When writing any type of story, whether a novel or a poem, fiction or non-fiction, scholarly or frivolous, a author must consider the most effective way to convey the message effectively. to their audience. Choosing the wrong form, or method of speaking to the reader, could lead to a radical misunderstanding of the meaning of an author's content, or of what precisely the author means (Baldick 69). Even though there are slightly fewer words in a graphic novel than in the average novel, an author can convey as much content and meaning through their images as they could through 60,000 words. However, to do this, their use of form must be carefully considered and controlled. Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic memoir The Complete Persepolis, took great care in creating her panels to strengthen and emphasize her narrative, much like a novelist uses punctuation and paragraph breaks. Through her portrait of darkness and lightness, Satrapi demonstrates that literary content influences and is paramount over form. Lightness and darkness have very different meanings in the human psyche in that lightness is synonymous with innocence and naivety while darkness coincides with anything intimidating. and evil. Throughout the memoir, many situations are repeated but with different degrees of seriousness. For example, on pages 113 and 145, Marjane argues with her mother. However, the first case is only a minor act of pre-adolescent rebellion while the second hints at the possibility of state-sanctioned rape and execution. At first glance, these pages look very similar; Marjane's mother is visibly angry and invades her daughter's personal space while she lectures and...... middle of paper ...... the signs that describe her actions and the results of these actions magnify the comfort brought by Satrapi's words. She was in no real danger, and yet her hasty decision to draw the Guardian's attention to another could very well have proved fatal to the scapegoat she had chosen. In fact, the Guardian she calls to protect herself from the supposedly “indecent” man immediately responds to the situation with: “Where is that bastard, I’m going to silence him once and for all!” » This brutal and aggressive statement is written on one of the few panels in this chapter with a black background. This brings a temporary feeling of fear and anxiety over whether or not the poor confused man will fight the Guardians to try and protect himself from the completely false accusations. The white backgrounds return when the reader learns that the man fortunately did not fight the armed group..