Introduction
In a comparative analysis of the novels Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Margane Satrapi and Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, several facts regarding the Muslim relationship and the concept of women can be drawn out and these concepts and facts as perceived by the readers have strong justifications in the novels. The concepts regarding the relationship between the Arab vs. non-Arab Muslim, the concept regarding Muslim women etc are very well established by the readers of these novels. Similarly, the development of a secular society into an Islamic community and its aftereffects can very well be collected from an analysis of the book. Therefore, it is essential to make the point at the outset that the comparative analysis of the two novels by Margane Satrapi and Rajaa Alsanea can very well bring out some of the fundamental elements in the Islamic religion and community. The most prominent factor in this understanding is that all these facts and awareness that the readers are able bring out are based purely on the perceptions of Muslim women.
Islamic relations that have been long been perceived and developed on the basis of the traditional norms and concepts of the religion can very well be identified as destructed and a fresh perception of the relationship and life has been developed in the modern world. There was a particular moment in the existence of the Muslim women when the traditional concepts regarding the relations and the world view of the women have changed. The ultimate result of any such development has been that the world and the human relations are viewed and understood in a broader perspective and a finer conception. Both the works under consideration explain individual facts regarding these ultimate truths of the Muslim women and a comparative analysis of the two books relates the individual perceptions and understanding on a more refined and definitive explanation of the Islamic concept of relationship, Arab vs. non-Arab Muslim, the development of a modern Muslim perception etc. therefore, it is evident that there is an important relationship between the two works that becomes manifest when they are analyzed on the basis of such concepts that define the Muslim culture and its transformation, perceptions, development of the ideas over the years, and the facts relating to Islamic women.
Main body
The first of the novels, Persepolis: The story of a childhood presents the growing up of an Islamic girl and her growth has been presented as important in the understanding of the notion regarding the Islamic cultural change over the years. The novelist, based on her personal experience as a witness of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, reveals the facts and effects of the cultural change in the Islamic perception of things as viewed by a little child. The novel is important in that it also delivers a strong concept or a true account of the political, historical, and extremely personal elements of Islamic life vied through the eyes of a girl and it relates to the girl’s development into the prime of life. The cultural transformation of the Islamic religion and society can very well be identified in the account given by the girl as she perceived. “I really didn’t know what to think about the veil. Deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde. I was born with religion. At the age of six I was already sure I was the last prophet. This was few years before the revolution.” (Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The story of a childhood, Pantheon Books, 2003) The significance of the novel Persepolis is that it is an explanation of the events, transformations that have taken place, and change in the concepts without fully comprehending their consequences. Beyond the limits of the childhood’s inadequacies, the novel explains the facts of the Islamic cultural transformations which the writer comprehends only in her adolescence.
The novel by Satrapi has been important piece in that it very exceptionally defines the several types of revolutions in the modern society. The results of every societal change are explored in the background of the Islamic religion and culture. The strong point about the novel of Satrapi is that it gives an account of the predominance of social censorship during unrest in the Islamic land. It has been central in the analysis of pertinent questions regarding the cultural changes and social development through the impact of certain impacts. The meaning and implications of particular cultural symbols that define the human life profoundly reflected upon. The novel explains how to perceive events that seem strange to one and it becomes a relevant work for the modern world. “Persepolis is a very timely novel for today. As our society is continuingly putting up boundaries and constructing ideas of “ingroups and outgroups”, it is important to realize and understand the effects on the present. We may be fighting for the future, but are we looking ahead before looking to those beside us. Her book excludes no one and doesn’t place strong judgments on any particular group, though opinions are voiced. This is not a story of who was right, and who gained the most, or who suffered tragically. On the contrary, Persepolis is a novel of the importance of being aware of ourselves and understanding the consequences of change.” (Persepolis: The story of a childhood, by Marjane Satrapi, Pop Matters)
The second novel Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea which was banned in Saudi Arabia for the disreputable depiction of the secular life of the nation may be best regarded as a fictional account of some of the crude realities of Muslim life and experience. The novel in a cleverly tone and touch expresses the social, romantic, and sexual sufferings of the young characters presented in the novel. Thus, the novel deals with the stories of four youthful women from the privileged classes of the country of Saudi Arabia. The breaking away of the cultural norms of the Islamic lives can be evidently seen as reflected in the novel. The novel has been significant, in a way, in pointing out the relation between the Arab and non-Arab Muslim. The four girls who are not typical Saudi women give the notion about what to expect and what not to expect in the nature of modern Muslim women who do not completely belong to the Arabic culture. Though Riyadh is the larger setting of the novel, it’s characters go through every other global experience which make them better enabled to make the distinction of the cultures and come into contact with the various realities of the world.
The significance of this revolutionary novel has been that it herald the almost hidden world of the Saudi women to the entire world as the readers come to realize the struggles, sufferings, conflicts, frustrations, hopes, beliefs, dreams and several other realities of life as they turned out to these women. The opening sentence of the novel invites the reader to the unknown depths of the world in Saudi Arabia. “Ladies and Gentlemen: You are invited to join me in one of the most explosive scandals and noisiest, wildest all-night parties around. Your personal tour guide–and that’s moi–will reveal to you a new world, a world closer to you than you might imagine.” (Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, Penguin Books, London, 2007, p 1) The impact of the modern technology in their relation is very evidently represented in the novel. The relationship of women with men in the background of the Islamic culture seems to be quite interesting to note. One of the chief problems that is encountered by the girls of the novel has been that all the men are pathetic in their attitude and behavior.
This has been a terrible experience for them and one of the girls remarkably makes the following comment: “Sadeem saw Firas as greater and stronger and nobler and more decent than the pathetic, emasculated weakling who had abandoned her friend! But it appeared they were cut of the same cloth after all. Apparently, all men were the same. It was like God had given them different faces just so women would be able to tell them apart.” (Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, Penguin Books, London, 2007) in the opinion of another girl, the men “are stamped out of the same mold: passive and weak. They are slaves to reactionary customs and ancient traditions even if their enlightened minds pretend to reject such things! That’s the mold for all men in this society. They are just pawns their families move around on the chessboard!” (Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, Penguin Books, London, 2007) All these are significant views of the cultural world of the nation. Thus, the reader gets an ultimate view of the cultural life of the Arab world which comes to conflict with the modern world as experienced by the different women of the novel. The cultural transformation that is worked out through the novel has great relevance in the background of the Saudi culture. “The narrator sends e-mails from her internet group to the subscribers. Those e-mails as the narrator forecasts in the novel stir the media especially popular newspapers in Saudi like Al-Riyadh, Al-Watan and Al-Jazeerah which happened in real life after the novel was published. This kind of forecasting added reality and intrigue to the novel.”
Conclusion
In a profound comparative analysis of the two novels it becomes evident that they have great relevance in the modern background in which the transformation of the Muslim culture has been narrated in a very convincing voice. Both the novels deal with the world of the Islamic world as perceived by various people at various times of their life. However, ultimately both talk about some of the crude realities of the Muslim world and the readers are able to catch the meaning as delivered top them. Both these novels concentrate on the Islamic women’s experience of the culture, the relations, the change in perception, the cultural difference between the Arabic and non-Arabic Muslim world. Therefore, both the novels are significant in the way they present some of the essential realities of the Muslim world as perceived by Muslim women and the cultural transformation of the Muslim.
Bibliography
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The story of a childhood, Pantheon Books, 2003.
Persepolis: The story of a childhood, by Marjane Satrapi, Pop Matters). Web.
Summary of the Novel “Girls of Riyadh” Author: Rajaa Al Sanie). Web.
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea, Penguin Books, London, 2007.