Persepolis

This is a beautiful story of a young girl growing up in a time of turmoil and war.  While reading this comic, I really felt like I could not find the words to describe how much I related to this little girl.  I grew up in America, so obviously I was not fighting the same fight she had to endure, but the emotions were so raw and real.  As a young child, I had to learn to take queues from my mother.  My parents owned and ran their own construction business, which is without a doubt a male dominated industry.  She had to find a way to stand out and fight for equal treatment, and still most of the time, the men in other offices viewed her as nothing more then a woman working for my dad.  And then I grew up in a catholic environment.  There was a lot of suppression associated with this society.  Again, I did not endure nearly anything like what she endured, but it was feeling that I had before as a child and something that I would never want anyone to ever live.  And I think I started to actually have guilty feelings reading this comic book memoir. 

As far as the ascetics were concerned, I thought the simplified black and white illustration really served a great purpose here.  It was not child like, but it was important these were not realistic or complicated drawings because this story is to be understood through child-like eyes, and without the drawings looking as they are this would not have been nearly as successful.  The style brought the entire story together, which in my opinion was very universal and something that kept me turning the pages.