After reading "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi, I was plagued with these thoughts, but I was also incredibly surprised to read a comic of such a mature caliber so easily. As we had discussed in class, many countries outside of Europe were not confined by what children could read and not read, and they're also were able to spread their demographic beyond children and also expand to adults when it came to comics. A small side note, I was also intrigued when Satrapi discussed her comic book versions of complex beliefs and ideologies that she would read every now and then because it only seemed to heighten the gap of how different my childhood readings were from that of a child outside of the states.
Overall, I really enjoyed the simplicity of the comic style and illustrations, as well as Satrapi's narration of the story to help explain or describe things I didn't understand. The way the novel is written and drawn also made me realize that the comics were truly for anyone and everyone to read. It wasn't confined to the genre and languages of children or made too graphic that youth would be scarred from reading it. It was simply a story for any person to consume, and I think that's the main reason I kept reading despite sometimes begin unable to relate fully. I also feel like it helped me expand my worldview on what life can be like for international students, and how greatly the lives of American youths can differ in both good and bad ways.
It did make me a little depressed to realize that, we as a country and the flow of information is controlled and distributed, have not allowed our generations to be able to grow and acquire knowledge as freely when we favor conservative lifestyles and prefer to restrict what youth learn in order to maintain old-fashioned values or to dictate the image of our country to the young masses.
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