View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Satrapi say that writing Persepolis was important to her?

2. When does Satrapi’s account of Iranian history begin?

3. When did Western influence in Iran end?

4. What is the swan made of, that Anoosh gives Marjane?

5. What is Ramin’s response when Marjane tries to forgive him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What lesson does Satrapi’s mother teach her about injustice?

2. Describe Satrapi’s relationship with God.

3. Describe Satrapi’s point of view on the religious and cultural questions being debated around her at the beginning of Persepolis.

4. What changes did the Shah make in Iran when he was installed in the 1950s?

5. Why did Satrapi get in trouble for what she told Siamak’s daughter?

6. What naïve view of Satrapi’s do Anoosh and her parents disabuse her of at the beginning of Chapter 9: The Sheep?

7. What causes the Satrapi family to go on vacation to Europe?

8. What traumatic experience does Satrapi’s mother have?

9. Why does Satrapi say she wanted to write Persepolis?

10. Describe the visual style of Persepolis.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When is Persepolis most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 2

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the graphic novel format? What kinds of things does this genre do well? What could have been done better in a prose novel, or even in a movie?

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate your own reading of Persepolis—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,037 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample