Throughout Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi receives many different versions of similar information, mainly within school. Specifically on page 44 of my book, when Satrapi is punished in school for pointing out how the teacher was the one who once told them the Shah, recently exiled due to the revolution, was chosen by God. The pattern continues as she becomes older and more bold in her beliefs.
Media is another herald of information pointed out by Satrapi. Obviously media, can and/or is biased. Skepticism is then expected to follow. Starapi's father almost always checks the information he gets. On page 135, Marjane's mother says to her father "Even when you see something with your own eyes, you need confirmation from the BBC". This made me feel like Satrapi was heavily emphasizing on how people receive information as one of her main subjects.
Is Satrapi asking the reader to look at different viewpoints on information distributed to the masses, through education and media? Does our educational system follow an unbiased document of history, or do these world events change our prewritten history based on specific beliefs? What kind of affect does this distorted, or tweaked, information have on students specifically?
Everyone should always be skeptical of all news outlets and educational texts no matter the country as there is always a bias present even if only a little. In Satrapi’s case this seems to be targeted primarily at news that has a heavy religious influence which leads into a heavy bias in interpretation of current events. The same can be said of education. All news and education is slanted to make those in power and the country in which its based in to look good so that children and adults will gain an undying loyalty. Satrapi encourages kids and even adults to challenge what they are told especially if they have suspicions about what it being told to them. She does not believe it is right to blindly accept what one is told no matter how powerful or how much authority the speaker may have.
ReplyDeleteDistorted or tweaked information leads a student to believe their country is blameless which is hardly true for any country on this planet. They will seek to shift blame on someone else just so they remain loyal to their country. It hardly helps kids and leads them to not think for themselves. It also will cause quite a lot of mistrust in them as they age when they find out all that their country has truly done or it will cause them to become dismissive of important issues.
I was kind of surprised that this topic was pulled out as one of the major ‘themes’ of what we’ve read so far. This didn’t strike me as all that surprising or compelling. To me it was kind of obvious that in a totalitarian religious state like Iran, that schools and media would be major tools of control/conquest. And then since Marji has cultured, broad-thinking parents, they would teach her to be critical of these institutions. It seems to me then, that this is more just the business of the plot/setting than it is a theme or conceptual framework. It’s tough to say for sure since we’ve only read half the book, but that’s how it struck me so far.
ReplyDeleteI think any comparisons between the situations depicted in Persepolis and contemporary American education/media are totally off base, and I don’t think that’s what Satrapi is asking us to do as readers (especially since the book wasn’t originally written in English). I think she is trying to tell a story about a particular place at a particular time which is outside of most people’s normal life experience. No more, no less. Again, broader ideas may coalesce as we move forward in the work, but up until this point it’s been pretty straight memoir.
This is not surprise to me to find that the media is not always right in the distribution of information. There have been many acts of propaganda that have been portrayed to persuade the masses towards their view. As a communication major I have studied many methods of persuasion of media and continue to do so everyday. So I can tell right away that Marjane is asking us to look at different view points on information that is distributed in the masses. She is persuading the readers to be open-minded and to not base their believes on what the media tells us. This will lead to the educational system to be tweaked by those who are addicted and obsessed with power. When this happens, people will believe in one thing and that everything else should be terminated. That is the effect on a distorted education. Tyranny.
ReplyDeleteEducation is one of the big factors in taking control of a nation, especially if the leader is young enough to rule over the next generation. By changing education and media the next generation is given the false idea of a “safe blanket”. Even looking at media in America today, it’s hard to find a news source that is not bias in some way. Everyone has an agenda and everyone thinks they are doing the right thing/something that will help them in the long run. Overall looking at history, the government controls the history that is told, usually in the shining light where the government is portrayed as the hero or the victim.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, Megan! I didn't think of the government portraying themselves as the hero or victim before. But, now that I think about it, all of the history textbooks I have read has always pointed the government as victim or the hero. I wish I could sit in history classes around the world and see how we are perceived through a different culture. Good point!
DeleteThis is an interesting point Satrapi brings up in her novel. The children are first taught that the Shah is chosen by God. Then, when Marji brings this up at home, her father tells her differently. Later on, Marji is confused when the teacher contradicts her earlier lessons about the Shah. The students mock Marji for bringing up what the teacher said before, and Marji is confused. She later on becomes somewhat belligerent and distrustful of her educators. Her parents are then forced to send her away to Austria because her questioning of her teachers becomes dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very nice way to bring up the discussion of bias and propaganda in education of the youth. I think Satrapi wants us to be aware of the discrepancies and intolerance in her education, and maybe reconsider our own education as she questions hers.
