I really like the Persian proverb that says “when it is dark you can see the stars.” To mean it means two things, one meaning is that when we are going through the worse times there is always some hope somewhere, even if it seems dim and far away. The other meaning is that during the worst times in history ordinary men and women can become heroes. We are finally able to see the compassion and the love that everyone including ourselves posses. In conflict and trials we find our most notable heroes.

In the graphic novel Persepolis we find a hero in the protagonist and author Marjane Satrapi as she has to live amid the religious upheaval of Iran in the seventies and the war between Iran and Iraq in the eighties. Even after escaping her homeland, Marjane has to survive in a strange country where she is called an Ausländer, foreigner. In Iran Marjane protests against the dictatorial Shah, or king, of Iran, even though people are stabbed, stoned, and shot at these rallies. After the take over of the country by the fundamentalist Muslims, Marjane keeps her independence by listening to American music and wearing American clothes, a crime that could be punishable by death. When Marjane finally gets out of Iran and into Austria, she survives for months on the street in the winter. Marjane got and education so that she could make something of herself. Finally, Marjane got a divorce from her husband, which in Iranian culture made her a sex object because she was no longer a virgin.

In Hotel Rwanda, a humble hotel manager becomes the savior of more than a thousand refugees, at the risk of his own life. The manager, named Paul Rusesabagina, gets caught in a civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples in the small country of Rwanda. Daily in the civil war people are shot in the street, houses are burned, and buildings are firebombed. Paul has to pull as many favors as he can from the white European tourists he has met to keep the hotel itself from being overrun by the Hutu army. Paul is faced with the task of keeping his Tutsi wife and Hutu and Tutsi neighbors from being killed, so he takes them to the only safe spot he knows, the hotel. Paul nearly loses his life trying to get food and water for his hotel guests by meeting with militant suppliers, the only ones with food and water. Finally Paul uses his wits to get his refugees evacuated to Tanzania, saving their lives.

In both of these periods of time ordinary people accomplished the extraordinary. A girl fought against a revolution and a hotel manager saved his neighbors and friends. When it gets dark, we really can see the stars.

Nick B.