do your peer reviews of three other papers 

Do your peer reviews of three other paper.

Each comments about 200 words about format, grammar, and suggest, and so on.

1:

Family Matters: 

Family is an important theme in the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. She explains how family can influence a person’s outlook on life as well as his or her political views in Persepolis. The main character, referred to as Marji, matures from a young girl to a teenager during a time of political unrest in her home country. Satrapi explains how the girl’s family, along with the families of those around her, influence her opinion on the changing world in which she finds herself. 

Marji’s family is greatly responsible for her political views. In the beginning of the graphic novel, Marji is playing pretend with some friends. They are acting as though they are running the revolution. They chant “down with the king” while “demonstrat[ing] in the garden” (10). Shortly after this game of pretend, Marji bursts into her parents’ room, claiming that “the entire population” must back a revolution (17). Her parents realize that although she is only about ten years old, she is learning what to think from them. Her dad picks her up and gives her a brief history lesson in what events have led up to the current revolution. 

Marji’s parents inform her of what has happened in their country up to the point of the revolution. Rather than ignore her inquisitiveness, they embrace it. However, her parents do not tell her what to think. They simply provide her with information and allow her to form her own opinion. The reader can see this later in the graphic novel when Marji is older. She is sitting in the living room of her house, speaking with her parents years later. She expresses her agreement with the idea of bombing Baghdad only to have her father step in to explain how that would require the pilots who have been “jailed or executed” (82). Marji once again takes a step back and looks at the information her parents have given her. She forms another opinion about her country’s political climate. While her parents encourage her to think for herself once more, they point her in the direction of what they believe to be politically correct. 

The most obvious form of her parents’ political ideas coming out in Marji’s personal decisions is the veil. She refuses to wear it at school which prompts a huge meeting between her teacher and all of the parents of the girls in her class. Marji’s teacher reminds the parents to “make sure [the girls] wear their veils correctly” to which Marji’s dad exclaims that the teacher should “shave [her] mustache” (98). Marji’s mom has never been a fan of the veil; one of the earliest scenes the reader gets of Marji’s mom shows her protesting the enforcement of the veil (5). Her mother’s ideas about religious freedom seeps into Marji’s own personal philosophy.

Another source of familial influence on Marji is her uncle Anoosh. He tells her more stories of the revolution. He has been in prison for thirty years, but he is finally released (54). Marji claims he is “a hero in [her] family” (54). She listens as he recounts his story to her. At the end of the tale he pulls out a photograph of his family, but his wife’s head is scratched out (59). Marji questions this, and Anoosh explains that they are divorced and she doesn’t have a heart (59). 

Anoosh quickly becomes Marji’s primary source for information about the revolution. She asks him dozens of questions and listens to his stories. However, the most impactful part of her relationship with him comes from the conversation about his family. This is the only time Marji sees her uncle cry (59). He manages to hold back his tears while he talks about murders, losing his uncle, and walking through the cold to reach home, but he breaks down once he tells Marji about his ex-wife and their children. Marji sees how much his family means to Anoosh, and she begins to feel more grateful for her own parents. 

Marji’s idea of surviving the revolution with her family is seen years later. When her family is driving home one night they are stopped by an enforcer of the Islamic revolution (108). Marji and her grandmother run inside the house and flush all of the alcohol down the toilet since it is illegal to have (110). Her grandmother says, “When your father was alive, I was always hiding his tracts” when Marji’s dad tells them they are to get rid of the alcohol (109). Marji understands that family sticks together and protects one another, even if it is illegal. 

 Maji’s family is not the only family that influences her outlook on life. Her parents’ friends uproot their families throughout the graphic novel in order to survive. The reader is introduced to Siamak, an old friend of Marji’s father, when he is released from prison. Later in the story, the reader learns that “his sister was executed in his place” (66). Siamak and his family leave the country “hidden among a flock of sheep” (66). Marji hears her parents talking about this incident and becomes aware of another strong familial connection besides her own. She sees another family sticking together through everything the revolution is bringing – the good (Siamak being released from prison), and the bad (Siamak’s sister being killed). 

Siamak was Marji’s dad’s friend, but a little later in the graphic novel the reader meets Mali, Marji’s mom’s friend. Mali’s town, Abadan, is bombed because of the war (88). Mali, her husband, and their two kids come to stay with Marji and her family for a little while. Everything is going fine until they go to the supermarket. Once they are there, two random women begin bad-mouthing the refugees (92-93). Marji and her group leave without really saying anything to the women, but Marji is clearly upset. 

