Persepolis -Satrapi Marjane

● Summary

Persepolis begins with a short introduction. It is an abbreviated history

of Iran from its first occupation by Indo-European nomads, to the
establishment of the Persian Empire, to the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The author writes that the purpose of her book is to show that Iran is
not a country of fundamentalists and terrorists, and that
characterizations of the country by the West are inaccurate.

As a ten-year old girl, the author is forced to wear a veil to school by

those that called for a cultural revolution in Iran. There are many
protests both for and against this cultural revolution. Her French non-
religious school is abolished and boys and girls are separated for
education. Her mother protests against the changes and her picture
appears in newspapers across Europe. She is afraid after that. The
author believes that one day she will be the last prophet. She has
conversations with God in which she imagines that there will be
cultural and social equality and that old people will not suffer from
pain. When she announces her plan, her classmates and teacher
ridicule her but she retains the hope that she will one day be the
symbol for justice, love, and the wrath of God.

She and her friends often pretend to be revolutionary figures such as

Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. She knows of world history because of
books that her parents give to her, and her favorite book is a comic
book called Dialectic Materialism, in which Marx and Descartes argue
over the validity of the material world. One night, while talking to God,
she overhears her parents talking about a fire at a local theater in
which 400 people died. The fire, they say, was ordered by the Shah
and the people plan to demonstrate. The author begs her parents to
let her attend the demonstration, but they refuse because she is too
young.

Marjane's father explains the history of the Revolution to her: Reza

Shah had been a foot soldier fighting against the King of Persia in
order to install a republic. This had been during a time when Western
democratic ideals were being instituted in many countries around the
world. The British had learned of Reza Shah's desire to overthrow the
king and, seeing an opportunity to profit from the country's rich oil
fields, the British had supported Reza Shah's plans. The British made
sure he had been instituted as Emperor. Marjane's grandfather had
been a prince before Reza Shah came to power and, after had been
the Prime Minister of Iran. Her grandfather had become a communist,
however, and had been imprisoned and tortured by being put in cells
full of water. Marjane tries to imagine what such torture would have
felt like.

Her grandmother visits and tells her more about the Shah. The Shah is
a very harsh ruler who sees himself in the line of Cyrus the Great and
other great Persian rulers. When Marjane's grandfather had been
imprisoned, her mother and grandmother had been very poor,
sometimes boiling water on a stove just so that the neighbors would
believe that they had food. Marjane's father is missing that afternoon
and the family believes him dead. He returns late to tell an incredible
story about a mob that commandeered a dead man's funeral in order
to protest against the Shah.

Marjane has a maid named Mehri. Mehri's parents had given Mehri to
the Satrapi's as a child because they had too many children to feed.
Mehri falls in love with the neighbor's son and they write passionate
love letters to each other. Mehri tells Marjane all about their love for
each other. The news about their relationship gets out, however, and
Marjane's father finds out. He goes to the neighbor's boy and explains
that Mehri is not their daughter but is, instead their maid. The boy
decides not to see Mehri anymore. When Mr. Satrapi finds that
Marjane had written many of Mehri's love letters for her, because
Mehri is illiterate, he explains that their love for each other is
impermissible because social classes cannot mix. Defiant of her
parents, Marjane takes Mehri to demonstrate at the marches. When
Marjane's mother finds out, she slaps both her and Mehri for putting
themselves in such a difficult situation.

Many people are beginning to die in the revolution. The Shah's rule
becomes impossible and so he leaves the country for the United
States, a move that Mr. Satrapi interprets as the United State's greed
for the world's oil. At school, Marjane and her friends try to beat up a
boy that was in the Shah's secret police. The boy defiantly tells her
that he is proud that his father killed communists. Marjane is told that
she must forgive those that torture. Marjane gives up her "Dialectic
Materialism" comics and retreats to the arms of her imaginary God
friend.

After the Shah steps down, the political prisoners are released. Two of
them, Mohsen and Siamak, are good friends of the family and come to
visit. They tell stories of torture and imprisonment. The torturers, they
say, had been trained by United States CIA agents. Marjane and her
friends begin to play games in which they pretend the losers are
tortured. Marjane feels badly for such games and her mother again
tells her that she must forgive those that tortured.

