is also used because Marjane wants to know more about her past. She does all the research she can to find out more information about the wars and what certain words mean.

The Magical Life Of Long Tack Sam has a theme of social class because since Long Tack Sam's family is of high class from Long Tack Sam being a famous magician, they got the privilege to travel the world for his job and have plenty of money. The theme of family history is present in this story because Ann wants to know about her family's history and who her grandfather is and why he is so famous.

Both of these stories use framing and gutter to keep the graphics organized. They use graphic weight for majority of their story. For Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi darkens her characters to emphasize the story. For The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, Ann Fleming has different colored pictures to show how it was in the past and the pictures in the present.

These stories are analyzed through the formalist paradigm because they interconnect by having similar themes and the authors both come together with their families to figure out their family history. the central message from these stories is that someone should always find out who they came from because they have impacted the family and made the author who they are.