Persepolis: A Story of Childhood

Throughout Persepolis we are given a view on the Islamic Revolution as well as the Iran-Iraq War through the eyes of ten-year-old Marjane Satrapi, whose story makes the events much more veritable. Within the first few pages of Persepolis, we see our faithful narrator Marji separated from her male friends, and is given a veil which she is told to wear at school. For the first few chapters Marji is naïve about what is going on in her country of Iran; believing that the Shah was, in fact, chosen by God, until one night when her dad explains how the Shah came to power. He explains how the Shah’s father came from a proletarian part of society, and how the British decided to use him as a puppet to control Iran. From this moment on, Marji becomes more and more secular, and begins to protest what Iran’s government is doing in her own way. Shortly after Marji has this conversation with her father, the Shah is exiled, and Iran is run under an Islamic regime. Women are forced to wear veils while in public, universities are closed down and many people Marji knew soon become martyrs, dying because they spoke out against the government. Her friends begin to part ways with her, going with their families to safer territories. Marji tells her parents that they should leave too, but before they even have time to think it over, the U.S. Embassy is shut down because of its occupation by a group of fundamentalist students who took the Embassy employees captive in their own work place. This resulted in an embargo on the airlines so that nobody could leave the country anymore. Soon enough, the Iran-Iraq war is upon Marji and her family. The president of Iraq, Sadam Hussein, had decided to invade their country when he saw that it was at a weakened state due to the destruction by protests against the revolution. Bombs start going off in both countries, making the Middle East a reservoir of destruction.

These events shape Marji in many ways; from the way she handles certain situations, to what she decides is okay for her to do in public, even the way she dresses is effected. Marji becomes very outspoken throughout her teenage years; not caring about using the clandestine black market to buy music, nor does she care about how much trouble she gets in at school. I think if the Islamic Revolution never came to be, she would still be the conservative, studious girl she was when she was younger.

Once Marji gets to Vienna, my prediction:
Marji arrives in Vienna timid, and unsure of how to get through life without the guiding hands of her mom and dad. Because of her strong will and independence, she soon adjusts to life in Austria. But in no way is her new life in Austria decadent. The biggest obstacle she must face her entire time there is her origin. People label her as an Iranian, and because of this she is shunned, taunted, and mistreated. She discovers that most people outside of her own country are completely ignorant to the real story of what happened to Iran. So he decides to educate as many people as she can by illustrating her childhood and releasing it to the public.