500 RACE AND ETHNICITY
primarily on the Palestinian inhabitants’ experiences of deprivation and frustration with
unequal social conditions. Sacco focuses more on his interviewees’ words than on his
own experiences, though he does participate in, and comment on, the events unfolding
around him. His role is ostensibly journalistic, but he becomes close to some of the peo-
ple that he interviews and eventually acknowledges the shortcomings of his own story:
its lack of objectivity and the need to represent the Israelis’ lives more fully. His attitude
toward his subjects shifts in kind, as he rejects an earlier desire to win awards from his
work in favor of trying just to absorb the atrocities visible everywhere. Th e visual depic-
tions of Sacco also change over time, as he fi rst appears both physically and emotionally
detached from the scene, standing on a wall above Jerusalem, but is later shown walking
through marketplaces and city streets, drinking tea with Palestinian men, and guiding
others through the very geographies that were once alien to him.
Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (1999 –2003) provides another important illustra-
tion of the mass appeal that ethnic autobiographies hold for diverse populations of
readers. Th is graphic novel spans a 14-year period in Satrapi’s life, from her girl-
hood in Iran to a period spent at a French high school in Vienna to her return to
Iran, when she refl ects upon her country’s chaotic history and the possibility that she
could live a more productive life elsewhere. Satrapi is careful to narrate contemporary
political events in Iran alongside her personal experiences in romance, education,
and work, suggesting that her sometimes misguided or impetuous behavior was a
result in part of repressive social conditions. Satrapi also co-wrote and co-directed
the animated fi lm adaptation of her novel, which won the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
Jury Prize. Th is event highlights not only the permeation of independent graphic
narratives into other media, a milestone that superhero comics achieved long ago,
but also Western audiences’ increasing acceptance of and identifi cation with other
cultural experiences.
Although Persepolis includes some comedic moments to illustrate the main char-
acter’s personal diffi culties, it does not rely upon humor as a central narrative device,
as many recent ethnic autobiographies have done. Gene Luen Yang’s American Born
Chinese (2006) alternates among three geographically and chronologically diverse nar-
ratives: the rise to power, downfall, and intellectual reawakening of the mythological
Monkey King; the Chinese American Jin Wang’s experiences of assimilating into the
American school system and dealing with the traumas of adolescence; and the slap-
stick adventures of Danny, a white American teenager who represents Jin’s fantasy self,
and his visiting cousin Chin-Kee, whose exaggeratedly stereotypical traits repeatedly
humiliate him. As the three stories progress, it becomes clear that their similar themes
are meant to convey a joint message. Jin must learn to accept his own ethnic background
and cultural traditions, refusing to succumb to either embarrassment over his ethnic
roots or scorn for other Asians, before he can be comfortable in his own skin. Th e book
concludes with Jin’s discovery that his longtime friend Wei-Chen Sun is really the son
of the Monkey King, sent to live among humans as a test of virtue. When Wei-Chen
begins to crave human vices, the Monkey King takes his place in Jin’s life as Chin-Kee.