Marjane learns that her Uncle Anoosh had also been in prison and she
is proud that he is a hero of the Revolution. Anoosh had defied the
Shah's rule by taking a position in a government that had declared
independence from the Shah. He had moved to the U.S.S.R. where he
had become a Marxist and had married. His wife had divorced him
and he had returned to Iran where he had been captured and
imprisoned. Anoosh tells her that her family's memory must live on
through such stories.
Her father and her uncle have intense and somewhat confusing
political conversations. The revolution was leftist, yet the republic is
led by religious fundamentalists. Anoosh predicts that the religious
leaders will soon relinquish control to the people. Many people,
including some in Marjane's family, begin to move to the United States
and to Europe to escape the new fundamentalist regime. Marjane's
father does not want to leave Iran because he would lose his social
status. The situation becomes perilous, however, and the family learns
that Mohsen and Siamak's sister had been killed by the Guardians of
the Republic, a kind of military police force. The former revolutionaries
soon become the enemies of the republic.

Marjane finds out that her Uncle Anoosh has been arrested and is
being held in captivity. Her father tells her that Anoosh has asked that
she be the one visitor he is allowed. Marjane goes to see her uncle
and he tells her that she is the daughter he wished he could have had.
Soon, they learn that Anoosh has been executed on the false charges
of being a Russian spy. Marjane banishes her God friend forever and
feels empty and alone. At that moment, bombs begin to fall and the
Iraq Iran war begins.

Other events begin to occur quickly. The American embassy is

overtaken and the Americans are forced to leave Iran. This crushes
Marjane's dream of one day going to the United States. Soon, the
religious leaders close all of the universities so that the curriculum can
be changed. This crushes Marjane's dream of being a famous
scientist like Marie Curie. When the car of Marjane's mother breaks
down, a group of men assaults her because she is not wearing the
required veil around her head. Women are then required to cover their
heads in public and Marjane has to lie about how much she prays
every day. Marjane's parents allow her to attend a rally demonstrating
against the new regime. The demonstration erupts in violence and
they do not demonstrate again.

The war intensifies and one day a group of bomber jets descends on
Tehran. Marjane is for the war because, as she explains, the Arabs had
forced their religion and culture on the Persians 1400 years earlier.
Her father believes that the real Islamic invasion is occurring in their
own government. A group of fighter pilots is released from jail and
they agree to fly for Iran if the old national anthem is broadcast on
television. One of Marjane's friends has a father who is a part of the
bombing but he is killed during the raid.

During the war, food and rations are low in the country and tensions
run high amongst the people. A bombing on the border town of
Abadan sends Marjane's friend Mali and her family to stay with them.
Mali had been wealthy and her family must sell their expensive jewels,
the one salvaged item from the bombing, in order to survive. One day,
while shopping in the grocery store, a group of women sees Mali and
calls her, and all refugee women, whores. Marjane is ashamed for
herself and for Mali.

Young male children are each given keys by their schools. The keys,
they are told, represent their ticket into heaven once they are martyred
during the war. The key is their ticket to women and a mansion in
heaven. One of Marjane's friends is given a key and Marjane's mother
tries to tell the boy that this is nothing but nonsense that the schools
are telling the children, but the boy seems oblivious. Marjane's cousin
Shahab returns home from the front lines and tells Marjane about the
horrible things that they do to children there. They send them out into
the minefields where they are blown up and killed.

During a party to celebrate the birth of a new cousin, a bombing raid

begins. Marjane's aunt becomes scared, hands her child to Marjane,
and runs off. The party continues, however, and there is dancing and
wine, things that are strictly forbidden by the regime. On their way
home, Marjane's family is stopped by the Guardians of the Revolution.
Smelling wine on Mr. Satrapi's breath, they follow the family home to
search the house. Marjane and her grandmother run up to their
apartment to dump out all the wine in the house. The guard, however,
only wants a bribe and so the family avoids the search, but they lose
all their alcohol.
Marjane makes friends with some older girls at school and one day
they all sneak away "Kansas," a Western style burger diner that the
regime has overlooked. They flirt with boys until a bombing raid
begins and the boys dive in the gutter to stay safe. At home, Marjane's
mother is upset that she skipped class and Marjane goes down to her
basement where she smokes a cigarette that she had stolen from her
uncle.

The war has become very bad with millions of people dying. Marjane's
Uncle Taher is very stressed about the war and about sending his son
overseas to avoid serving in the military. Because he smokes heavily,
Taher had had two heart attacks and soon he suffers a third. At the
hospital, a doctor tells Taher's wife that he must go to Europe for heart
surgery, but the hospital director refuses to give him a passport. Taher
dies on the same day that his passport arrives and he never realizes
his final wish of seeing his son one last time.

