External factors → change religion → changing culture → affects identity
Concept: culture (change in the culture directly affects change in the identity)
Line of Inquiry: How does Marjane Satrapi show the change in culture in Persepolis?
Thesis:
- Religious and governmental power affecting culture
- Change in Society values and beliefs affecting culture
- Change in person itself both internally and externally due to different factors
Topic sentence A: people were forced to wear the veil in their daily lives after the Islamic revolution started which completely changed their lives (culture and religion) and their identity in the society.
Support A1: Marjane’s real self (with veil) and her ideal self (without the veil)
Support A2: marjane as a child used to believe in god and is really religious unlike her parents. This is important to marjane herself as it shows the understanding of herself. However, when she was around 10, the Islamic revolution started → private religion vs organized religion
Support A3: Abandoning her faith → she was deeply immersed into the war
Mini-conclusion – different external factors can change one’s culture and identity easily with power
Topic Sentence B: People around Marjane; especially herself, was influenced by the people around them who had different beliefs, values, lifestyle and cultural background
Support B1: taking away freedom, individual rights, justice and safety in society
Support B2:changing her identity after she was exposed to different cultures in her surrounding → Austria
Support B3: women were mostly looked down upon by the fundamentalists. If they didn’t wear their veil, they were told that they would be sexually assaulted.
Topic Sentence C: Mental struggle due to sudden change in cultural environment and feeling unconnected
Support C1: torn between the modern part of herself and her religious part of herself
Support C2: accepting her culture and nationality but had to follow the organized culture at the end
Support C3: inner conflict; because she was influenced by various western cultural backgrounds, it made her incompatible with society constrained by Islamic traditions and consequently led to her.
Conclusion:
Restated thesis: change in political control and religion, change in society values leads to change in personalities and identities of individuals.
Insight : One’s culture is created by external factors due to power dynamics which affects internal personalities and beliefs in their own culture. It depends on the type of people that we are surrounded by and exposure to different cultural backgrounds.