The supermarket incident causes Marji to think about her political views once more. She begins to “feel ashamed” because of the people around her (93). Marji is learning compassion for others at this point. She hates that Mali had to uproot her whole family because of the war. She is beginning to see how people have to remain strong for their families. Mali’s husband is going to sell some jewels in order to get enough money for their family to start over. Marji witnesses the sacrifices Mali and her husband make in order to give their children a better life, thus, she learns once again that family takes care of each other, no matter the cost. 

The next example of sacrifice Marji sees comes from her dad. Marji’s mom’s brother, Taher, suffers his third heart attack. The only way for him to recover is if he has open heart surgery in England, but he can’t go to England without a passport (121). Marji’s dad takes her with him, and they go see an acquaintance of his who makes fake passports (123). Clearly, this business is illegal, but Ebi, Marji’s dad, does not care. He wants to help his brother-in-law get well, and the only way is to break the law. This incident calls back to the earlier time when Marji and her grandmother had to flush the alcohol down the toilet. Marji is being taught by her dad once again that family makes sacrifices and takes risks for those who mean the most to them. 

Marji’s parents’ last lesson to her about familial sacrifice comes in the ending of the graphic novel. Her parents decide to send her off to Austria. This decision comes after Marji is reprimanded for “[telling] off the religion teacher” at her new school (145). Her mother freaks out about this claiming that Marji is going to be arrested, raped, and then executed if she continues behaving like this (145). Her mother is scared of what the future holds for Marji, but rather than tell her that, she convinces Ebi to send Marji to Vienna. Her parents believe they are doing what is best for her; Marji can continue her education in a French school, and she will not have to change her opinions or risk her life in Vienna. Marji believes her parents will be coming with her, but she soon realizes they will “never live together again” (152). While it is hard for her to leave them, she understands that this is just another sacrifice her family has to make. 

Satrapi makes it clear that family is important to her in Persepolis. Marji learns that her family has strong political views. Her parents both influence her outlook on the revolution in different ways. Her dad teaches her about the history of their country and how to stand up for others. Her mom teaches her about compassion for others and how to stand up for herself. The other people in her life also show the importance of family to Marji. She learns that a person can only handle so much pain alone. Her uncle Anoosh shows her that it is okay to miss those you love. Samaki and his family show Marji that leaving with family is not cowardly, but instead is one of the bravest things one can do in order to protect those he loves. Mali tells Marji that when everything else is gone, family is still there. Mali and her husband lost everything but a handful of jewels and each other. They did not give up hope. Instead they faced the unknown together as a family. Marji’s own family taught her time and time again that sticking together is the most important thing one can do, but there are times when a sacrifice must be made.

Marjane Satrapi believes family to be one of the most important things in the world. Her family shaped her into the woman she is today, and that account is present in Persepolis. The main character, Majrane herself, sees different kinds of family learning how to control their lives in a changing political climate. Family is key thematic component in this autobiographical graphic novel.  Those who have the most influence on Marji are those who are closest to her. 

2:

Ritual in Spill Zone

         In the graphic novel, Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland, the Spill is a phenomenon that killed many people who lived in the town affected by it, and is the location for supernatural chaos. What is unique about the Spill is that the chaos inside is constantly changing, making it unpredictable and extremely dangerous. Because of its unpredictable nature, everyone who lived in the area that was affected by it, had to relocate for their own safety. The main characters, Addison and her little sister Lexa, live with the rest of society on the outskirts of where the Spill occurred. The novel sets up military and police characters to guard certain points around the Spill so that people will not go inside it, but Addison is someone who breaks that rule frequently. Going into the Spill, Addison selling pictures she took inside the Spill, and even Lexa’s attachment with Vespertine (her doll) are all things that happen in the novel because those are some of the only things that the main characters have actual control over. Rituals are important for the characters in Spill Zone because they bring a sense of normalcy back into their lives that was disturbed by the chaos of the Spill.

         Addison goes into the Spill to take pictures of the chaos to sell to people as a way of making a stable income to support both Lexa and her. She goes into the Spill so often that she even has a list of rules to follow so that she does not get affected (add quotes; reference page 27). Addison treats her photography demands like any job and she has a ritual around it outside of the rules she follows within the Spill (reference page opening of her getting dressed and putting on her protective gear; 4-7). It is important for Addison to have rules inside of the Spill because of how inconsistent and dangerous it is. Through her rules, however, she is able to regain some type of control over the Spill that allows her to go into it, take her pictures, then leave.

