Fame

Harry Potter Book One: Fame

Why does Dumbledore decide to have Harry grow up with the Dursleys rather than with one of the wizard families? How does Harry’s experience with his relatives build his character? 

The decision to drop Harry at the Dursley's house was just for Harry's own protection. For a child, it is difficult growing up in a world where everyone knows your name and you don't know why. For Harry it would have been much more then that. Why would you want to be reminded every day that you're famous because you were  the only one who lived when your family was murdered. He would be growing up knowing that and knowing that his family was murdered by a dark wizard when he doesn't even know what magic is. It would be too difficult for a child to deal with this especially since he'd have real living magical relatives to be by his side and comfort him and explain things to him. I agree with Dumbledores decision to do this. I wouldn't want to be forced to live with my horrible relatives but it would be protecting me from reliving my parents murder everyday. 

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Obviously no one has the exact same experience as this but there many celebrities who grew up with parents who were dead. The example that I would choose for this would be Francis Bean Cobain. Her father was not murdered like Harry's but still she grew up in the shadow of her fathers death. That is mainly one of the reasons that she is/was famous. She was still mostly sheltered from the world like Harry and as a young child most likely didn't know about her fathers death. 

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When kids grow up and aren't told about their parent's death sometimes they react like they've been betrayed or something. I'm not sure how I'd feel but I wouldn't want to put myself in that position anyway. Harry doesn't have anyone who would tell him the truth, all he knows is that 'his parents died in a car accident and he lived'. Maybe it is better for a young child not to know the truth about deaths and not to really talk about it but knowing that you're the only one who lived is just a really horrible thing to have to deal with. 

Most Influential People

Persepolis 2: Most Influential People

Persepolis 2 is filled with vibrant secondary characters. Describe some of them. Describe the men in Marjane’s life and her relationships with them. Who stands out as the most memorable and influential person on Marjane?

I believe that every person Marjane met had an influence on her. Most of the people weren't a good influence on her, many Momo and the other 'anarchists'. Her boyfriend, Jean-Paul, also was a negative influence on her in the sense that she just always ended up agreeing with everything that he said. A quote from an article about peer pressure states "Say you're sitting around with some friends playing video games and someone mentions a particular game that happens to be one of your favorites. "Oh, that game's easy. So not worth the time," one of your friends says dismissively. The others agree. Inwardly, you know that it is a game you happen to enjoy quite a lot but, outwardly, not wanting to debate the issue, you go along with the crowd.". So this may be considered peer pressure because she definitely doesn't actually agree with everything he's saying but she acts like she does in order to not ruin the relationship that she clings to. I think that people who had the most positive and strongest impact on her were her family, especially her grandmother. 

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She has such a close relationship with her grandmother and even though Marjane is growing up and getting older her grandmother still continues to teach her new things.   An example of this would be the time when Marjane got the old man arrested on the street by lying and reporting him to the guards for 'harassing' her. She thinks that this is just such a funny story and just such a huge joke but her grandmother is just disgusted at her behavior and makes it obvious. Marjane kind of learns from this experience and tries to be better to please her grandma. I think that her grandmother makes her realize that what she's actually done to this man may cause him to face death. Out of all of the positive influences she has I think that her grandmother in one of the most special. I think that another positive influences is her Uncle Anoosh. She seems to love him very much and know that he has been accused of being a spy, gets arrested, and plays a part in the war.

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 I think that this causes her to look up to him and she knows he's making a difference. He seems to be more of an influence on her when she's younger but that just might be because she isn't really around him that much anymore when she grows up. I think that she wants to make a difference too throughout this book but is just too scared and overwhelmed by being moved to another country. 

Life Somewhere Else

Persepolis 2: Life Somewhere Else

How do you think Marjane’s experience would have been similar or different if she had gone to a high school in the United States, in your hometown? Would you have befriended her?

I think that her experience would be a lot different. Her 'friends' ask her if she has had sex or done things with guys and she implies that she's done things with multiple guys. Her friends act snobby and just completely reject her after that. They put her down for not having 'traditional values' anymore. How is she supposed to do that after she's had to fit in somewhere else for years and then come back and be expected to just going back to fit in here so quickly? Things would have been so different for her if she lived here in Niskayuna. There are many diverse people here and I feel like it would be easy for her to fit in. She says she liked wearing a dark thick line of black eyeliner and listens to punk music and she'd definitely be accepted by people. She decides to make a change in her style and still she'd be accepted here. I honestly think that things would be a lot easier for her here and she's really be accepted for who she is and not have to conform in her home country. She'd be away from the war and safer here too. She'd most likely be accepted by multiple groups of friends here. 
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I probably would end up being friends with her because I like some of the things that she likes and she seems like a nice person, plus we also have the same problem of mouthing off to people. But also I think that it might be really hard for her here. An article by Time Magazine talks about how Muslim acceptance in America is still a big problem. Woman who decide to still wear the typical headscarf(Hijab) are a main target for this. This story was written around the time period of 1979 but if it had been at the present I think that it would be a lot harder for Marjane to fit in since the 9/11 attacks and people are still suspicious of everyone. Still, it wouldn't make a difference for me. I would still probably be friends with her. Why should what people choose to wear have an effect on whether people should be friends with them or not? I actually really don't understand that. People get judged every day for what they choose to wear. Why does it have to be a big deal. The only thing that actually matters about a person is how they act. Their outfit shouldn't decide your friendships.

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