Children’s
Games
Social
Hierarchy &
Revolution
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--Bollywood
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dealing,
robbery,
prostitution
-- Betrayal and
Survival
•Bride-Bride
game,
marriage,
widowhood,
sex
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the beach
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garden
• Child Bride
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Introduction: the author, the book and Sri
Lanka
 “Pigs Can’t Fly”

› I. Childhood Games and Social System
› II. Battle for Power and Gender Boundaries
› III. Ending

Born: Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1963
› Father Tamil, mother Sinhalese
› Immigrated to Canada, 1984. -- his
family forced into exile after the
1983 racial riot against the Tamil in
Colombo.
Education: York University, Toronto.
 Funny Boy: A Novel in Six Stories --read
by the Sri Lankan President and
prompted a national debate on the
need to repeal the antisodomy law in
the country (Salgado 100)

Funny Boy – set against the increasing
violence between a between Sinhalese
and Tamil in Sri Lank, culminating in the
civil war which lasted for almost a
decade(1983-1991).
 The protagonist, "Arjie" Chelvaratnam, is the
second-son of a privileged middle-class
Tamil family in Colombo.
Connected stories of how Arjie is
continually isolated from his family and
then exiled from his society because of his
gender orientation and the society’s racial
tensions and despite attempts at breaking
boundaries and rebellion.
› "Pigs Can't Fly”-- Arjie's early childhood and
his gravitation towards the imaginative
games his female cousins play as opposed
to his male cousins' beloved game of cricket.
› "Radha Aunty" --Arjie's Aunt Radha, and her
doomed affair with a Sinhalese man.
› "See No Evil, Hear No Evil“-- his mother's
extra-marital affair with a childhood
sweetheart.
› "Small Choices" --chronicles one of Arjie's first
crushes a puppy love obsession with a
young man employed by his Father
› “The Best School of All” – Arjie’s experience
of the conflicts between colonial education
and Sinhalese nativism, between his need to
conform and his love for Shehan.
› "Riot Journal" -- first hand accounts of antiTamil violence. (Black July)




Sinhalese（僧伽羅人）migrated from Northern
India to Sri Lanka since 5th-6th century BCE,
while Tamil (坦米爾人) came from Southern
India around since 2th BCE.
Sinhalese -- Buddhism
Tamil -- Hinduism, more sent to Sri Lanka by the
British government and supported by the latter.
Since its independence as Ceylon, the
Sinhalese (80% majority) put forth “Sinhala Only
Law” in support of their political power, which
causes discontent among the Tamil people
(20%).
3:00 – Tamil imported to Sri Lanka by the
British
2. Sinhalese rise to power after
Independence
3. Civil War: 4:00 the burning of the library 
5:19 1983 retalion of Tamils
4. History updated:
1.
1983-2006 -- civil war (4 peace talks, 100,000
people dead)
2004 – striken by South Asian tsunami –about 35,000
dead
2009 -- LTTE defeated
Ammachi/Appachi
Aunt
Kanthi
Her Fatness
Amma
Father
Arjie
Sonali
Janaki
Diggy
Maruges
Meena,
Sanjay

Territory & Leadership:
 How are the boys' game and girls' game
divided up and located? Describe the other
parts of Grandma’s house (p. 3)*
 What are the rules of the boys' cricket game
and the girls' Bride-Bride? Do these rules
make sense? Do these groups' structure
reflect that of adults, or not?
 Who are the “leaders” of the children’s
games and social games?
 What does the title mean?

Her Fatness vs. Arjie
› How does Her Fatness fight for attention &
power?
› What gender roles do Arjie and Her Fatness
take respectively in their power struggle?

Cricket vs. Bride-Bride:
› How does Arjie cross gender boundaries?
Who else does so, too?* *
› What roles do the adults (parents, Aunt
Kanthi, grandma, Janaki) play?

What does the ending mean? ***

Funny --either humorous or strange (17);
disgust
 But Meena also crosses gender boundaries
in playing the cricket game.
 The other girls do, too, in the bride-bride
game.
 Arjie’s view of being a bride (5) and jewel
and sari (15)

