What a Girl Wants

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Recommended: Analysis of the character pride and prejudice

What a Girl Wants The cultures in the early 1800s in England to Iran in the 1980s have a very different upbringing pertaining to the women. Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, and Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice, put these different cultures in perspective. Both of these cultures have a societal ideal on how women should act. The female main characters have a strong sense for what they want and put great emphasis on how to achieve the desires that make them happy. To achieve these needs and wants a woman can either have self-control or be so rebellious that life will change unexpectedly. In order to achieve self-respect and respect from others, Marjane leaves her culture, whereas Elizabeth is true to herself within her culture. First we have Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis. She does not have any self control. She speaks her mind and does it with rudeness. Her culture is to listen and obey as well as marry the traditional standards of an Iranian. These traditions are not for her. She had her own way of doing things, and it set in at an early age. Tehran being in the war zone, has a lot of changes to the rules, especially for the women, namely no makeup, jewelry, parties, smoking, drinking and public display with boys. Additionally, she must wear a veil at all times. The rules made her more untamable. At the age of fourteen she became a rebel because she says, “After the death of Neda Baba-Levy my life took a new turn” (143). She feared nothing anymore. Marjane would do anything to get attention from her parents. The first sign of her rebellious side came after the death Neda Baba-Levy; she wore jewelry and jeans to school. The school principle yelled at her for wearing the jeans and jewelry. Marjan... ... middle of paper ... ... (337). No one was going to tell her who she can and cannot marry. Lady Catherine de Brough, even with Elizabeth’s forwardness, had respect for her. Elizabeth handled herself with elegance and control. Her view of self-control, self-respect and respect from others was by speaking your mind with great pride and kindness. Getting what she wants in an elegant manner, has not failed her. Marjane and Elizbeth have self-respect, if they didn’t they would be stuck in the so called life of what is traditional. They would have to act the way every woman in their culture acts and that would pretty much be with no self-esteem and control. They would endure the actions of a robot. Having self-respect, whether it is in a culture in the eighteen hundreds or nineteen eighties, a woman needs to explore her inner self and discover what it is she wants to make her happy.

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