Humanizing War: A Comparison of The Things They Carried and Persepolis Anonymous 11th Grade

The novels “The Things They Carried” by O’Brien and “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi uses the narrative, with a war context, to invite the reader to identify with scenarios, characters and ideas. Marjane Satrapi denounces the Iranian War with focusing on Marji’s perspective of the experiences she lived during the war, while O’Brien develops the Alpha Company men to do the same but with the Vietnam War. The characters, Marji and the Alpha Company men with the situations depicted by the authors helps the readers identify with the novel, even though one has not lived through war.

The first connection the reader has with Marji in “Persepolis” is when the author describes the girl’s childhood, and how she is easily influenced to follow her parents ideals. One of the instances where this is further proven is when the panel tells the reader how Marji was proud that her mother was seen rebelling against the Shah and the picture of her in the uprising is shown in a magazine. Marji is too young to understand the dangers of being caught rebelling against the authority, fortunately, nothing happened. The picture, however, made Marji want to rebel, as she wanted to follow her mother's footsteps. The majority of the readers might not...