A year later, the Iranian government reopens the borders and

Marjane's parents are allowed to leave the country on a vacation. They
leave for Turkey, and when they return, they bring Marjane many
presents of Western culture. They sneak in a poster of the rock band
Iron Maiden and the rock star Kim Wilde. Marjane goes out wearing a
jean jacket, sneakers, and a Michael Jackson button, but she is
accosted by two women Guardians. They threaten to arrest her but let
her return home safely. Marjane does not tell her mother about the
incident for fear that she will become stricter and not let her have
such Western things. One day, Marjane goes out of the house to buy a
pair of jeans. While shopping, a bombing occurs in her neighborhood.
Marjane rushes home to find the house next to hers demolished. She
sees the arm of her Jewish friend, Neda Baba-Levy, sticking out from
the wreckage. She had been killed in the attack.

Marjane grows up to become a "rebel" and, after a confrontation with

one of her teachers, she is kicked out of school. Fearing that the
country is no longer safe for their daughter, the Satrapis decide to
send Marjane to Austria to attend a French school there. Marjane
spends one last night in the arms of her grandmother who advises her
not to carry resentment or hatred towards anyone. The next day, her
parents take her to the airport. Marjane senses that, though she will
see her parents again, they will never again live in the same
household. At the customs gate, Marjane turns to see her parents
leave. Her mother has fainted in her father’s arms.

● Plot Overview

In other countries such as America, at 10 years old, kids like to play outside, ride
bikes, and play video games. Childhood should be colorful, fun, filled with
laughter, and wonderful memories, but not in the book Persepolis by Marjane
Satrapi. This is her memoir and graphic novel about growing up during the end of
the Islamic Revolution and the Iran and Iraq War. The Iran and Iraq war was
started because of government differences, and the Islamic Revolution was due to
the new Shah that was ruling. At just 10 years old Marji’s life changed drastically
because of these events. Due to Marjane’s loss of innocence, she transitions from
childhood to adulthood, and the desire to move away from conformity, Persepolis
is a bildungsroman; a coming of age story.

The protagonist Marjane changes in many different many ways throughout the
book. In the beginning of Persepolis Marji is a young naïve girl, and all over the
story one can see how Marji has developed and soon loses her innocence. Later in
the book Marji learns of the tragedy that befalls of her Uncle Anoosh, the only
uncle she has not yet met. She learns that he has been in prison for the past 30
years and she becomes to admire him and his heroic actions. Marjane is proud of
him, she finally has a hero in her family. Anoosh then tells her stories of his past,
and they become very close. When Marji then learns that her closest uncle
Anoosh has run away to Moscow, she cannot believe it. “That was my last
meeting with my beloved Anoosh…”(70). Her father then tells her that he was
arrested and he can only have one visitor, he would like to see Marjane. Their
meeting was very short. Anoosh tells her that he is proud of her, that she is the
child he always wanted and that she was the light in his life. Marji is crushed by
her uncle’s death. She wanted to spend more time with him, she was still very
young when he died, and she lost a part of herself then, she has seen for herself
what death is and what it feels like to lose someone close to you. Another way
Marjane feels she has lost a part of her innocence is when Marji realizes that the
world or Iran is not how or what she thought it was; the country is different, very
different from how it used to be. Marji realizes that there are situations that she
never had to deal with or think about. “He told us sad but true stories: Reza
became a porter at the age of ten. Leila wove carpets at age five.” Marjane
realizes that everyday she has seen examples of young child labor all her life.
Marji realizes what kind of country and world she lives in, she sees young children
working to provide for themselves and their families. “I finally understood why I
felt ashamed to sit in my father’s Cadillac. The reason for my shame and for the
revolution is the same: the difference between social classes.”(33) After looking at
her situation closely Marji is ashamed because she comes from a middle class
family, she isn’t poor, she doesn’t have to work at a young age to get by in life,
she can attend school and get a good education, her family has a car. She also
realizes that her family has a maid, Mehri, and that she arrived when she was only
eight years old, her parents couldn’t afford to take care of Mehri and her many
siblings. Mehri has taken care of Marji ever since she was a baby, she grew up
with Mehri around Marjane thinks that this is unfair. She believes that children
should not have to work young and get jobs to survive in the real world. She
believes that the people of Iran should not be divided by social class, that
everyone should be treated the same no matter what. In the next paragraph one
will see another example of Marjane’s transitions.

