Similar to “Setting the Record Straight” by Scott McCloud, “The Veil” written by Marjane Satrapi combines the use of visual art and dialogue to enlighten her readers with a story. Through the use of comics, Satrapi is able to share her experience of being a young child during the Islamic Revolution through the perspective of a child rather than an adult. During that time, Satrapi and many others had a portion of their freedom taken from them when they were forced to wear a veil in school.
Through the use of depictive visuals and small vocabulary, Satrapi is able to portray her naivety and that of the other children towards the Islamic Revolution. For instance, Satrapi speaks of how no one really understood the reasoning to why they had to wear veils in school. To further signify the children’s lack of understanding, she shows a drawing of children using the veil to play jump rope and the use of the veil to play horseback riding. Because of the Revolution, boys and girls were separated and compelled to attend different schools.
Satrapi truly demonstrated her naivety when she spoke of how she wanted to be a prophet. In the pursue of becoming a prophet, Satrapi had a Holy Book where she made rules. In the comic, she tells her grandmother of the rules in her Holy Book, “Rule number six: Everybody should have a car. Rule number seven: All maids should eat at the table with others. Rule number eight: No older person should have to suffer”. When her grandmother asks Satrapi how she plans to prevent the old people from suffering, she replies “it will simply be forbidden”. Due to the great influence of religion and the Islamic leaders, Satrapi came to the assumption that her rule can be enacted by simply forbidding the existence of affliction.
I agree that the girls in the story did seem naïve, but I suppose that's what most young kids would seem like when things happen quickly without apaprent reason. Your last few sentences really made sense to me; I hadn't thought of her being a prophet and being able to control things simply by forbidding them, just like what happened to her in the beginning.
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