Persepolis

When reading Persepolis I noticed many similarities in the panels and the poem On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam. Both texts seemed to have the similar normality of murder and war going on around them. In the panels on page 29 Marj's father is taking pictures of people being killed in very violent ways. He is standing in the back just watching. There also is another set of panels on pages 14-15 that are pictures of a cinema burning down. The text says that the doors had been locked from the outside right before the fire, the police were there but wouldn't let the people burning inside be rescued, it took the firemen 45 minutes to get to the scene. While the father is explaining this story he is nice and sound in his bed speaking with his wife. It seems to be that it is just another day during the Islamic Revolution and they are just accustom to the murder that happens around them. The father has no emotion when speaking about this horrific situation that has taken place. Just as in the book, the poem by Hayden Carruth, also plays down murder and war as if it is just the same thing happening on another day.

and not one
breath was restored
to one

shattered throat
mans womans or childs
not one not

one
but death went on and on
never looking aside

except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.

This selection shows the lack of emotion that Hayden had at the time of war. She practically had to be shaken to make sure that she was noticing what was going on around her. She said not one breath was restored to one shattered throat mans womans or childs. This shows that anyone was being killed, there were no exceptions, however Hayden still showed no emotion. It seems like war has been a part of her life for a very long time that she forgot how to feel. The same thing happens to the characters in Persepolis, they become so used to hearing about people being murdered everyday that they have no initial reaction. During these two texts the characters, and authors, involved seem to be numb to death. They take death as just a normal event that happens every day. To answer the question of how does conflict transform, forge, deny, identity? I believe that any type of conflict whether it be war and death, or pregnancy and birth, changes your life forever. You may try to not let things get to you but eventually you have to deal with what is happening in the environment around you. Conflict shows who you really are by how you deal with it.