In the beginning of the book Marjane is just a young girl still stuck in her
childhood, but the end of the graphic novel one can tell that Marji has definitely
grow up and is in the early stages of adulthood. Due to the events in Marji’s life
she has transitioned from her childhood to adulthood pretty quickly. Things are
not getting better with the government and the war. There could have been
peace, but the Iranian government declined. There was still lots of protesting in
the streets, and now there was drawing and writing on the walls. Those who
disagreed and rebelled against the government were executed. “As for me, I
sealed my act of rebellion against my mother’s dictatorship by smoking the
cigarette I’d stolen from my uncle two weeks earlier… With this first cigarette, I
kissed my childhood goodbye. Now I was grown up” (117). Marjane used the
cigarette as a symbol of her being mature, of being a grown up. She said this to
show that she is ready to be treated like an adult, to be talked to like one, and to
be treated like one. The cigarette said that she understands what is going on in
the government and in the streets, that she wants to participate in the protests,
because she is now an adult, she is now old enough to do so. In a way Marjane is
being like the protesters in the streets. She is doing something she knows the
consequences of, but she is doing it to prove a point, that she is strong that she
will not give up, that she will stand her ground for her beliefs, that she is no
longer a child, she is ready to be an adult. In another situation in the book, Marji
shows that she is no longer a child and that she is ready to be an adult. Near the
end of the book Marji’s parents come into the room, stating that they would like
to speak. “But considering the person you are and the education you’ve received
we thought that it would be better for you if you left Iran. Your mother and I have
decided to send you to Austria. First of all, because it’s easier to get an Austrian
visa, and second because my best friend lives in Vienna. Theresa is French school
in Vienna. One of the best in Europe” (147). Marji’s parents are deciding to send
her away because they know that the war is not going to get any better, there
might be no alliance for a long time. They also think that education for a young
woman such as Marji is very important, since all the school were shut down due
to the war and the government in Iran. Marji is upset and scared that her parents
will not be going with her but, then they talk to her about her vacation she went
on by herself in France. Marji’s parents tell her that they are proud of her and
they want her to be happy, they also say that they trust her a lot for her to go
there by herself for a while and live with her mother’s friend. This shows that
Marji is not a child anymore in her parents eyes, she is now an adult.

Due to the events that happened to Iran such as the Islamic Revolution and the
war between Iran and Iraq, one see Marjane’s desires to move away from
conformity. The rules and laws in Iran became very enforced and strict. After so
much death in her life, Marjane didn’t care anymore, she didn’t mind going to the
principal’s office, she just acted out. “My life took a new turn. In 1984, I was
fourteen and a Rebels. Nothing scared me anymore” (143). Marjane has now
become a rebel. She is wearing jewelry, that is not allowed and the principal tried
to take it away from her, fighting over the bracelet Marjane accidentally hits the
principal in the face, and she gets expelled. Marjane’s rebellion can also be seen
in Persepolis, such as when she is going to to the store in the streets, and she is
dressing up to go out. The attire she puts on its strictly forbidden, and she can get
in some serious trouble for it. “I put my 1983 Nikes on…and my denim jacket with
the Michael Jackson Button, and of course, my headscarf”(131). When Marji
decides to go out to buy some tapes she gets caught by the Guardians of the
Revolution. They enforce females to dress the right way, and if they refused or
were improperly dressed they would arrest them and send them to jail, or the
committee. Marji then lies to the Guardians and tells them that she is on the
basketball team at school, and that her pin is not Michael Jackson it is Malcolm X,
Marji then lies again and says that her stepmother is cruel, and mean, that she’ll
put Marji in an orphanage. Surprisingly the Guardians let Marjane go. Marjane
acts out due to the strict rules, she feels so trapped and she just wants to have a
good laugh with her friends, have fun, or just express herself and it’s very hard
with the war going on in Iraq and Iran.

In conclusion, Marjane Satrapi has been through a lot as a young child and a
young adult, such as the the transition from childhood to adulthood, loss of
innocence and the desire to move away from conformity, all due to the events in
Iran such as the Islamic Revolution and the War between Iran and Iraq. The story
Persepolis is a bildungsroman, a coming of age story, this is all important because
through the book, the reader has seen the way Marjane has changed to a
different person altogether due to these events, one has seen the transition from
a child to an adult in the book. If Marjane had the choice to go back and change
what happened to her she would not, she has became a stronger person from all
the hard and difficult times she has been through.

