Marjane “Marji” Satrapi life was marked by the Islamic Revolution, something that would forever change her life and the way she thought. Her story is set in 1980 when she is only ten years-old and this was the year that her life begins to quickly change. Even though her story is set in Tehran, a place where there are always many threats, protests where people are killed for what they believe, and it is eventually to dangerous for her to live there, it was still a place where people could find joy. It seems as if her story examines the idea that there can not be slaughter without laughter. There is especially a lot of laughter in Marjane’s early life, before she moves in to Vienna and she begins a very personal crisis. At a young age Marji doesn’t …show more content…
From the start of the story you can see that Marji has a very big imagination and at times it can be very funny. She is unlike other children in the way that she thought about the world around her and her future very differently. Most children would say that wanted to be a President or apart of a Royal family because they wanted to changed the rules of the world, but instead Marji said, “At the age of six I was sure that I was the last Prophet” (p. 6). She even went on to tell her class this but decided to keep it from her parents because she figured that it was actually quite unusual. This is quite funny to because it just showed how she is not like other kids and she is willing to be so different. It is also funny that instead of playing with dolls, like most girls her age may do, she is talking with God. With her friends in the neighborhood Marji carries on that leadership role and shares with them her imagination. In one scene Marji and her friends believe that they have to defend or honor a dead million and to do so they go after Ramin whose father was apart of the savak (p. 45). Marji leads her friends as to find Ramin with nails between their fingers but her mother finds them and Marji realizes that she was wrong. Scenes like these are great and make the reader realize why the book is a graphic novel, being able to see what Marji’s thoughts look like make the story even more funny. Lastly, Marji was a child asked a lot of questions and was quick to share her thoughts. When her Uncle Anoosh came around after his release from prison she was quick to ask him plenty of questions and it seemed that she wanted to sort out if he was some kind of hero. She sorted out that he was a hero and one that she greatly looked up to because of the fact that he had gone to prison for nine years (p. 60). She goes on to kind of brag about
In the beginning of story Marji introduces the war and how it affects her country, “‘The revolution is like a bicycle. When the wheels don’t turn, it falls”’ (10). The revolution being compared to a bicycle explains, that when the government begins to make changes in a country that restrict people from their rights, it leads to revolt and outrage from the citizens. Satrapi also uses a simile when describing her uncle’s arrival, “‘We waited for him for hours. There was the same silence as before a storm”’ (30), this created imagery. Similes added imagery, description, and characterization to Satrapi’s
...er family at the dinner table. When Mehri is sixteen she falls in love with a boy in the neighborhood. Because she was a peasant Mehri did not get the opportunity to go to school so Marji must help her with writing and reading of the letters sent to the neighbor boy. Doing this was hurtful to both Mehri and Marji who became aware of the effects of being in a lower class and Mehri who realizes that love does have restrictions.
As a young girl, the power she saw in the revolution lead her to want to be powerful, as portrayed in this picture. She longed to be related to a hero, a person she believed went to jail, was tortured, and made it out. She did not understand everything she heard, and took it into the wrong context. By the time Marjane was a teenager, the war between Iran and Iraq had exposed her to immense death, destruction and violence. She was old enough to better understand such actions, and they negatively affected her actions. Marjane made fun of school rituals, skipped class, and got expelled for hitting the principal. She saw her mother as a dictator and rebelled against her my smoking a cigarette. This theme gradually changes Marjane’s personality, and by the end of the book all her fear was
This is much bigger than just Marji life it’s the entire lifestyle in Iran. Marji explores the transition with references to torture to human rights when she shows it being done in society through media and images. In the novel, the author could be visible the struggles that the main character Marji in socialism is true between the world of Iran’s such as the social classes, Morality, freedom and
Marji is no exception to this as she disobeys her mother all the time. This is the case on page 117 when she smokes the cigarette in direct conflict with her mother. She even says “with this cigarette, I kiss my childhood goodbye.” This is a big case of her loss of innocence and her advanced maturity as she now will think for herself and she will make her own decisions for the rest of her life. This is important as it is her own form of rebellion against her mother's “dictatorship” and she is just following in her parents footsteps of rebelling against things that she does not agree with and she is now proving her independence. Another example of her rebellion is on page 113 when she rebels against her mother and ditches class. Then when she gets home her mother yells at her. This makes her more rebellious, independent and less likely to listen to her mother in the future as she believes she can make her own decisions as she believes she is an adult. It also loses more of her innocence as she does not want to listen to her mother at all as she is ditching class for her friends and boys, compared to a child who does everything their mother says as they can not think for themselves. Another example of her rebellion is on page 143 when the teacher strictly tells Marji that she can not wear jewelry yet she does it anyway. Then when the teacher catches her again Marji
Margi had been out shopping for jeans with her friend Shadi. Then all the sudden there was a big boom and Margi`s heart sunk when she found out that a missile had landed right in her neighborhood. ‘I didn't want to look up. I looked at my trembling legs. I couldn't go forward, like in a nightmare. Let them be alive. Let them be alive Let them…” (Satrapi 140). She quickly took a taxi to her house and found out that her family was alright and that everything was going to be ok. This made Marji reflect on how she acted to her mother and father and really question what she would do without them. If her parents had died then the last thing she would have said to her mother was for her to give Margi one thousand Tumans which was a ton of money because their currency value had dropped drastically. The bombing of the Baba-Levy`s house was one of the most influential parts of Margi`s life to that day. It forced her to reflect on how she has treated her parents and in the future she will remember that things could change any second so you should treat every second like it's your
She says, “I was born with religion” (pg 6). Unlike other children, Marji wants to be a prophet when she is older. This idea is not normal for a child or anyone under the Muslim religion since prophets have always been men. Her classmates laugh at her dream of becoming a prophet and her teacher speaks to her parents, but Marji stays true to her passion. Marji believes religion should be used to create good things and change anything bad. Growing up, Marji doesn’t understand why her maid cannot eat at the dinner table with her family or why her friends do not drive a Cadillac like her father. Marji is a child and does not understand the concept of social classes. As a result, Marji sees religion as a way to change these things. She believes that in the name of God she could make sure everyone is treated equally. Marji’s opinion is untainted by any other connotations of religion. She is forming her own opinions and they are good. Satrapi uses her perspective of religion as a child to show how pure religion could be in the eyes of someone young. The perspective of a child is appealing to the reader because it is innocent and naive. Satrapi is trying to make the point that if everyone saw religion in a good way it could be used for good
Marjane Satrapi shows her need for hope with religion. She demonstrates her faith in god even with depression and war early in her memoir. Satrapi’s father is explaining to her the history of Iran and how God had no intervention in the past events. Her father manages to completely switch the ideals that Marjane is taught in school about the Iranian ruler. Marjane continues to display hope when she says “Maybe God helped them nevertheless.” (22) Another effect of hope Marjane shows is in the chapter the letter. Marjane tells the story of her maid and her secret admirer, in the end Satrapi learns that the war is in favor of stopping social classes and so she wishes to fix social classes so her maid can be happy. “But is it her fault that she was born where she was born???... When I went back to her room she was crying. We were not in the same social class but at least we were in the same bed.”
