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Response Paper 2 (Twentieth Century)
Most feminist disciplines show that interests for women in the society were rarely taken into account. In the history of novels, few women authors in the beginning of the 18th century have made crucial contributions but were concerned with gender issues. The roles of women were restricted to domestic duties as most of them were not educated and the society had set apart things that women could do and those that forbiIDen to them. This prevented women in taking up writing and recording roles. However, from the 18th century women have struggled to abandon these restrictive roles and have taken up more active roles in different aspects of life.
In the novel the journey to the whirlwind and the film Persepolis, viewers see stories written and narrated by women. First, these women describe events during political times. Politics was among issues that did not belong to women, and as such it shows courage from the narrators to seek to aIDress such issues affecting the society. This paper seeks to evaluate whether gender plays any role in the events that are covered in the film and novel. In aIDition, it evaluates the differences between men and women as explored in the film as well as highlighting some perspectives included in female narrations (and that will probably be absent in male narrations).
Although other categories such as characters, space, and plot are necessary in the analysis of the film, the narrator plays a critical role in building up the events. The most important aspects in consideration are the narrative voice and focalization. Both aspects consist of the narrative situation. Narrative situation evaluates the way a narrative is inherently told. The narrative voice is the person who tells the story. Narrators fall into different categories such as the homodiegetic, heterodiegetic, and autodiegetic narrators. The homodiegetic narrator is a narrator who is also part of the characters in the story. On the other hand, the heterodiegetic is a narrator who is not part of the story but knows the story. The autodiegetic narrator plays the role of the protagonist in the narration. Both the journey into the whirlwind and the film Persepolis use homodiegetic and autodiegetic narrators. The narrators explicitly explores on political situations in their respective societies.
Writing by women shows realistic reproduction of the social world using languages, which are straightforward. The women’s narrations in the two accounts matter because they show that women have managed recently to break the rule of silence and the stereotypes that surrounded their lives. This has significantly raised strong voices in question the evils of the world as well as attempted to resolve the issues surrounding the society. The women’s role in the society was restricted to domestic affairs, which had put it clearly the things that they could do or could not do. These two accounts, the female narrators explain their role in solving political issues, which affected the society. Many years back, women did not engage in politics, but viewers saw them engaging agitation efforts as depicted in the Persepolis film. The protagonist, a young girl named Marji, is portrayed as courageous enough to explore the effects of revolution on the people close to her and as willing to help by all the possible means. Similarly, in the Journey into the Whirlwind, the narrator who is a strong supporter of communism is willing to stay put, tell the truth, and defend herself when faced with false allegations. She shows a strong character by refusing to run away as she considers herself a true communist (Ginzburg 8).
The role of gender is important in the narration of events as there is a huge difference between male and female psychology, which affects their narrations. Women narrators talk more about their feeling and emotional connection of the events happening around them than their male counterparts. In the film Persepolis, Marji is seen talking to a maid who explains how she was in love with a boy in the neighbourhood. The boy thought that she was a daughter of the family, but when he realized that she was a maid, he did not want to be associated with her. Marji feels agitated by this kind of treatment coming from people who regarded themselves higher in the social class. Similarly, when she talks to her grandmother about her tribulations when her grandfather was in prison as well as when her uncle narrates his experience in prison, Marji feels so sorry for her relatives’ affliction, and this motivates her to seek solutions through political activism.
Male narrators are more concerned about humorous stories, stories for fun and jokes, while female narrators are concerned about the issues that affect women and the marginalized in the society. This may be explained following the sufferings that women had endured through time, which makes them seek to resolve issues that affect them. For example, in the journey into the whirlwind, readers see the narrator (Genia) preferring to stay in the village because she wants to do what is right; she is also using her knowledge to help the community. Though she takes the right path in going to the commission of the party in the attempt to prove that she is innocent, she is accused in a manner that shows how the well intended and intellectuals become victims of witch hunting (Ginzburg 24).
The women narrators are very keen and more detailed than men narrators. In these two accounts, viewers notice both Marji and Genia giving step by step explanations of what happened. In the film Persepolis, Marji on her part seeks to engage as many people as possible close to her in understanding how people were personally affected by the revolution and what they sought to do about it. Following their narrations, viewers can understand clearly everything that happened. However, the male perspective would have omitted some details regarding them as obvious (Ginzburg 41).
Another distinction between the men and women narrators is the diction of contingency. Female narrators use words that depict their independence in different circumstances. This is because women narrators are dependent on conditions, on which they have little or no control. In the film, the narrator uses a demanding voice, which shows confidence. Similarly, her voice shows stubbornness as she is incentive and wants to know how things were during the times of her grandmother. The narrator is only a child but is brave enough to want to help. At her tender she already wants to help in the many unresolved issues in the society.
In most of the female narrations, the focus is more on the destiny of the heroines, different aspects of the female life, and depiction of the women chores. The narrative voice responds to the needs of the society. In these accounts we see the narrators explain the different roles of the women in the society and the eventual destiny of the heroines involved (Ginzburg 12). Although they suffered, the narrators are optimistic that the suffering was for the common good of the people. Similarly, they use words of social engagement; this is because the female minds are more socially constructed than those of the male counterparts, which tend to be focused on individual competition. The men perspective of the narration of events would have missed the social and togetherness aspect brought out by the female narrators. The male narration does not include many breaks as it seems like continuous prose while women break from one scene to another. Their narrations include many scenes.
In conclusion, this paper has used the women narrations in the book of the Journey into the Whirlwind and the film Persepolis in analyzing reasons for gender matters in the narrations of events. The women’s life has been faced with challenges and sufferings, which makes them more responsive to issues affecting the society. The use of narrations in political context shows the maturity and success of women in the society. The upbringing and the stereotypes held against women in the society plays a crucial role in the distinction between men and female narrations in literature. Similarly, the male perspective in narration would omit some concepts as men are less detailed in their narrations. In aIDition, the psychology of men is more individualistic, and therefore it is likely that male narrators would overlook social engagements.

Works Cited
Ginzburg, Eugenia Semyonovna. Journey into the Whirlwind. 2002. Accessed on https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-7bOBp6ArZKREQyMjhBN21sVFk/edit?usp=sharing. October 21, 2013.
Persepolis. Dir. Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud. Perf. Chiara Mastroianni et al. Sony Pictures Classics. 2007. Film.