● A brief Account of the Islamic revolution

Satrapi does a nice job of explaining the history of Iran. At the same time, it is
beneficial for students to obtain more information about the history from other
sources while reading Persepolis so that they gain a better understanding of the
revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. Furthermore, the geography of the land greatly
affects the political story of Iran. Iran is nestled between Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Middle East is a land of ancient civilizations. Richard Frye, in his book Iran,
points out that because Iran has a mixed landscape, consisting of high mountain
ranges, deserts, and semitropical forests, the nature of the geographical terrain
keeps the people physically separated instead of uniting them. Also, he points out
that Iran is a link between the East and the West and that this physical location
puts the country at the center of political, cultural, and economic influences, and
power struggles. 17 Iran has a long, complicated social and political history. The
first dynasty was formed in 2800 BC.

Prior to the twentieth century, "Iran was a feudal state with tribal chiefs vying for
favor with religious leaders at the court of the Shah," the king. Iran stayed a
feudal state until 1907, when it became a constitutional monarchy. In the early
1900s, the people of Iran fought for a constitution. A system of parliament was
put in place. The parliament was eventually organized into two sections of
government, the "senate" and the "national assembly." The national assembly,
when it was established, consisted of 162 people who were elected. The senate
consisted of 60 members, half of whom were elected, and the Shah appointed the
other half. "The prime minister was elected by the national assembly and
appointed by the Shah." 18 In the constitutional monarchy, the Shah still had a
good amount of power, even though there were limits to that power.

The events of the early and middle 1900s led the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Much before the revolution, though, Reza Shah ruled from 1925 to 1941. He
valued nationalism, secularism, and anticommunist sentiments and ruled with an
authoritarian government. In 1941, he was removed by the Anglo-Soviet invasion
of Iran during World War II. His son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi took over in
1941 at the age of 21 as an absolute monarch. The people protested against his
dictatorship. The new Shah was in favor of the westernization of Iran; however,
his rule is described as repressive. The U.S. supported Pahlavi and many Iranians
resented the U.S. for that. The Islamic Revolution transformed Iran from a
monarchy to an Islamic Republic, as it is known today. Ayatollah Khomeini led the
revolution and is known for founding the Islamic Republic. The revolution began
with the slogan "Down with the Shah." 19 People were tired of the oppression that
the Pahlavi regime promoted. They were weary of the relationships he was
building with the United States. People used the Islamic religion as the foundation
for the movement to overthrow the Shah. The ideology behind the revolution
denounced western culture, Americanism, and capitalism. The people wanted to
take back Iran and protect it from westernization. In 1979, Mohammed Reza Shah
Pahlavi was overthrown and exiled.

Eyes from all over the world have always been on the Middle East, but the Islamic
Revolution was the first televised revolution. Images and video of mass protests
and riots were broadcast all over the world. Through the power of Islam and their
opposition of the Shah, the Iranian people were able to change their society.
Ayatollah Khomeini was named the "supreme leader," the most powerful man in
Iran. In 1980, Abolhasan Bani-Sadr was elected the first President of the Islamic
Republic, the second most powerful. In November 1979, when Jimmy Carter was
the American President, "Islamic militants took 52 American hostages inside the
US Embassy in Tehran," and they were not released until January, 1981. 20 This
action increased tension between Iran and the United States. Just as the
revolution came about, the Iran-Iraq War began in 1980 and ended in 1988. Iraq
invaded Iran first over border disputes and oil. Iran, at that time, was in a very
vulnerable position because of the revolution. Iran has been vulnerable to the
rest of the world as well because of its possession of oil, among other things.
 Since the Iran-Iraq War, the relationship between Iran and the United States has
not improved greatly. The progress of the Taliban, the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
World Trade Center and Pentagon, the threat of weapons of mass destruction,
the Iraq War, and the War on Afghanistan, have affected the lives of all Americans
and have been broadcast all over the world. Because of this history, Americans do
not tend to be empathetic to those in the Middle East. Looking forward, Hasan
Rowhani is set to become president of Iran in August of 2013, and with this new
leadership, Western leaders hope to build a better relationship with Iran and the
Middle East.

