Doing the reading for today, I almost wish I had picked this section to do my presentation on, just because of page 206. I feel like what Satrapi is doing here is characterizing the mother-daughter connection she has as something distinctly Persian by couching it in terms of mythology and tradition. You certainly don’t have to be Persian to be close to your mom, but the two female friends I have from Iran have such a similar family relationship to these characters that I am constantly reminded of them as I read. I think of Satrapi and her mother’s unique relationship as a distinct cultural marker.

What first caught my attention on this page was the sentence, “I spent twenty-seven days by her side.” The combination of a very specific number of days (which contains 7 and is a multiple of 3, two numbers that are very significant in many cultures) and the idea of spending every minute learning from a wise elder made this sound like something out of a myth. The last panel, on the other hand, contrasts the first not only because the mother leaves, but because the time period given is “several months,” a much less specific and more modern phrasing. It retains the feeling of a fable, though, because the narrator is shown traveling with a gift she recieved after her twenty-seven day vigil: “a bag of affection” that seems to sparkle magically.

Just looking at all the pictures in between, especially those with the black backgrounds, the page seems to tell a story that combines many elements of quest stories and fairy tales. I am not very familiar with Persian stories, but I am sure they retain some of these archetypal scenes, and anyway Satrapi is a product of the West as much as the East. The weary traveler is given a safe place to rest by the older woman who takes her in; they talk in a secret language that the reader is never privy to; the traveler aids the older woman; she recieves in turn traditional warnings and advice; she is given gifts that she will carry with her as she continues her journey. The panel at the lower left-hand corner switches back to a white background, and in my opinion back to the modern day. There is an airport in the background, which is not extremely realistically drawn but is more concrete than in the previous panels. The narrator and her mother are not archetypal characters anymore, but real people with real emotions.

I’m not sure if anyone is doing this page for their presentation, but it would be interesting to see how anyone else’s interpretation differs from mine.