Two parts of the curriculum of this class have dealt with the stories of young girls, one, Persepolis, written by Marjane Satratpi as a sort of memoir and two, Up the Yangtze, a film by Yung Chang that details a bit of the life of Cindy Yu Shui. Readers are able to relate both narratives to the writing of Tony Schirato and Jenn Web. Chang and Satrapi seek to impart knowledge on viewers or their art. In Viaual Narratives a description of a narrative is given; something with "narrator, character plot ,event, time, place, causality" (Schirato and Webb 97). It stands to reason that if we view each work as such, we may compare them despite the many initial differences they have.
As humans, we encounter many things in narrative form. "We make sense of our own lives, as well as our connections to other people... in terms of the narratives we craft. If this holds true then we may safely say that we make sense of what we encounter in the same way and perhaps we may make connections between other things in such terms. The girls who feature prominently in the film and graphic novel seem to be similar in age. However they have quite different social and cultural experiences. While Cindy is sent to work on a cruise boat, Marji is sent to study abroad.
One interesting thing about the two girls is the way in which they are viewed by those around them. Although there seem to be those in both narratives that would dismiss the girls, the support they receive from others seems to decide whether or not each girl will let others decide her life. However; the fact that Cindy does not continue her education as she would like to is not a sign of weakness. She must do this in order to support her struggling family. Marji is never hampered by what she owes her family. She is in a position of privilege and her independence is less impressive when we see what an environment she has grown up in. With parents that support her whims, she is knows what she wants and she knows she can desire things. Cindy, on the other hand is unable to communicate what she wants to those around her. She is able to let her parents know that she would like to continue in her schooling but after this dream is squelched, she quickly becomes silent about her wishes.
The Chinese government seems much more successful at achieving the supposed goal of the Iranian government. The girl in Chang's work, 'Cindy' as she is named by the boat director, has lost identity indirectly because of type of country she lives in. She is lost in the commercial and quickly-moving-forward industry because she is unsuited to it. She has not been prepared for what her future holds. The Iranian government seeks to quiet those who speak out against them but are unable to hide facts from the inhabitants of their country. In contrast we are told in Chang's film that the Chinese people don't care about the specifics as long as they are moving forward. This is evidenced by the story that parallels the progress of China and the United States as capitalist and socialist countries that do not actually differ all that much from one another.
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I would like to go farther on a point that you mentioned. When you said, “Lost identity indirectly because of type of country she lives in,” in the last paragraph, I would like to make an observation off of that quote. When I read this part of your blog, I instantly thought about how maybe the veil was also a sense of “lost identity.” In Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, the country is required to wear a veil and/or full body dress. To me, by wearing a veil or full body dress, hides the person’s identity. You lose facial affect through covering the hair and/or you lose their body type. Maybe it is not considered “losing identity” but could it pose the question of, how does this make the person feel? To go deeper into this notion, I think that this affects more women than men, but when a woman is striped of her natural beauty such as, her hair and/or body physique, she feels as if she has lost her identity as a woman. As women, we “standout” compared to men because we have curves and we care about our hair; whether it is long or short. By making this point, I believe that the veil is a direct way to losing your identity, as well as, given an American name instead of keeping your own, in Up the Yangtze, a film by Yung Chang.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to comment on this theme of "Loss of Identity" however in refuting some of what you have mentioned Lyndsay, respectfully.
ReplyDeleteThe veil at first glance would easily be considered a loss of identity by post 9/11 Western Culture. However the veil, in non-extremist-countries or in strict family customs, is often a personal choice. For a contemporary example, sometimes the veil is worn so that when a woman meets a man, she and the family both know that he has fallen in love with her as a person, and not her body… It’s like a lust shield. The veil also comes with a cultural identity aspect, a symbol that is worn proudly. It’s like-wise considered a sign of modesty, just like how we don’t go to a business meeting in a hoochie-mama outfit.
However I do see your point when put in the context of being forced to wear the veil by the government as a means of control. In Persepolis the government is constantly trying to suppress uprisings and western influences because of their extremist views. By making women wear the veil they are further under the control and scrutiny of the government and cannot stray without being caught. Men too, had a form of dress code as well; refer to page 108 when Marji’s father is being held at gunpoint because he’s wearing a tie, (“Piece of Westernized trash!”) and also how if a man didn’t have a beard, he’d have to pay a beard-tax.
The loss of identity I feel is not just about the veil, but the overall oppression of a people under their own government. They lose their identity of their culture and history. We see this in Up the Yangtze too; how all those within the waterline are being displaced. The sacrifice a ‘small family’ must make to help the ‘big family’, AKA the nation. This loss of identity involves another form of government control; exploiting a group of people to meet their own desires. In the film Chang even mentioned how with the gradual disappearance of the Yangtze, so disappeared his Grandfather’s stories. They had no more context and were hardly considered even myth.
In conclusion, when focusing on the theme of “Loss of Identity” in making parallels between Persepolis and Up the Yangtze, I think we need to see the loss on the population as a whole, realizing government suppression is the cause of muddled identities, so that we, the observers in the Western Culture can avoid being ethnocentric.