Teachers using this unit should ask students to compare the events in Persepolis
to the events that are happening now in the Middle East. By teaching Persepolis,
teachers can open up discussions about current events. By looking at the past,
students can develop a better understanding of what is happening now. Students
can look at the events of the past through non-fiction articles, videos, and
possibly interviews with people who have lived in the Middle East. Teachers can
ask students how the history of Iran has shaped their perception of Middle
Eastern culture.

● Summary & Analysis

Title Summary Analysis

Introduction Analysis

"The Veil," and "The The book’s introduction begins with a brief Persepolis is the story of Marjane Satrapi’s
Bicycle" history of the nation of Iran. Iran is first given childhood in Iran. Much of the book centers
the name “Ayryana Vaejo,” which means “the
on the author’s family during the Iran-Iraq
origin of the Aryans,” by semi-nomadic Indo-
European invaders who come to the land in War, which lasted from 1980 to 1988.
the second millennium B.C. Iran remains a
Broadly, the book can be considered a
land of nomadic peoples until the seventh
century B.C. when the Medes establish Iran as memoir. The story is a personal reflection on
a nation. Cyrus the Great destroys the nation
Satrapi’s own life but sheds light on a wider
soon after and he incorporates it into “one of
the largest empires of the ancient world, the historical period. Satrapi is the protagonist
Persian Empire....” From the sixth century
throughout the novel. If combined with the
B.C. until the twentieth century A.D., the
name of this empire is Persia. The Persian novel’s sequel, Persepolis 2, which describes
Empire is often attacked by foreign invaders
Marjane’s early adulthood, the novel can be
because of its wealth, but the culture of
Persia remains intact. considered the first part of a Bildungsroman.
In the twentieth century, Reza Shah renames
A Bildungsroman is a novel that follows a
this Persian territory Iran. He seeks to
specific course in which the author moves
modernize Iran and engages the country with
from childhood to adulthood, is forced to
Western civilization. Oil is also been
leave home because of a tragedy or tragic
discovered in Iran which brings “another
circumstance, and undergoes a process of
invasion.” Iran remains a neutral zone during
self-actualization characterized as a conflict
World War II, and so the allied powers invade
between the protagonist and the cultural
and occupy the country. They send Reza Shah
order.
into exile. He is succeeded by Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi, “known simply as the Shah.” In The title of the book alludes to the ancient
1951, a new ruler, Mohammed Mossadeq, capital of Persia, Persepolis. At a deeper
institutes a number of reforms and takes back level, it alludes to a theme of tension
national control of the oil industry. The between past and present. Persepolis had
United States and Great Britain help to been a great historical city of Persia and now
organize a coup against Mossadeq and he is holds the burial grounds for many Persian
taken out of power. The Shah returns to Iran kings. Persepolis represents a flourishing of
and rules until 1979 and the Islamic culture. The purpose of the novel, as the
author says, is partly to contrast this previous
Revolution. great culture with a culture of intolerance
and fundamentalism found in modern day
Satrapi notes that since 1979, Iran has largely
Iran. The title also alludes to the fact that
been discussed “in connection with
within its fundamentalist exterior, a great
fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism.”
Iranian culture and people still exist, one that
She says that as a person who has lived half
the Western world is not often allowed to
her life in Iran, she knows that this
see.
characterization is not true. This, she says, is
why she wrote Persepolis. She believes “that The novel’s introduction gives a very general
an entire nation should not be judged by the history of Iran from its ancient founding to its
wrongdoings of a few extremists.”The Veil modern political turbulence. This is given
more detail in “The Bicycle.” This
Persepolis begins with a school picture of
introduction is meant to give context to the
Marjane in 1980. She is ten years old and
book’s more personal history while “The
wearing a veil. In the picture, she is with a
Bicycle” represents a personal reflection on a
group of other girls, all with dour faces. She is
history of revolution, invasion, and ideas. The
on the far left of the picture and is partly left
novel can be understood as a form of “lived
out of the frame so that she is only partially
history,” a narrative that gives privilege to
visible. She says that in 1980, it becomes
the understanding and interpretation of
obligatory for girls to wear the veil at school.
those that lived through historical events.
The girls do not like this and do not
Persepolis is valuable in the way that it
understand why they have to wear it. They
creates an interpretive lens of childhood
complain that it is too hot and some take
from which to view the historical
them off and play with them, jumping rope
circumstances of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
and throwing them away. Other children
and the Iran-Iraq War.
playfully mimic scenes from the Revolution.
The opening pages of the narrative are a
This requirement of veils is a shock to the
reflection on the search for identity. Like the
children. Before 1979, Marjane had attended
graphic representation of her life, Marjane’s
a French non-religious school where boys and childhood is very black and white. She
girls had studied together. In 1979, the understands right and wrong and seeks to
revolutionaries call for a “Cultural proclaim justice. Satrapi uses personification
Revolution” in which bilingual schools should to create a God character as a child might
be closed because “They are symbols of imagine it. This reflection on childhood,
capitalism.” The people are depicted as however, is also a reflection on partial
agreeing with this idea and so the children are identity. The opening frames of the novel
divided between sexes. depict a group of girls, covered in veils.
Marjane tells the reader that she is only
There are demonstrations both for and
partially in the picture. This represents the
against the strictures of the Cultural
author’s own search for identity. Her identity
Revolution. During one of the
is fractured both because of her childish
demonstrations, a picture is taken of the
understanding of the world and because of
author’s mother. She is angry and looks
the religious fundamentalism being imposed
rebellious and her picture is published in
on the country by the Islamic rulers. The
European newspapers. It is also published in
novel, thus, is her attempt to recount and
a magazine in Iran and this is a scary thing.
reclaim her own personal identity as a person
Marjane’s mother dyes her hair and wears
and as an Iranian.
dark glasses to avoid persecution by the
revolutionaries. The opening chapter also sets up one of the
central conflicts of the novel -- the conflict
Marjane says that she does not really know
between the Satrapi’s “avant garde” life and
how to feel about the veil. Her family is “very
their loyalty to Iran, its culture, and its
modern and avant-garde.” She tells of how
people. The Satrapi’s life is a study in
she had been “born with religion,” and as a
contradictions and inconsistencies. They have
very young child, she had believed that she
benefited from the Shah’s westernization of
would be “the last prophet.” There are
Iranian culture yet they demonstrate against
drawings of some of the earlier prophets and
his rule. They fight for the poor and working
in Marjane’s vision, these prophets question
class people while also holding on to their
whether a woman can also be a prophet. She privileged class distinctions. Marjane strongly
says that she had wanted to be a prophet identifies herself in a prophetic religious
“because our maid did not eat with us. heritage and says that she was born with
Because my father had a Cadillac. And, above religion, yet her family is secular. Their faith
all, because my grandmother’s knees always is not in religion but in political ideology. This
ached.” She has a holy book as well in which tension will be played out throughout the
she imitates the rules of the first great novel.
prophet of her country, Zarathustra, who had
proclaimed that everything in life must be
based on the commands to “Behave well,
Speak well, Act well.” Her grandmother is the
only person that knows of her holy book and
her rules that all should have cars, that maids
should eat with others, and that “no old
person should have to suffer.” When her
grandmother questions her on how she will
make it so that no old person will suffer, she
says, “It will simply be forbidden.”