 the story is about the ideological system
(the sky), and the power struggles within it.
1-1)
Spendthe-day,
rules in
Children
’s World,
BrideBride
22)Amm
a’s
rejectio
n&
arrange
ment
1-2) Her
Fatness’
s
Intrusion
w/ dolls
3-1)
Arjie on
cricket
field &
his
return
1-3) Her
Fatness’s
Objectio
ns as a
groom
2-1)
Aunt
Kanthi’s
intrusion
3-2) The
Fight to
win
attentio
n & over
sari
4)
Running
Away
Two perspectives
A. Gender vs. religious fundamentalism:
 How does Marjane experience revolution and
war as a child & an adult?
 How does her family survive and/or suffer from
the Khomeini regime
 The images of tulip and jasmine; the roles of
women
1.Childhood & Revolution
B. Exile and cultural identity:
2.Teenage
Yearsor&liberation?
War
st time – isolation
 The 1
nd Exile – after marriage
 The 23.Europe
and a friend’s
– a. 1st 3 years
death -- any difference?
b. love & dejection
C. Filmic Techniques?
4. Postwar Iran – a. return w/
depression & School; b. Iran –
marriage & divorce + departure
Group 4 – Pigs 1; Persepolis 2 teenage
Presenter (1) Wenny (2) Yoko
 Group 3 -- – Pigs 2; Persepolis 1 childhood
 Presenter (1) Alan (2)Coco
 Group 2 -- – Pigs 3; Persepolis 3 Europe
 Presenter (1) (2)Charlotte, Agnes
 Group 1 – Pigs 4; Persepolis 4 postwar Iran
 Presenter (1) (2) Shirley, Bluence

Avoid Mamachi (2) and Janaki
 The dark corridor (2)
 Territoriality and leadership (3)
 Girls’ territory potential for free play of
fantasy (4)

Arjie as the leader because of “the force of
his imagination”(p. 4)
 His imagination– allows him to "leave the
constraints of [his] self and ascend into
another, more brilliant, more beautiful self"
(5).
 Still conditioned by the goddesses of the
Sinhalese and Tamil cinema (breaking the
racial boundary).
 A world for girls – the groom the most
useless (p. 6)



Competition -- with winning as the goal;
trading players
› less powerful ones: e.g. Sanjay
› girlie-boy: Arjie

the batting order – p. 26
› Numbers marked in the sand for the players
to step on;
› The older and better ones play first

Her Fatness – in need of attention
› An outsider pp. 6› Kanthi Aunt – her anger (pp. 7-8)

Wins attention
› by lying about not having a friend (7)
› by showing off the dolls (p. 8) –which is less
powerful than the bride-bride game;
› by playing a loud groom (9)
› by appealing to traditional gender
boundaries (11) “A girl must be the bride.”
Insisting on the rule to be the first one to
play  so that he becomes offensive
and can run away
 the sari in the bag as a weapon
 Agrees to play the groom, and then
attracts the other girls’ attention.
 Sari gone – so is his power.

Amachi and her cane p. 38
 The seaside and the tall building as a
mirage p. 38
 Exiled

Salgado, minoli. Writing Sri Lanka: Literature,
Resistance & the Politics of Place. NY: Routledge, 2007.
1. BBC: Sri Lanka+Tamil Tigers: Evolution of the Ethnic
War
(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1UnhPq8Pio
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArqcfDhHg9o
Persepolis
 Introduction
› Review: Purdah from different perspectives
› Purdah/the veil in Persepolis
Discussion Questions
 A child’s perspective on religious
fundamentalism and war
 The cultural identity of an exile

Purdah深閨制度 -- Purdah is the
practice that includes the seclusion
of women from public observation by
wearing concealing clothing from
head to toe and by the use of high
walls, curtains, and screens erected
within the home. Purdah is practiced
by Muslims and by various Hindus,
especially in India.
(http://departments.kings.edu/wome
ns_history/purdah.html )
 Burqa = body-covering, headcovering + face veil
 types of sartorial hijab

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_types_of
_sartorial_hijab )



Mostly believers in Islam see purdah as a very
positive and respectful practice that actually
liberates women.
Different Views: e.g. – 《回教女性的面紗》
› Muslim girls in UK;
› in Iran
› In Egypt
› in Nigeria, etc.
In France, 2004 -- a law was set to prohibit students
to wear any clearly visible religious symbols; thus
wearing the burqa has been banned in public
schools.

The mother feels breathless wearing it,
once humiliated when someone says:
“Put your scarf back on sister.” (26:00)
(1:14) Bet to take off her veil
 Speaks up against it in college
 The episode: framed by
Grandma’s lessons:
a. “Integrity!”
b. “Take off this fucking cowl.
It makes me claustrophobic.”
 Still caught by the police for
holding hands with her boy friend

young ladies to wear tighter trousers and longer
cowls. They must cover their hair and must not
use any make-up.
1. I need to be able to to draw. A longer cowl makes
it difficult to move freely
2. Our trousers efficiently hide our shapes. Knowing
that those trousers are in fashion, is the religion
defending our integrity...or is it simply opposed to
fashion?
3. You make comments about us while the
brothers...have many different clothes and hair
cuts. Sometimes, we can even see their
underwears.
Satrapi, Marjane (2006) Persepolis (London: Jonathan Cape, 301, 3-7)
Cited in Claudio
But she can’t
win over the
system.
Why?