I would say our school system (in terms of history) is a few things: majorly biased, which causes us to be majorly misinformed, and all of this stemming from something as simple as a lack of information. For example, (in my experience, at least) when people talk about the Civil War in schools (at least in high school) you get a LOT of information on how the North was the "good" side and it delves deeply into Lincoln and Jackson and so on, and then the main thing you get about the South is that they were bad because they wanted slaves.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying one side was right or wrong, but I'm just using this as a really good example of providing someone some information, but not giving the whole story. That's just unfair and massively biased reporting causing the reader to be massively misinformed, again, stemming from a simple lack of information: both sides. It's a thing that, as a journalist, gets me particularly heated because the one presenting the information may as well be lying. If it's unbalanced (doesn't show every side), then the information is not all there, which results in information that is straight up inaccurate.
Satrapi points out that the media can be biased and how different media outlets relay information differently. We see this in our everyday lives through our own media--whether they sway more Republican or Democratic. We also see this in history books, conventional novels, etc. Every account is going to be different and have different viewpoints regardless. Every form of news is told from a person's viewpoint and each viewpoint is going to be different based on their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI believe she is telling us to look at the bias presented in media outlets as well as question them and believe what you want--not what you always hear. When I think of our education system, we have been taught to believe what is in a textbook but this it may not always be true. We want to think that these accounts of history are true but are definitely biased especially based off of geographic location and party influences. I think that Satrapi is trying to show is that people shouldn't believe all they see or hear but to explore the options and put together conclusions based off of what they believe as individuals rather than what others tell them to believe.
I do believe anything man is involved where he or she must share thoughts of ideas there will be bias. The educational system is no exception, unfortunately. People have biases, teachers and professors are people, it is people that write the school books. There is really no way to escape bias. I think that Satrapi is saying that it is best to rely on facts rather than the opinion of others.
ReplyDeleteI think Satrapi uses mixed messages to instill confusion, chaos, and doubt. I'm not entirely sure I'm on board with the view that she is using this as a means of addressing bias in media or education. Rather, I believe there is more of a thematic component at work here. Information is is agenda-based as we see with education and the government reports on the "success" of the Iranian military. Likewise, we also see most other characters use information conform to their own agenda (the girls tell Marji that they are going to go eat hamburgers when in fact they are going to flirt with boys and when someone goes missing others state that person went on a trip are but two examples).
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that Satrapi is reminding the reader to seek out validation of sources and information rather than trusting the media and education right away and accepting it as truth before further investigation. Even in the United States, the media is very biased and not always very trustworthy. There is almost always an agenda to political news, even among the most respected journalists and associations. I think to a certain extent, the education system here follows an unbiased document of historical facts, but that the opinions of professors and teachers bleed through, sometimes heavily and fully-intentionally. These biased opinions are often imprinted on history by the teacher, and then their interpretation of the historical events are impressed on the student. I think that students, especially in college, are often skeptical about the information they receive, especially when it seems that the professor is his/her own authority and does not offer many supporting sources. Students are most likely to speak their own minds and share their opinions rather than merely accept what is given them.
ReplyDeleteI take this aspect of the novel to be more pointing out the flaws in Iranian government at the time more than a message for everyone to double check sources; however, this skepticism is not without reason and I think everyone probably should make sure that their media is not just covering its tracks to look like the hero. I am sure when we learn American history we are not just learning facts, but also making America seem like a great nation, which is good and bad. We need the facts, but we also do not want to teach our students, "Hey, guys, your nation was actually founded on stealing and rape!" So we need a good balance of these. Students are extremely impressionable but they are also taught to look things up and explore for themselves; if they think an event from History class seems strange or impossible they can look it up. I would definitely be interested to hear what other countries' news stations say about our events to compare. But I do not think this is a cry for everyone to take action in this way.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting comments! It seems to me that what you're talking about is ideology and how it functions to construct who we are as subjects in society. I've added some resources in the post above.
ReplyDeleteI was very interested in the frequent changes to the curriculum at Marji's school because it shows something that has happened countless times throughout history. Satrapi is telling the reader that we should get information from as many sources as possible because an unbiased source is an oxymoron. This is even more important when you factor in the war they are enduring. Violence has destroyed countless records and artifacts through the centuries, and what little remained was often manipulated by the victors.
ReplyDeleteOur educational system is really no different when you look at what is taught. Our history lessons focus on the positive aspects of our history while glossing over the negative ones. For example, I didn't know that the Trail of Tears was actually an open and intentional defiance of a Supreme Court edict AND a treaty we had signed with the Cherokee indians until I took a literature course in college! Without going too political here, I think that the separation of church and State is the one thing keeping our system from being even worse.
The problem we face with the information we have is that it paints an inaccurate and unfair picture. Certain groups and even individuals are painted as being far more superior than others; in some instances, this is justified, but in most instances, it really isn't. The issue at stake is when does using bias to distort information cross the line into sheer indoctrination? That's not an easy question to answer, but we have seen it in our own country plenty of times.
