The frame above is one of the most pivotal frames in Persepolis. The frame immediately follows Marjane's discussion with her parents about how female virgin prisoners are treated. This shows that Satrapi wanted to get across to the readers the impact that conversation had on her; since, up to this point, Marjane had just been speaking her mouth whenever she wanted, not necessarily considering the consequences of her actions. The frame captures Marjane's understanding of consequences by doing two things. First of all, by having Marjane in the foreground, the readers focus is brought there first. They notice her wide open eyes, which is contrasted with the fact that she is in her bed, where she is supposed to be sleeping. This shows the readers that something is keeping Marajane awake, which is answered by the text bubble above her head. The text explains that her friend Niloufar was a martyr, but had changed nothing in her society when she died. This thought is what is keeping Marjane up at night, since her obsession with martyrs is apparent throughout the book, and her passion for rebellion and change is thrown around quite frequently. These ideals are part of Marjane's core, but with the death of Niloufar, this frame tells us that Marjane may be reconsidering her ideals and asking herself, "can I even make a difference?"
To contrast my last picked frame, I decided to choose a frame which showed a "smaller" change in Marjane. In this frame, I really got the feeling that Marjane was developing humor towards the rebellion and the situation she found herself in. The first thing my eye is drawn to in this frame is Marjane, who is at an obvious height difference from all the other men in the picture. The determined-looking Marjane is confidently walking down Gandhi Avenue, and then my eye is drawn to the text box. "The food shortage had been resolved by the growth of the black market." This dry, one-liner sounds like a joke, since honestly, how could the black market resolve a food shortage? I believe Satrapi is trying to show her expansion of knowledge at this age, by making a joke like that. Than I read, "Finding tapes was a little complicated... on Ghandi Avenue you could find them sometimes." This also has to be a joke, since in the image almost all of the men are clearly selling tapes, meaning it isn't that hard to find them. I believe Satrapi is trying to get across that she was so knowledgeable at the time about everything that was going on, that she could even make jokes about it. Besides trying to show Marjane's cleverness and witty-ness, I think the frame wanted to show her Independence, since it can't be a coincidence that Marjane was the only one drawn in white, and that she is the shortest by far. Her confidence is supposed to show her independence, since Marjane, the obvious outsider, can still buy a black market tape from a bunch of thugs, and live to tell the tale.