After Marjane learns that her great grandpa was an emperor of Iran, she pictures him living an extraordinary life as royalty. Her image includes her great grandpa riding an elephant with a crown and the sun shining with a castle in the background (Satrapi 22). This illustration of her imagination is comedic because it shows Iran’s past being perfect through Marjane’s eyes when, in fact, it was nothing like she envisioned. Her limited knowledge causes her to perceive things almost opposite of how they really are, while distracting the reader from the conflicts occuring in the country. Futhermore, Satrapi uses comedy to demonstrate that Marjane’s personality is similar to an average child her age, despite the environment she is living in . When Marjane’s father goes out to take photos of the revolution, her mother and grandma become worried about him, and they start to discuss the matter. They are clearly not talking to her, but
Satrapi is able to illustrate the characteristics of the characters as well as reflect on the past. Having the ability to incorporate past and present is a vital element in fully understanding and following her story. The past events in Marjis life reflect how she makes her descions in the present. It is imperative that one must always build from the bottom and work your way up. Having a strong foundation is the vital element in creating something successful. Marji often refers back to her past to make reference of why she believes this or why she is trying that. She learns by her mistakes of the past and it is noted through the illustrations. This visual image below from Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis series allows the readers to see Marji both internally and
Religion, government, and social organization all played a part in Marji’s journey in Persepolis from childhood to adulthood. Religion caused many arguments between Marji and parents, friends, and teachers. The Iranian government affected Marji by making her more rebellious than she already was. Social organization was a big issue in her life, because she had a good relationship with her maid and was angry that she could not have the same opportunities. The revolution in Iran has changed Marjane Satrapi’s life, in ways good and
Despite the fact that Marjane is born and raised in Tehran, Iran, she is as much a product of Western customs as of Middle Eastern customs. The younger Marjane showed how the Iranian Revolution affected her life. The Iranian Revolution was the exiling of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and its concluding substitution with an Islamic republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, supported by a mixture of leftist and Islamic organizations. The new government became more suppressive by enforcing Islamic laws into the constitution and prohibiting westerner influence of any kind. On the contrary Marjane is raised by Marxist parents, who believe in freedom and tend to adapt to a more westernized upbringing. Marjane is similar to any other teenager, she starts to grow up and rebel against her elders and her traditions. Her revolt takes the form of a better awareness of and interaction with western culture. Marjane have many items ...
Iran’s society became more fundamentalist, which made Marji more disillusioned of her religion. At the beginning of the story, when the westernized dictator Shah governs Iran, Marji defines herself as a “very religious” (6) person, although she and her family think of themselves as being “very modern and Avant-Garde”(6). Religion, and its many stories and traditions perspectives allowed Marji to think of herself as “the last prophet”. Thinking of herself as a prophet somehow made her to escape to an imaginary religious glory where there were not violent atrocities. But, ironically, that religious imaginary boundary was only a façade that blocked her to see the violent reality. However, in the story “The Sheep” she began to see the cruel reality. In the story “The Sheep” Marji’s uncle Anoosh got executed by the so-called “Divine Justice”. Although the
Throughout the novel Marji is constantly trying to figure out who she is and who she is going to become. But by the end of the novel Marji evolves into an independent woman who does what she wants with her life to make her happy, something that would never have happened without the influence of women throughout her life. Works Cited Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. Pantheon; First Edition, 2004
Young Marjane Satrapi displays the characteristics that any child might have. She is simple, innocent, and easily influenced. For example, when her parents are demonstrating against the king, Marjane Satrapi says, “As for me, I love the king, he was chosen by God” (Satrapi 19). Her teacher tells her this, and she believes her teacher because Marjane Satrapi is a child and, in all innocence, will believe anything because her teacher, in her eyes, knows everything. Situations such as this show the influence of authority on her as a child because the teacher is an authority who tells Satrapi a misleading fact and Satrapi believes her, or is influenced by her.... ...