Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi runs the gamut of humor, from whimsical and childish to dark and ironic. This humor can be slapstick jokes, found in captions accompanied by humorous images, or it can be more subtle, such as a double meaning in the text or situational irony in an image. The humor Satrapi uses has a variety of effects, such as emphasizing someone's sinister state in the way he frequently uses gallows humor. Different types of humor help create sharp contrasts between the different eras of the novel, which allows for character development as well as the creation of lasting themes and plots. Satrapi uses literary and visual humor to depict people's descent from innocence to the depths of despair and hatred, which comments on the human condition: how humans are both so strong and so fragile that even in moments the darkest ones, they end up resorting to. , to the healing power of humor. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay Satrapi uses sophomoric humor throughout the novel, but mainly at the beginning of the first part in order to characterize Marji, the protagonist , as being innocent and childish. From the first page, Satrapi combines literary and visual humor in substance. In the caption: "We didn't really like wearing the veil, especially since we didn't understand why we had to." The humor comes from how, in the image below the caption, children are running around and playing with their veils instead of treating them as sacred objects as required by religious authorities. One child scares the other by putting his veil on backwards and chasing the other, shouting that he is the “monster of darkness”. However, even in this example of second-grade humor, there is a hint of darkness, as one child solemnly declares that he is executing another "in the name of freedom." If it is obvious that they are too young to understand what they are talking about, this suggests that they have heard of or witnessed executions. However, despite the sadness present in their daily lives, the girls in this splash still play innocently. Satrapi thus establishes from the opening page that Marji maintains her innocent happiness despite hearing and possibly seeing terrible things happening. Satrapi creates another moment of Marji's joyful innocence when her uncle Anoosh tells her about his ex-wife in a series of panels. Anoosh's grief is displayed in the final panel, where he sheds a single tear while telling his niece that Russians "don't know how to love." However, in contrast to the dark visual context, literary humor is evident here in the way Marji has no idea of ​​the implications of what Anoosh is saying and is insensibly curious. People less innocent than Marji or at least somewhat aware of the social cues regarding divorce would have immediately recognized that this was a depressing topic for Anoosh and would have comforted him. Marji, however, is still too young to understand and so asks childish questions such as "Don't they have heads?" » when asking why Anoosh's ex-wife's head is scratched off in his photo of his family. Through the humorous absence of social cues, as seen throughout these pages, Satrapi demonstrates that despite the social unrest surrounding Marji, she has not yet lost her innocence. However, as the novel progresses and the humor changes, his innocence begins to fade. Satrapi begins to mix and replace the more childish humor found in the early pages with more sophisticated humor toshow the progression of Marji's character. As Marji discovers advanced concepts such as rationalism and communism, she incorporates them into slapstick and slapstick humor. In a series of two panels, Karl Marx throws a stone at Descartes, shattering his skull, to mock Descartes' philosophy of cogito ergosomme. This demonstrates the blending of intellectual humor and slapstick humor, an indication of Marji's beginning maturation due to how she is able to find humor in more complex topics. In the middle of a page, his parents debate with another family about the type of weapons Iraq will use against Iran: “From the Iraqi border to Tehran, there are thousands of kilometers. Missiles that can go that far cost a fortune! “Well, that’s what the rumors say!” Marji then makes the ironic comment that "we Iranians are Olympic champions when it comes to gossip." The humor here comes from the fact that instead of gossiping about typical gossip topics, they are "chattering" about how they could possibly die violently. This demonstrates how Marji, despite the dark circumstances she finds herself in, is still able to make jokes that connect the usually light-hearted pastime of gossip with the horrors of war: a mixture of naive innocence and the taint of war. Satrapi reveals to the reader that her character has not yet been completely corrupted by despair. She points out that children Marji's age, while unable to fully understand the horrors of life, can still use humor to make sense of the world they discover is darker than they believed. formerly. As the novel progresses and Marji matures into a young adult, now called Marjane, the type of humor Satrapi uses completes her transformation, with dry, morbid, and self-deprecating qualities. An example of such dry humor is when Satrapi describes how she attempted to embrace feminism by urinating while standing up. In a series of panels, he shows how his attempt fails as urine "flowed lightly down [his] leg" (176). This is clearly self-deprecating humor, in the way she describes her valiant attempt at feminism as "disgusting." The humor here lies in how an act that should be formal and noble, given that it defends a school of thought that has given rights to an oppressed minority, is instead ridiculed. Since Marjane performs this act, believing that it would be a noble experience, it is self-deprecating because her principles are violated. Another example is when Satrapi details Marjane's suicide attempt by slitting her wrist. While suicide is an extremely morbid subject about which it is generally considered unacceptable to joke, Satrapi makes a dry irony about the fact that "it must be said that it is a little difficult to kill yourself with a fruit knife" after having failed to bleed out while cutting her. wrists with the aforementioned fruit knife. This stands in stark contrast to young Marji, who would never have been able to understand the despair and depression that contribute to suicide thoughts and attempts. Once again, Satrapi demonstrates how Marjane has lost her innocence over the years with the transformation of humor: she finally understands how horrible life can be and copes, in part, with humor. Despite the innocence that Marjane has lost, Satrapi makes it clear to the reader that despite the darkness and morbidity of Marjane's adult life, humor is still present. This implies that although Marjane suffers greatly, having to witness the ravages of war and feeling immense guilt.