         Addison then sells pictures to make money to provide for her and her sister which is another type of ritual that Addison needs to help her survive. Addison, along with her middle man, are able to have some type of control over the illegality of profiting off of the Spill because they have been doing business together for a while. (reference page 75 and to show Marty and Addison’s dynamic to show that they have been working together for a long time, then 78 where Addison takes charge of the situation). Through this ritual of working the market, Addison is able to successfully take care of her sister which shows that Addison can successfully take some control over the Spill and even the market that comes from it.

         The novel shifts from Addison’s point of view and her rituals to Lexa and Vespertine’s ritual. Set up like a children’s game with Lexa playing with multiple dolls and Vespertine, the Royal Dance ritual they perform is supernatural because Vespertine gets recharged from the ritual and is able to stand and dance on her own. (reference page 100 and the playing environment and Vespertine’s dialogue). Even though this ritual is much different from Addison’s rituals she has with the Spill, Lexa and Vespertine are able to take back what the spill took from them. For Vespertine, her powers were drained from protecting Addison inside the Spill, and Lexa was completely isolated, so this Royal Dance ritual they perform in the novel shows the two reclaiming what they had lost.

         Later in the novel, the rituals are interrupted in some way to show danger. Since the characters had these rituals, but are now not able to perform them, it shows that those characters have lost their original sense of control. (reference pages 91 for Marty cheating Addison on money even though she has to take care of her sister and they are scraping by, 189 where Addison had to break her rules for inside the Spill for her mission and was almost killed by the wolf monster, and 210 where the dolls stand up on their own which intimidate Vespertine). As soon as these rituals have been compromised, the danger for the characters are heightened since they have lost their control.  

Work Cited

Westerfeld, Scott. Spill Zone. Vol. 1. Illustrated by Alex Puvilland, colors by Hilary

Sycamore, First Second, 2017.

3:

