Conversing Texts and Identity

   The panels I choose to consider reside on pages 14-15. In these panels Marjane is listening in on her parents conversation in the next room they are discussing the burning of the Cinema. All of the people were locked inside and chains were put on the doors so they could not escape and then the building was set on fire; it claimed 400 victims. This event is similar to the lines in, I explain a Few Things by Pablo Neruda " one morning the bonfires leapt out of the earth devouring human beings..."These two texts conduct a lively conversation due to the experiences which are described. In Pablo Neruda's poem the slaying of children is powerfully mentioned and it is described that their blood ran in the streets. This converses with Persepolis because the protaganist also indirectly observes the death of children soldiers and family members. She is cognizant of the fact that the ghostly blood of those who died for the war hovers over Iranian soldier. In furtherance of this Pablo neruda is conspicuously changed by the war as is Marjane. In his poem he says that people will ask why he does not speak of flowers and dreams, he responds by saying " come and see the blood in the streets." His world view has changed as a result of the horrific things he has been witness to, he can non longer identify with the more delicate aspects of life on the same level he could before the war occured and in this way the conflict of war has " forged" his identity.