Michael’s Comments (group member since Sep 11, 2011)

Michael’s comments from the 108A TE Fall 2011 group.

Persepolis: Marji the student

As always, I cannot help but focus on parts in the book that involve school and teachers. The teachers in the book hated Marji, but I consider her to be an ideal student. Ok, so I know she cut school with those two girls, she hit the principal, and made fun of school customs, but she was a questioning young student. She had her own point of view and did not act like a sheep by mindlessly taking in what was taught at school. Seeing the school staff start a blame game between them and parents was hard to see. Parents and school staff should be allies. Then the school in the book pressured boys to join the army. In my opinion, Marji was unfortunately attending a school that was not meeting her needs. I don't think she failed, I think the school failed her. Marji always had great potential no matter what her teacher who thought she was crazy for wanting to become a prophet thinks.

I am doing my post as a comment because I am having trouble posting my own topic which is "Persepolis: Perspective changing" in our TE group section. I have already posted this twice on goodreads, but it is posted somewhere else for some strange reason.


Like Yummy and American Born Chinese, as I am reading this book I am able to learn about people who have much different life experiences than I did growing up which is really great since I am becoming a teacher and will encounter students with diverse experiences. Although Persepolis is a graphic novel, the content really grabs readers and forces them to think about how they view others. It is easy to judge people from afar as you see in Persepolis and it is also easy to feel bad for others, but all three of the books I have read help readers to try and understand people who are quite different from them. I would have to say I think the visuals are what helped me put myself into the main characters’ shoes. I feel like Persepolis did a great job of illustrating the misunderstandings people can have due to both ignorance and not being around one another. Persepolis constantly shows people in power being disconnected from the civilians who they have power over. Persepolis also shows how civilians create separation amongst themselves due to their closed-minded thinking. Persepolis shows the effects of those who are distanced from others and caused me to think about how I distance myself from people and do not always take the time to learn about things in an objective manner.

In my first post I wrote: When I heard American Born Chinese, I thought about the close friends I made in college who were born in the United States and who are Chinese and thought it would be interesting to know about experiences they might have had growing up. After reading American Born Chinese, I am very glad that I have read it because it has opened my eyes in a similar way that Yummy did, which will help make me a better teacher.

One of my close friends in college who was Chinese used to call other Chinese students degrading names that were used in this book when he talked to me and I always wondered why he did this. After all, me and his other friends never gave him any reason to believe that we felt his race was somewhat lesser than the race of others. He was the only one to make racist comments about those who are Chinese. After reading American Born Chinese, I understand why he might have acted this way. Jin Wang did the same thing when Wei-Chen Sun first talked to him because he internalized the negativity from others about his race since he was teased for being Chinese for so long. The monkey king did the same thing as my college friend when he told the other monkeys to wear shoes after being teased by the gods for being a monkey. Before doing that, the monkey king went home and internalized the negative views of the gods as he looked around his own home in disgust because of the smell of his monkey fur.

When I was reading this book I was trying to figure out how all three of the storylines relate to each other based on the book title, American Born Chinese. This kept the book interesting and showed that it is common for people to be restricted by others due to their race. Yes, the main characters in all three of the storylines come together at the end of the book, but that is not the only way I connected them together. Why is a monkey used in a book about being Chinese? I asked this question as I began reading the book and I answered it later by thinking that those who are Chinese are sometimes unfortunately treated as if they are not human. Why was an over-the-top character, Chin-kee, in the book if Jin seemed to be a character who was created to show the ridiculousness of stereotypes about those who are Chinese? I also asked this question as I began reading the book and answered it later by realizing that Chin-kee did not strengthen stereotypes about those who are Chinese, but showed the ridiculousness of the stereotypes. Chin-kee was quite different than Jin and the monkey king (even though Chin-kee really was the monkey king) in that he was the only character who was happy throughout the whole book because he stayed true to himself the whole time and did not let others affect who he was. Both the monkey king and Jin believed that they were not as good as others, made unattainable goals in an effort to change themselves to be like others who are popular, ultimately failed to fit in which caused distress for themselves that they did not recover from until someone reminded them of who they are and showed them that there is nothing wrong with who they have always been.

Like Yummy, the parts of this book that included teachers made me think about my role as a teacher. Rather than providing support for Jin and Wei-Chen Sun, the teachers in the book helped alienate Jin and Wei-Chen Sun from their peers. This made me think: what am I doing to help the students in my class accept each other and to help make sure that students do not feel embarrassed about who they are?

Like Veronica, I thought about my job as a teacher after reading about Yummy. I thought about how teachers can be resilient factors for children like Yummy. The part in the book with the teacher made me think of what I would have done as a teacher at Yummy’s school after the murder occurred. Did she handle the situation right? When the teacher slammed down the book, it seemed like she did not have a discussion with the students about how they are feeling as a result of what happened. To me, the reason why she slammed the book was to simply ask the students if they knew something about Yummy that could help the police find him and if they said no, their input did not matter. I anticipated that after she slammed the book, the teacher would have been shown correcting the students’ inappropriate behavior and explaining that there is no place for joking with the serious issue that she was talking about, but I was wrong. How can teachers discuss gangs in school? When is it appropriate to do so?

The graphics in the novel were helpful for me as I read since I am not familiar with growing up in a neighborhood like Yummy’s neighborhood. Without graphics, visualizing the environment he lived in would have been hard and trying to visualize Yummy in my head would have made me enjoy the book less because I was definitely able to connect with him by seeing him on paper.

I have always loved comics. I was a big fan of Archie comics and made my own comics as a child so the graphic novel selections appealed to me. When I heard American Born Chinese I thought about the close friends I made in college who were born in the United States and who are Chinese and thought it would be interesting to know about experiences they might have had growing up.