I think for Satrapi, one of the main goals of Persepolis is to explore the dynamic of perception vs experience. And that doesn't just extend to personal experience, but rather a more global understanding things as well. Specifically, Satrapi is trying to demystify some of the western perceptions of Iran, a country that has largely been closed off in terms of easy accessibility. Mass media has created a pop culture sketch of Iran as an isolationist country that demonizes the west and seeks to prop itself up as a puppet ruler of other Middle Eastern states and countries. In reality, it's more complex than that. Iran is both an incredibly modern country, as well as one mired in ancient traditions. It is a country of revolution and reconstruction. Its old guard rallies against America, while its youth seem fascinated by the West.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that media often oversimplifies broad concepts by way of necessity. Things are often stripped down to black and white, right or wrong, yes or no. Especially in news media. I think that Satrapi is making a case that you, as an individual, should dig deeper than what is simply presented to you. Individual investigation of the world is something that is often taken for granted. The characters in Persepolis often find themselves at odds with what the popular opinion is, more often than not finding that it does not - and can not - apply to their own, real-world beliefs.
I think Satrapi is trying to extend that understanding to the reader, that just as the characters of Persepolis find themselves as outliers in their own country, so to does the reality of the country itself when weighed against popular opinion.
* The Iranian government has done some truly awful things, not the least of which to its own people. I am in no way suggesting that the criticisms of the country are invalid; in fact most of them are. One only needs to look at the mishandling of the Green Movement for example. However, I do belief it is necessary for the individual to do their own thinking for themselves, and not rely on what is being presented by the newspapers and 24-hour news networks as being gospel when it comes to the actual reality of a political or cultural situation.
In our reading, we can easily see that there is good reason that Satrapi consults multiple sources of information because each source says something different. In our own media, they’re two major different points of view, and each one disagrees with the other. If someone wanted to get a broader perspective on our country, in would be wise to listen to both, and maybe even listen to what other countries’ media says about us.
ReplyDeleteAs Dean mentioned, our own education is biased because it glosses over negative parts of our history and focuses on the good parts. It’s seems like it would be hard to be objective when you want to teach others to take pride in their country. If you focus too much on the bad parts, there wouldn’t be any patriots.
For instance, we are beaten to death by information from the Holocaust, but we hardly ever hear about the internment camps in America that were happening at the same time. Instead, we are painted as the heroes who saved the Jews from persecution, while we gloss over the fact that we were also the persecutors and wrong doers. Things like this are done to save face.
I think Satrapi is a fellow Marshall McLuhan follow. In our reading so far she has done an excellent job of covering his ideas of "Media is the Massage", that all media works society over in some amount to think a certain way about said media. Media also includes any educational system, for it is anything that is made by human. Satrapi uses this to help the reader understand the points of view of the Marji's family. Everyone has some source that they trust, and in the case of Marji just being a kid, she pretty much trust anything she says. I think most educational systems use this to their advantage, not only for patriotism but a multitude of subjects. Like Traci says, people are the most impressional when they are kids, i mean who here didn't believe in Santa Clause as a child.
ReplyDeleteSatrapi's use of this skeptical message isn't only to provoke feelings of nervousness and anxiety of political figures, but also is to help show Marji's coming of age. Kids become less impressionable is when they start to think of themselves as individuals, and I think Satrapi does a good job of showing Marji's journey into young adulthood.
Winston S. Churchill — 'History is written by the victors.'
ReplyDeleteI think this quote pretty much sums up the education we receive in history classes. US students are statistically not proficient in American History and the things they do learn are to some degree or another biased. The events below are often glossed over or not even addressed at all. US history textbooks are very particular in what they choose what to include and not include.
The Native American Genocide
Exploitation of Latin American workers
Slavery
The Internment of Japanese Americans
The dropping of the atomic bomb was one of the biggest events ever and it did not even have its own chapter in our textbooks. American history textbooks are so diverse that some books produced in Texas add the element of religion. America is not on a unified front for its education in history as we cannot even agree on how to teach it.
I also thought the panels regarding the teacher telling the girls to tear out all the photos of the Shah and Marji saying that she was the one who told them he was chosen by God were extremely interesting. It is funny how we are told certain things by people in power and choose to believe them simply because of the source of the information... Someone in power. I think this is why her father always double checks everything he hears. He doesn't want to believe something based on one person's opinion. It is hard to believe that a school teacher could say someone is chosen by God one day and tell the same students to tear out his picture the next. It makes you wonder how much of history is really history. I am reading a book for another class right now called, "The American West: The Invention of the Myth," and the author said something that applies to this topic that I found eye opening. He states, "Most nations have at some point adjusted their past, usually to justify the present." The problem for students is that they are taught to respect their teachers and listen to what they say and if they question like Marji did, they are reprimanded. I think Marji's father was right in double checking all his information and I think everyone should do the same.
ReplyDeleteThe question of how individuals absorb information is an interesting one. I’m currently enrolled in a Public Relations class and recently learned the term “sleeper effect.” My text defines this as the decreased tendency overtime to reject information from an untrustworthy source. On the bottom of page 62, Marjane blames her own ignorance on the television. I used this example in my response to Matthew’s post, but it really applies to this situation as well. I think that panel, and the chapter is a turning point where she begins to question information and the sources, such as her teacher.
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