Katrina Comic ~N~ Interview with Marjane

This reading begins dealing with the issue of hurricane Katrina. In the beginning of the reading the word about the Hurricane is just being passed around. At first people did not think the storm would be a big deal. Kids just seen it as a way to have school off, and naïve adults just tried to ignored it. Denise mother tells her that she will be unable to leave during the hurricane. Denise decides to stay with her mother in the duration of the hurricane. On Saturday August 27 the storm was a category 5 and headed straight for the New Orleans Area. Leo and his wife plans to evacuate the storm. At first Leo’s wife didn’t want to leave because she believes that the storm is going to turn and everything is going to be ok. Leo looks at his box of comics books before he leaves. He’s had those comic books every since he was a child. His parents used to box them up when they used to evacuate from Hurricanes. I believe that Leo really wanted to take them with him, but he left them because of his wife’s reassurance that everything will be ok. Hamid’s family leaves to Houston for evacuation purposes but hamid stays. Hamids daughter gives him a first aid kit just incase anything were to happen. I believe this part of the reading showed great ethos. Hamids plan to stay in his grocery store because he thinks that it can sustain hurricane winds My favorite person in this story is Denise because she is a strong person and she stands up for her self. In the story you can see the aggression on her face when the doctor told her that they gave her mothers room away. In the duration of the reading hamid experience the hostility of the flooding. He has loss much of his valuable material things. Hamid and his friend saw a boat during the flood but stayed to watch over the store for looters. Hamid had to deal with mosquitoes, the flood, and rats. When Leo seen the flooding that was in New Orleans he thought of his comics books. In story hamid and his friend took water from the store and gave it to a old lady. I thought was a very generous thing that hamid did in the story. In the story two men start fighting over a bottle of water. I could only imagine the frustration of going through that hurricane and to need a bottle of water so bad that you would fight for it. I think this part of the story really opened up my eyes to the tragedy these people faced. In the news they showed us black males stealing big screen plasma television sets, looting stores, but they didn’t tell America that people were dying of dehydration and the males had to actually take water from stores. This is nothing but another example of the media being biased. Ms. Williams ends up dying in the story due to dehydration. They U.S. troops rode through the city with their guns pointed in peoples faces. They could have easily brought those people some water and could have saved Ms. Williams life. This was a very sad and mournful story, I have really learned a lot of things that I didn’t know before and have seen it from a different perspective.
Leo how did it feel to know that you had escape something so distrustful?
When they us troops turn people back from crossing the bridge did you feel like they wanted everyone dead?
When the us troops rode by with there guns pointed at you how did that make you feel?

The next reading was a interview with Marjane Satrapi. Robert Root starts the interview by asking her how does illustration affects a non-fiction and a autobiography work. She acknowledges that there’s many things that you can say through mages that you cannot say through writing. I believe this statement she made because it goes with the old saying a picture is worth a thousand words. Marjanes tells us about the government in Iran treating them like they are worth half of a man. Marjanes gives us insight on the Rex cinema burning down in Tehran. Marjanes tells us that she is very comfortable and happy with her imperfection. She tells us that she is a fan of imperfection. Robert Root asked her if there was any restraints that was put on her as an illustrator. She answers the question telling us that when she wrote her book she was talked about because of her style of writing. I believe that Robert Root conducted this interview well and he did a good job.
Robert Root is there anything that you want to know about Marjane that you didn’t ask?
Marjane is it hard to talk about your experiences from the past?
How do you feel that your novel is now a movie?