Childhood is arguably the most important part of your life, for many reasons.
The first, (and most factual reason), is the physical development that occurs from when a baby is born to when the baby is about three years old. The baby's body changes almost daily, with the baby's core and muscles developing, the motor skills that start to come along, and the extensive cognitive and sensory development that occurs. The baby/child becomes aware of the huge world around them!
(More about early childhood development: http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/ss/early-childhood-development_4.htm)
The second reason childhood is so important is the vast imagination that children possess at young ages. The games that they play with themselves, friends or siblings are complex, and extremely creative. Give a young girl some blocks, little animal toys and dolls and their playroom becomes a huge zoo or beauty parlor in a quaint town. Give a couple small boys some sticks and they will have epic battles for their kingdoms all day, or maybe become jedi knights.
Marjane, (from Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi) is no different. She and her friends pretended to be revlutionaries such as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Trotsky, and demonstrated in front of their houses. Marji, (Marjane), like other childen, loves the idea of a war hero, and when she didn't have her own in the family, she would make up fantastic definant prison stories about her father, and her friends would look to her with awe. She invested herself into the tales of her grandfather and uncle, and listened as carefully as anyone could, and of course, bragged to all of her friends.
I think once a child can fully understand and internalize serious issues on a more adult level, they are no longer a 'child', but at the same time, I don't feel like a person becomes a full adult until they leave their family and gain independence. Marji became more grown up throughout the book as she understood more and more about the horrible things that happened during the revolution, and her sense of innocence was diminished. She grew up, but I still don't consider her to be a full adult because even though she left her country and parents, she still has to rely on another family in Australia.
I love this blog! I thought it was cool how you pulled out the chart for child development periods to show the ages of when boys and girls grow up and when they go through each stage of their lives. I also agree with the fact that imagination is such an important part of childhood. Having an imagination is so fun because you can take something so small and simple and turn it into something so much more exciting.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you tied in child psychology information and related to Marj's childhood. I think that it would be easier to understand how the child psychology information relates to Marj and her childhood if you integrated the factual information into your discussion about the text instead of just stating the information and then talking about the text. I like how you put in pictures that related directly to the book, but also pictures that had to do with the information that you found about childhood. My favorite part about your blog was your idea on how Marj is using activities that children normally do like pretending to fight villains, but she is using them to help her understand adult issues. Overall I think this is a good blog because it is interesting and held my attention.
ReplyDeleteThis blog was great. Everything tied together and it was kept interesting using visuals like comic strips to help us understand the point. I liked how there were examples from other sources and some dialogue from other famous pieces like Calvin and Hobbes that went along with the theme of this post perfectly. It held my attention and I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good blog post! I love how you space everything out with pictures that enhance what you are trying to say, the cartoon also made it more fun to read. I agree with what you said about Marji not being a child anymore because of what she has been through but she can not be considered an adult because she is not independent and still does not really understand many things that are going on. I really enjoyed reading this, nice job!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog. I thought that adding the child psychology information was very good. Her ideas were stated and then supported by the factual evidence. I also thought that the comics were a nice add. The comics still related to the book, even though they aren't from the book. They supported her ideas. I never thought about the idea of imagination, but now I have and I think that it's very important. I think that her blog is really strong in terms of following what a good blog is. The text was easy to read and I think putting in other information was a fine idea.
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