French law on secularity (laïcité) and
conspicuous religious symbols
› “. . . All my life I have been against the veil, and
now I am the one defending the veil. I hate the
veil and what it means, . . . but I put myself in their
[the girls’] place. It’s a question of these girls’
identity. Their mothers never wore the veil, and so
they want to. Why? They [came] to France, 30–40
years [ago, but for the] French they are not French,
and for [the] Arabs they are not Arabs. So the
height of irony is that the veil has become a
symbol of rebellion...”.(qtd in Costantino)
Tulip: symbol of
martyrdom
Persepolis (2003-2004)– around the time
of the US ‘‘War on Terror” and the French
debate over veiled Muslim girls in secular
public schools
 Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)–
reinforces Western concepts of Iranian
women as oppressed?
 Kabul Beauty School (2007)– Deborah
Rodriquez as an American savior or
victim of marital abuse?

Mohammad Mosaddegh (1952-53)
the Shah regime (1925-1979 [revolution])
the Khamenei era (1979-1989)
Iran-Iraque War
(1980-1988)
Official History
The Qajar dynasty (卡
加王朝)
1925-1979 the Shah
regime (巴列維王朝)
1979 -- revolution;
wearing the veil
and anti-alcoholism
1979-1989 -- the
Khomenei era
1980-1988 -- Iran–Iraq
War
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1979 – enthusiastic about
revolution
1981 -- age 12; Marijan went
to Vienne, smoked drug, fell in
and out of love
1987 --age 18; Marijane
returned to Iran; got married
and then divorced.
1993 --age 24 -- Marjane left
Iran again
present -- Marjane Satrapi at
the airport, unable to board a
plane to Iran.
The Shah –1925 (0:08)
 The revolution 1979


The post-war 90’s
Reasons:
1) Iran – Islamization of the nation; Iraq – reduces and
controls religion;
2) Khomeini once expelled by Iraq;
3) the issue of Kurdish (庫德族）, etc.
Father: The West sold weapons to both sides. . . (1:03)
The US –
• secretly supported Iraq in its
production of chemical weapons.
• sold weapons to Iran in
exchange for the hostages (伊朗
軍售醜聞 Iran-Contra Scandal—
disclosed in 1986)
(References: Reasons and
Senate Mitchell’s Speech against Olive North
http://usinfo.org/zhtw/PUBS/AmReader/p842.
htm )
Charlie Wilson's War -- Charlie Wilson urged the
government to provide essential weapons to help
the Mujehideen in Afghanistan beat back the
Soviet Army.
Wilson: "I always, always, whenever a plane goes
down, I always fear it is one of our missiles. Most
of all I wanted to bloody the Red Army [of
Russia]. I think the bloodying thereof had a great
deal to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union.”
But -- the weapons probably wound up in the hands
of the Taliban regime, which took power in
Afghanistan and harbored Saudi fugitive Osama
bin Laden, organizer of the September 11
attacks. "I feel guilty about it," he said. "I really
do." "Those things happen," (source)
1. Major Influences –Western culture vs.
Muslim religion and nationalism
2. Major Turning Points and Her
Choices
Pre-revolution: Westernized, loves Bruce
Lee
 Idealistic and inquisitive, learning from
uncle Anouche

We're gonna smash Ramine's face.

takes on the adults’ enthusiasm (or fanaticism)
1. After the revolution: Execution of
Uncle Anouche
2. After the I-I war: many dissidents
Communist Niloufar
&
Uncle Taher
1. Police Persecution
1. Parties
2. Alcohol
Marjane – wearing denim jacket and
buying punk music (Iron Maiden, etc.)
 “Punk is not ded”
 To evade control:
 Lies


Feeling isolated among her friends who
don’t understand revolution.
 Physical changes


Migration is a oneway trip; there is no
way home.
1. Cannot return
home
2. Acknowledges
her Iranian
background
The mother – protective;
 The father --instilling revolutionary
thoughts.

1. Asks her to maintain
her integrity;
2. To take off her veil
She herself got divorced 55 years ago
The first – a practice for the 2nd.
The black and white – to suggest an era
of dictatorial control
 Drawing to show different emotions and
human situations –human closeness,
humans as shadows, with dignity,
freedom, fantasies, liberty, etc.


Size contrast; floating, subjective views
when she falls in love, falls out of love …
Fear
Dignity

Costantino, Manuela "Marji: Popular
Commix Heroine Breathing Life into the
Writing of History." Canadian Review of
American Studies 38.3 (2008): 429-447.
Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web.
2 Oct. 2009.
 Claudio, Esteher. “Marjane Satrapi’s
elaborate simplicity: Persepolis.” Comic Grid
(March 28th, 2011).
 Jasmine Flowers, originated in Persia

Monsoon Wedding
 “Her Mother”
 Group Topic & Journal?
