This is the second time that I have read Persepolis and I think it was very interesting reading it the second time as opposed to the first, simply because of the knowledge that I have obtained from this class. The first time I read it was in my Adolescent Literature class a year ago, and although we only focused on the literature standpoint and what teens reading this book would think, it was interesting to go through it again looking at it from the view of someone in that country and the things they go through not just what teens reading the book in America would think. In my Adolescent Literature class, we went through some essays that students wrote about this book and many of them included the surprise that Marjane had to wear the veil all the time and they were not up-to-date on all of the wars that were going on in the Middle East. And I think this could even hold true for many adults who have read this book who may not know anything about Middle Eastern culture or what goes on. The teens also said that this book was interesting because Marjane wanted to go against her parents and that the book seemed to portray her going through bad times once she got out of her country when the students thought that things would get better for her and she would have a better life. Many of them admitted that they thought she would be better off in a Westernized society as opposed to her own, but most said they wanted her to go back, even though she may feel oppressed, but it seemed that she was a better person when she was there. I found all of this very interesting in comparison to the things we have said in class about other cultures and people not fully understanding or maybe not wanting to understand the cultures and society of people in the Middle East. This was definitely a book that would be useful in teaching and allowing students to get an idea of what goes on in the Middle East.

I have always loved this book from the first time I read it. This was probably one of the first times that I ever read anything about someone from Iran and got to see the culture in a different way than what American culture seems to show. I found it very interesting and even intimidating when I realized that I may have the wrong idea about people of the Middle East and that I knew hardly anything about the way these people live and the customs they have. I found myself almost wanting Marjane to go back to Iran myself after seeing what happened to her when she was "Westernized". For Americans, seeing someone change their appearance and do things that are negative such as smoke, this may give us the idea that she is a bad child or that she needs to have some supervision and that she doesn't know how to act. But when you compare that with the things she went through and did in her own country it may not seem like such a bad thing. It is hard for Americans to put another culture and what these people go through everyday into perspective. We do not want to believe that there are places where war goes on all the time and people are oppressed simply because they are a women or believe in certain things. Books like this can help people understand and compare someone who lived in both Iran and in the Western society. I love this book and I think it is a great tool to help show students, and even adults what is going on in the world around them that they may not know.