Crowds in Persepolis: 
Satrapi’s Obsession with Fitting In 
Childhood was not easy for young Marjane Satrapi. Wars and revolutions were commonplace, and the constant rebellions instilled an equally rebellious attitude in her. Despite always trying to fight the system, she was also always searching for her place in it. In Persepolis, Satrapi illustrates the tumultuous events that formed the basis of her worldview. A common visual in the graphic novel is an orderly crowd of people all crammed into a panel. The subjects range from protestors desperately fighting the oppressive regime to angry men refusing to let a corrupt war die. Satrapi seldom uses one person to illustrate a point; her panels are crowded with rows of women in veils, dead bodies with slack jaws and eyes rolled back, and cruel military officers. No person within the country was untouched by the perpetual turmoil. However, these crowds also serve a more personal purpose. Between chasing the coattails of political prisoners and searching for friends who would accept her, she was always looking for somewhere to fit in. Satrapi uses panels of crowds in Persepolis because she primarily sees the world as an intertwined mess of social groups, and she was constantly comparing them to each other to find where she fit in. Her family’s modern values and the abundance of oppression led her to first follow the spirit of revolution, albeit with misguided naivety at times. After Iraq began its invasion of Iran, Satrapi’s focus was forcibly shifted to the war effort and the thousands dying in battle as well as those in charge of sending young impressionable youths to their death. In her crowds we can see illustrations of her admiration, confusion, sorrow, and disgust as she grows up.  
The beginning of Satrapi’s admiration of revolutionaries starts at home. Page 5 starts with protestors demonstrating for and against the veil, and states that her mother was a part of it. Those chanting in favor of the veil are almost entirely cloaked in darkness, with eyes closed to the world. The women who were against the veil, like Satrapi’s mother, are dressed in light clothing and have their eyes wide open, signifying her view that they saw the situation more clearly and were not choked by the oppressive veil. Satrapi was proud of her mother for the fame that she garnered from her photo and this bled over into her desire to demonstrate as well. On page 10, the “bicycle of the revolution” becomes a tandem bike piled high with children wearing blank and confused expressions. Satrapi speaks supposedly deep and meaningful metaphors, but the disorderly mass of children piled onto the bicycle shows that they do not have as clear of an idea of the situation as they put on the appearance of having. The wheels holding them up are squashed down to ovals illustrates that their ideals are not as stable as they would think them to be. Still, Satrapi is young and even with all the books about history and revolutionaries provided by her parents she still sought kinship with those who could not truly grasp the gravity of the movement. 
When Satrapi overheard her parents talking about the burning of the Rex Cinema, she immediately wants to help protest. In her recounting of the event, she draws the policemen at the cinema in the same aloof, eyes-closed, nose-upturned manner as the veiled protestors on page 5 (14). The police were an extension of the same oppressiveness as those women demonstrating in favor of the veil, except instead of merely being against the freedom to wear what one chooses, they were against the people even being allowed to live, much less living freely. Their antagonistic outlook is emphasized by the framing of flames curling up the sides of the cinema behind them. The next panel furthers the imagery, with the police interlocking arms and standing yards above people attempting to bring buckets of water to extinguish the fires. They only look forward to also look down upon those who would help the people burning inside, with faces framed in harsh shadows and brows furrowed in contempt. Satrapi had found her enemies, and they were cruel.  
This cruelty is no more apparent than in her illustration of the piles of dead in the massacres following Black Friday (40). With only slightly varying hairstyles to distinguish them, the men lay in tiled rows, all dressed in black with mouths agape and eyes looking vacantly upward. Neither Satrapi nor the Shah’s regime could possibly know the full extent of the damage wrought by the deaths of the hundreds who dared to protest. She knew each life was a dreadful cost, but there was no unique significance to their deaths in the grand scheme, so all are drawn the same in death. In drastic contrast to this dire panel is the celebration on page 42. Satrapi finds herself not in an orderly pile of the deceased in black garments, but rather in a party of people with clothing with all manner of patterns. Instead of dire gaping mouths there are ecstatic grins, and instead of soulless stares the people’s eyes are forced closed by the strength of their smiles. Satrapi once again found herself at home with rebellion, and this time it was no small triumph to admire. She did not die during the demonstrations on Black Friday and was blessed with being on the winning side of the turmoil.  
Sadly, the turmoil was far from over. War came from Iraq and the children were forced to beat their breasts to mourn the dead (95). The girls’ expressions of vacant confusion are a striking display of youths being forced to perform an act of mourning purely for the sake of the adults. True mourning is messy and heartfelt, but girls are instead placed in orderly rows and told to beat their breasts in synch as though that would make their performance sincere and meaningful. Satrapi is forced into a group she has no emotional connection to, causing her to again lash out in rebellion (97). The more the law forces her to be serious and proper, the more she fights back with childish jokes and escapades befitting her age. Her classmates only encouraged this behavior further, building the bond between them to the point of being fully in cooperation to defy the teacher in the face of punishment. Events such as these continually reinforce her desire to choose a group for herself rather than being forced into one by her government or school faculty. 
Many boys were not lucky enough to have the wealth or the rebellious spirit to help them avoid the hypnotism of the Keys to Paradise (101). While Satrapi was fortunate enough to go to a party, hundreds of young boys were thrown into battle to die (102). The twisted bodies of the children dying to mines is a sobering contrast to the jubilant dancing at the party. One panel is filled with kids flailing in joy and excitement while the other panel is filled with children contorting from the explosions and the pain before death. Instead of a key promising a false happiness, Satrapi wore a necklace of chains and nails. A cheap plastic key that symbolizes freedom but leads to death is a poignant contrast to a necklace made of objects that bind but symbolizes true freedom of expression and life. She was fortunate enough to be around people who encouraged her to live life for herself and not resign herself to simply mourn and encourage a preventable fate for so many children. 
Even when given the chance to end the war and bloodshed, the Iranian government refused in favor of conquering Iraq instead (114-5). The death of a million people mattered little if it meant the regime would stay in power (116). Satrapi found herself trapped in a country that would rather kill its own men and women than end the war (117). To rebel against the system then would have meant death, so she rebelled against her mother instead. The one place that she had always found solace in had begun to stifle her, and so it became an enemy. Satrapi was trapped in a country with two terrible options to choose from. She could do what her mother had suggested and try to fit in by keeping her head down and letting the suffering continue in the hopes that it would pass, but this would only continue to frustrate her (94). Alternatively, she could join others in fighting the oppression but in turn risk death at the hand of her own country. Her youth would not protect her, and there were few ways for a child to enact any significant change. 
The older Satrapi grew, the more she chafed against the binds of society. For every opportunity she had to fit in and enjoy being herself, there were more people tearing her down and demanding that she follow them blindly. Life might have been easier if she had been mild-mannered and kept her head down, but she was determined to not roll over for anyone. No matter what happened to constrain her or her family, she fought tooth and nail to build a place to be herself, even if that meant being a group of one. In every school she was enrolled in she caused trouble for her teachers. Despite the government’s insistence on the dangers of those who would resist, Satrapi practically worshipped the rebels around her and all they stood for. Even out on the street she would rather yell at her assailants than cower and submit to their demands. If Satrapi did not feel comfortable where she was, she made sure everyone around her knew in the hopes of creating a place where she could fit in. Life was not easy for young Satrapi, but her family’s wisdom combined with her ability to quickly analyze the priorities of those around her and her strength to rebel against the people who stifled her saved her from even more potential suffering. 
Works Cited 
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. Print.