Patriotism

Someone who is patriotic is someone that will defend their country from people who wish to destroy it and the people of that country. That can mean defending the country from people other nations that wish to kill the citizens of your country. It can also mean that you will fight to defend your country from laws or  people that you think will make things worse for the citizens of you country. In America you can do this by voting but in other countries such as Iran where Marjane Satrapi grew up from the graphic novel “persepolis”, the way they voice their opinions is to protests and go to rallies .like on page 5 in the first panel, we can see religious women wearing veils on one side arguing for the veil and on the other there are women not wearing a veil arguing for freedom. In america we also protests but it is different from why they are doing it in Iran because in Iran it is their version of voting but in the United States we protest to inform people about our cause and to try and convince them to vote in favor of our opinion. In persepolis they also portray being patriotic as dying for your cause or country. For example on page 31 people are standing around the hospital to honor those who were killed by the military and praise them as heroes.

Based on this definition, I would not consider myself patriotic because I would not give my life for this country and I would not stand in the streets to voice my opinion all day mainly because I think it's a waste of time. However I would vote on major issues but not a minor ones won't affect me too much. It would take very little for me to leave this country because I would rather be living in japan where my mom grew up but I am just afraid of a such a major change mainly because they speak a different language and my family would have no financial stability.