Class in 3 hours and 15 minutes.

1) Why do you think that Marjane Satrapi chose the comics style to produce her memoir?
I think that she chose to use a comic book style because one frame can encompass a lot at once. It can show what multiple people are doing or thinking. Comics also convey emotion in a visual representation. In a normal novel there is one point of view and you can only hear what that character wants you to hear or imagine. With a comic I feel like the reader is able to get a better understanding of the whole big picture. Muslim culture was also a new thing for me, so actually seeing it made it a lot easier for me to follow the story.

a) What is she able to do in this format that she wouldn’t be able to do in other formats? For instance, does this format enable her to make certain events, emotions, or moments to stick out in the reader’s mind in ways that other formats wouldn’t succeed?
I kind of just answered this, but to expand, the drawings are very striking. The illustrations are simple, but they get the point across. When she talks about someone dying and you can actually see them beaten, raped, and shot it makes an impression that a regular novel can't. The simplicity of the drawings to represent such a tragic and serious thing also stands out to me.

2) If you were to write a memoir of your life until the present, which one would you choose? Why? Pretend that you could use any format, e.g. painting, collage, a film, a song, a comic book, etc.
I would write a novel with collages to go along with each chapter. I take a lot of pictures and save all kinds of notes, flyers, and random stuff. I like writing and would want to expand on things that have happened to me in text, but I would also want to accompany them with collages to give a visual for the reader too.