Day 5 Response- Kyle Rich

Tatum- Everybody has their angels and demons, and in Persepolis, the character Marjane is no different. Right from the beginning of the story, we find out she wants to be a well-known religious figure. This comes from her good will of wanting to change all the hate and negativity around her. However, when she finds certain things that make her tick, she abandons her good will and lets loose. For example, on page 44-45, Marjane hears down that grapevine that a fellow classmate, Ramin, had a father who was in the Shah's secret police organization, and took part in the killing of around a million people. When Marjane finds this out, she says "In the name of a dead million, we'll teach Ramin a good lesson." She then proceeds to find him, so she can torture him with rusty nails that she had placed between her fingers. Although she is angered and just wants to teach her oppression a lesson, she is unaware of what she is doing. By wanting to hurt Ramin for just a affiliation to the Shah's organization, she is doing the exact same thing that is going on in Iran. She is just simply spreading the hate, instead of the positive. An old quote goes "An eye for an eye will make the world blind." And by wanting to punish the oppression with drastic measures, it goes against all her core beliefs and principles she fights for. Although many other images could be conjured up, i feel as if nothing represents better than an angel and a demon, especially for the pious theme that is found constantly throughout Persepolis.

Kyle- Although Marjane is just a little girl, she is given a good advantage, and disadvantage that allows her to seem so much more grown up. While she basically has little knowledge of the world going on around her, this also makes her stronger once she experiences lessons on her own. Although it would be easy for her parents to tell her the way things are, she learns so much more going through it on her own. For me, a thing i never had the most knowledge of was Love. Since i was in third grade, i have come from a broken home. My parents never gave me "the talk" , or really never touched on how great it was to be in love, and how much it could hurt when it goes weary. I basically went through all of middle school and freshman year without talking with too many girls, and once sophmore year hit, things changed. I began to start dating and taking girls home with me to hang out; nothing too serious. But once my junior year hit, i thought i had met my future wife. We shared newspaper together and had fun small-talking, and although she had a boyfriend at the time, she had finally made a move on me, and the rest went from there. Only after three weeks of knowing her, we went out on a first date. After going out to dinner, and taking her ice skating, we had gone back to my place to share a few more kisses. Foolishly, i blurted out right in the middle of making out, "I love you." But what was really on my mind that i didn't realize was, "I love this." I loved the concept of having somebody that was mine, somebody loyal, and that one somebody i no longer had to search for. She felt the same way, not really being in too many relationships, and we just happened to click so well. As things went on, we began to grow apart. I started becoming distant after two months and was FREAKED out by the commitment. I began to start cheating, and eventually it just came right back to me. This was our first serious relationship, and after a year we had realized all that we had learned from it and decided to cut our losses, and break up. Although the pain was and still is so deep, i now know what it takes to make a long-term relationship work. I realize now, now to become so vulnerable right off the bat, and that before i say "i love you" again, that this time i really am going to mean it from the bottom of my heart. Marjane not only discovers love the hard way, but also the class system, and all the social injustice surrounding her.