The Shabbat
Ivon Simon Perez
Ms. Detzner
English 102
30 August 2018
The Shabbat
Atmosphere is a type of feeling, that readers get from a short story, it is based on details such as mood, background, objects and foreshowing. In literature, the word atmosphere refers to the emotions or feelings the authors transfers to the readers through the description of the story. In the short story “The Shabbat” by Marjane Satrapi, she uses white and black as the atmosphere to transfer the readers the feeling of what is really going on in the event.’
The short story “The Shabbat” by Marjane Satrapi is a short story in which Marjane describes what her childhood was like and an event that she lived. The short story is about the war between Iraq and Tehran. The story begins with two families and a girl, which in real life is Marjane, in the living room having a conversation regarding the possibility that Iraq would send Missiles to Tehran, in the story one the girl states that it is impossible for that to happen since the two countries are too far away, and it would cost Iraq too much for that to happen. The story then continues with the event that clearly demonstrate that it was not impossible for Iraq to send missiles. During the next pages, it illustrates that a lot of residents abandoned the country due to the war but also a lot of them stayed because that place was where their homes were. The days went through and the next illustration shows where the girl, Marjane, and her friend went shopping and when they were about to pay, they heard a loud sound. They heard on the radio and found out that another missile had exploded in Maryjane’s neighborhood. She ran as fast as she could thinking about her parents, and when she finally arrived at the place a big sensation comforted her when she saw her mother.
All the graphic is illustrated in black and white, and it was to help readers understand what is going in the event and the fear and terror that a person can go through during a war. Marjane was born in November 22, 1969 in Rasht, Iran. First, Marjane uses black and white also to show people what her live was growing up in Iran. In the Biography “Marjane Satrapi” the writer states “by recounting her life story of growing up in Iran and emigrating to Europe, and by telling it in graphic-novel form….” (biography in context). This clarifies exactly what I had stated before, the reason why black and white is used and why she uses graphic from is because she wants readers to understand or at least to kind of explore with the imagination the experience she lived during the war. People talk about war as something normal or maybe not something normal but refers to it as something that could never happen to them. People tell stories about war, they watch on TV the news about it and some get scared, but they do not really know what it is lo live in the middle of it.
Second reason why Marjane uses color black and white is because she really did not have a very common childhood and uses those color to demonstrate it. In another Marjane’s biography “Marjane Satrapi” from “Gale Biographies”, the writer states “inspired, Satrapi created a book of black and white comics strips about living in Tehran from ages six to fourteen” (Gale Biographies). The book was called “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood”. In these book Marjane tells the story of her growing up, while also showing the Islamic Revolution and its effects on Iranians. Marjane did not have a child’s life, she was mature faster than other girls. In the paragraph of “Authors and Artist for Young Adults” found in Biography in Context, the writer states “reading Marxism when other children were reading fairy tales”. A specific reading made her think for herself and to be an independent person. Not only the reading made her grow up mentally faster. Also, the change of states where she lived and the different schools she attended. Marjane traveled to a lot of places for different reasons. Changing places over and over can also change people’s mentality because people from different places does not always think the same way, but also changing schools. Marjane went from private schools to public schools, but also to a French school.