Persepolis Analysis

Persepolis: How Dislike is worse than Indifference

Hostility is far more detrimental to an individual’s self-worth than complete indifference. By nature, indifference is a passive act, while dislike can turn into physical or verbal abuse. Animosity is often deeply rooted in one’s mind, much harder to change and forgive than simple apathy. Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, also illustrates that hatred is greatly more destructive to a society. Through Marji, Satrapi’s younger self, it is shown that dislike can compromise the compassion of normally good people. Satrapi also displays that intolerance can take hold of and shape the actions of an entire population. Iran during its political tension of the 1970s and 1980s is the perfect backdrop to explain the many ways that hatred manifests itself, and how it can have a severe lasting impact on all who are involved.

Indifference is unassertive. It is indubitable that being ignored can cause harm, but at the end of the day it won’t directly cause physical damage to anyone. Satrapi also demonstrates how hatred can lead some, even the purest, to commit violence. After learning her classmate’s father worked in the regime’s secret police, Marji is

In the long term, the pain caused by animosity is remembered but apathy is often forgotten. Satrapi showed in Persepolis how it can be hard to let go of the feeling of being despised. Despite the graphic novel being published around twenty years after the events of the story, Satrapi still recalls some of the insults thrown the way of her family and friends. Satrapi writes a profound example of this when Mali, a friend of her mother, was insulted in a supermarket. She said, “To have the Iraqis attack, and to lose in an instant, everything you had built over a lifetime, that’s one thing… But to be spat upon by your own kind, it is intolerable!”. Abuse fueled by hate is more memorable than any act of