Your Summer Assignment
After receiving the book and prior to New Student Orientation in August, you should read the entire book. While you read, you may want to consider the follow questions:
- Is a graphic novel an effective way to present this particular story?
- How effective are the book’s visual images for telling young Marjane’s story? Which particular images (e.g., the veil, the keys, the bracelet...) do you find most compelling or least compelling—and why?
- What effects, both positive and negative, does education have on this young girl’s life? Which effects do you think are most important—and why? More generally, what role does education play in the development of a young person’s world view?
- One set of universal values explored in the book concerns definitions of freedom. What kinds of captivity and freedom does the author explore in Persépolis? What stifles or prevents people from being completely free? How do they circumvent and defy the rules imposed on them and attempt to live ordinary lives despite revolution and war?
- Marjane’s family are not part of the Islamic revolutionary movement, a fact that provides much of the conflict in the story. What particular belief systems does Marjane’s family represent? What are the positive elements and drawbacks of these beliefs? How do contradictions between her family’s beliefs and their actions cause her to question these beliefs?
- Manresa at Marquette University encourages students to discover a “vocation”—a way to put their skills and values into action to serve the larger society. How is the young Marjane called to serve? What service does this award-winning book provide?
Leadership Summit
