Persepolis Study Guide – Flashcards

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Marjane
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The novel's main character. The book is a narrative of her life from six years of age until fourteen years of age. She provides the childhood perspective from which the historical events of the novel are understood.
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Mr. Satrapi
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Marjane's father. He is a leftist political protester that takes part in the demonstrations of 1979, yet he is also an established engineer and maintains a middle class lifestyle.
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Mrs. Satrapi
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Marjane's mother. She holds leftist political views and often urges Marjane and her friends to rely on education as a way to further themselves and their country. Marjane often equates her with an overbearing presence as she grows older, yet she maintains a close bond and relationship with both her parents.
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Anoosh
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Marjane's uncle. He was imprisoned by the Shah for his communist views, but was released after the Revolution. He had been married in Russia, but his wife divorced him. Anoosh is arrested by the Islamic regime and executed on the false charges that he is a Russian spy.
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Grandmother
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Lives with Marjane's family for a while. Her husband had been a prince of the Shah and had been made prime minister. He had been arrested for conspiring with communists and tortured in a water cell. Her grandmother provides Marjane with a matriarchal figure.
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Mohsen
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a hero of the Revolution and a friend of Marjane's family. Mohsen had been captured and tortured by the Shah's forces. He is murdered by the new Islamic regime by being drowned in a bathtub. The regime frames his death as a suicide.
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Mehri
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Marjane's nanny and maid. She was taken in by the Satrapi's as a young child because her impoverished family could not support her. Mehri falls in love with a neighborhood boy but she cannot be with him because she is from a lower social class than he is.
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Mali
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a close friend of the Satrapi's. She comes to live with them for a while after their border town is bombed by Iraqi forces. She and her husband had been wealthy, and the work portrays them as quite materialistic, but they lost everything in the bombing.
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Taher
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Marjane's uncle. He suffers numerous heart attacks from smoking and from the stress of war. After his third heart attack, he is refused a passport by the hospital director and dies without seeing his son for a last time.
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Khosro
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a friend of Marjane's family. He is asked to make a fake passport for Marjane's Uncle Taher, but he leaves the country before he is able to complete the job because of government persecution.
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Niloufar
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a young girl that hides in Khosro's basement. She is captured and executed by the Iranian government.
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Panel
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a distinct segment of the comic, containing a combination of image and text in endless variety.
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Frame
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the lines and borders that contain the panels.
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Gutter
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the space between the frames.
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Bleed
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an image that extends to beyond the edges of the page.
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Foreground
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the panel closest to the viewer.
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Midground
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Allows centering of image by using natural resting place for vision. The artist deliberately decides to place the image where a viewer would be most likely to look first. Placing an image off-center or near the top or bottom can be used to create visual tension but using the midground permits the artist to create a more readily accepted image.
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Background
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provides additional, sub textual information to the reader.
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Graphic Weight
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a term that describes the way some images draw the eye more than others, creating a definite focus using color and shading in various ways.
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Faces
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can be portrayed in different ways. Some depict an actual person, like a portrait; others are iconic, which means they are representative of an idea or a group of people.
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Hands/Feet
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the positioning of hands and feet can be used to express what is happening in the story. For example, hands that are raised with palms out suggest surprise. The wringing of hands suggests obsequiousness or discomfort. Hands over the mouth depict fear, shame, or shyness. Turned in feet may denote embarrassment, while feet with motion strokes can create the sense of panic, urgency, or speed.
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Captions
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these are boxes containing a variety of text elements, including scene setting, description, etc.
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Speech Balloons
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these enclose dialogue and come from a specific speaker's mouth; they vary in size, shape, and layout and can alternate to depict a conversation.
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External Dialogue
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speech between characters.
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Internal Dialogue
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a thought enclosed by a balloon that has a series of dots or bubbles going up from it.
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Special-Effect Lettering
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a method of drawing attention to text; often highlights onomatopoeia and reinforces that impacts of words.
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asylum
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(noun) safety, shelter from danger; institution for the mentally ill
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belligerent
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(adj.) marked by hostile or aggressive behavior
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console
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(verb) to comfort someone who is in sorrow/distress; relieve
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degenerate
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(verb) to decline in physical, mental, or moral quality
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euphoria
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(noun) feeling of complete/intense joy or peace; a state of intense happiness and self-confidence
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frivolities
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(noun) things of little or no value; characterized by lack of seriousness or sense
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imperialist
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(noun) one seeking to dominate "weaker" countries
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proletariat
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(noun) the social working class; those earn their living by manual labor; blue-collar workers, commoners, peasant
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regime
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(noun) form/system of government in power
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sentiment
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(noun) an opinion about a specific matter; attituse toward something; opinion, feeling, emotion
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subversive
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(noun) one who attempts to overthrow a government; a person who adopts false principles or policies, cheating, alienated, false
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veritable
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(adj.) real/true
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obligatory
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required as a matter of obligation; mandatory
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decadence
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the act or process of falling into an inferior condition or state; downfall, decline, decay
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revolution
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an overthrow through replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed; transformation, overthrow, rebellion
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fanatics
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a person with an extreme and uncritical enthisiasm; addict, radical, enthusiast
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cadaver
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a dead body especially a human body to be dissected; carcass, body corpse
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cyanide
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a salt of hydrocyanic acid
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dialectic
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of or pertaining to the natures of argumentation; analytic, argumentative, persuasive
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shuned
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to keep away from; decline, escape, evade
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rebellious
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resisting some established authority, government or tradition; attacking. disloyal
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carnage
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the slaughter of a great number of people as in battle; killing, murder
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vinther
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someone who makes or sells wine
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systematically
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having, showing or involving a system method; regularly, consistently
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expelled
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to drive or force out or away
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