Monday, April 26, 2010
What's a Hero?
In my opinion a hero is someone who risks or sacrifice's themselves for a cause or the benefit of others. In Persepolis however, Satrapi sees hero's as those who have sacrificed themselves and risked their lives but only if they "get caught." Her uncle was a hero because he went to prison and her friends parents were hero's because they went to prison or died for a cause. I find it interesting that she doesn't see her own mother and father as heroes. Are they not taking the same risk as everyone else who has been caught. It just goes to show how a child can misinterpret or misunderstand so easily. Satrapi speaks from the perspective of herself as a child and poses many questions due to the fact that she didn't understand what was going on as a child. It helps put the reader in her shoes and to interpret things as she did. But even so, I don't see how she could misinterpret the definition of a hero. Why do they have to go to jail or die to be heroes?
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You could not have said this better than you did in the last line of your blog. I was thinking to myself the entire time I was reading this that a hero is not just someone who dies or goes to jail or gets severely hurt as a result of their actions. As a young college girl, my biggest heroes are my parents and I can definitely say that it is not because of something they have done that has killed them, sent them to prison, or severly injured them. It is simply because they both are constantly putting their lives on hold and sacrificing things for the good of my brother and I. That, to me, makes them heroes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. This was a concept that was a problem for me with the memoir so far. Yes, people can have different perceptions of what a hero is but i do not understand why someone must die or go to jail to be a hero. Someone can be a hero and be alive I and not in jail.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everything that has been said here. Marjane needs to realize that her parents do risk their lives all the time by going out and protesting, and that they don't actually have to spend time in jail or be killed in the revolution.
ReplyDeleteAt that age Marjane is a stubborn fourteen old, on page even though Marjane probably couldn't hear nor remember that he parents said " Pretty stubborn girl, huh?". I think from this she saw only the major sacrifices that other people were taking and draws a higher criteria for a hero. She wanted more effort from her parents, she wanted to put everything into the revolution. She probably wanted more from her parent's; everything that they had also. In her mind she probably wanted them to be heroes but since they weren't doing the more radical participation she didn't see them as heroes at her younger age.
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic to reflect upon Marjane's concept of a hero as she matures. When she returns to Iran the political climate and oppression are similar before she left, heavy. Though she may not pay lip service directly to her evolving idea of a hero, we see her act more in the manner of her mothers defiance toward the regime. When all of the students at the university were called for that moral and religious conduct speech she thwarts the speaker with her reason, by showing she wasn't a cog, mindless and obedient. She demonstrates this again in the setting of one of her classrooms when she mentions to her friend she is on the pill because she sleeps with her boyfriend.
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