Looking at both texts, compare the ways in which the writers use the stylistic features of their genres to convey their views about the treatment of women. In life, our world is surrounded with media and various forms of text and literature. We use words, languages, and graphics to portray our emotions and beliefs. As an audience, we analyze texts in great detail and we compare text with other forms of text. The blog by Jennifer Romolimi and the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi have a strong connection with each other, and yet they both have their own unique point of views and styles.
Romolimi has used a blog as the form to convey to readers her personal opinions towards the subject of the TV show ‘America’s Next Top Model’. A blog is a modern way to write your own public diary. With technology, people can write and publish their text freely online for others to view. In Romolimi’s blog, she has used modern language to persuade how the ATNM has degraded women’s rights. As a blog, people can express themselves freely without the need to write properly.
For example, “Thing is, I understand that humiliation is part of the reality show game, my real problem is how the hosts are always espousing empowerment and female strength and then forcing the contestants into embarrassing scenarios far outside the realm of real-life modeling.” In the formal writing, we wouldn’t start a sentence with “Thing is” and we would probably insert a period in between the sentences. Therefore Romolimi has used colloquial language in her writing, which speaks to the younger age group that she wants to deliver the message to.
In contrast of using colloquial language she has showed that she is an experienced writer though well organized sentence structure. She knows how to grab the reader’s attention. She first stepped into other people’s shoes and spoke from their point of view. Then she opposed her counter argument, which makes a strong statement. Her words were powerful and she has carefully selected her word choices. For example “Suddenly everything that was once campy, offbeat, and fun, felt cheap, depressing, and a little embarrassing too.” After reading her blog, the audience will think about the importance of these word choices and the way she has grouped these words in threes. This made the reader wonder about the meaning behind them.
In Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, the pictures along with the short phrases were very powerful to the readers. The adage ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ symbolizes Satrapi’s graphic novel. Not only did the colors of black and white has its own significant meaning, but the body language and the facial expressions have portray the message that the author wants to leave the reader with. The black and white represents the good and the evil events that were happening during the Islamic revolution. It also refers that the Islamic revolution was an unfavorable event. Especially women’s rights were degraded throughout the revolution.
Satrapi has used language and imagery to emphasis on the influence of veil. If we look closely, we’ll be able to realize that the girls who are wearing the veil has lack of facial emotion, which refers to the lack of individuality and identity. Compare the title image and the first two frames, we can see the difference that the proper way of wearing a veil is to cover the entire head including hair. The girls in the first two frames have hair sticking of the veil, which gives the sense that they are on the verge of breaking the veil rule. Later Based on her personal experience, she has brought the audience into her childhood through her graphic novel.