She has conversations about her future as a

prophet with an imaginary friend that looks
like God, an old man with a white flowing
beard. She begs for more time, but God tells
her that she is ready. She announces in school
one day that she is going to be a prophet
when she grows up. Other children laugh at
her and her teacher calls her parents in to the
school to discuss this. Her parents defend her
to the teacher. As they are walking home,
they ask her what she wants to be when she
grows up. To herself, she thinks that she will
be a prophet, but she tells them that she
wants to be a doctor. That night she feels
guilty in front of God. God is confused at her
choice to be a doctor, but she tells him that
she will be a prophet but that no one can
know. In an imaginary vision, she holds a scale
of justice, makes a sign of love, and holds a
sword and shield and declares that she wants
“to be justice, love, and the wrath of God all
in one.”

The Bicycle

Marjane begins by saying that her faith "was

not unshakable." As the revolution begins,
she and a few friends play in the yard and
pretend to be great revolutionaries -- Che
Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Leon Trotsky.
Sitting under a tree, the author tells her
friends, "The Revolution is like a bicycle.
When the wheels don't turn, it falls." This, she
says, is the Revolution in Iran.

Over the course of 2,500 years, Iran has been

occupied by many invading forces. First, the
nation had its own emperors. Then there was
an Arab invasion from the West, which had
been followed by a Mongolian invasion from
the East. In the modern era, the invasion has
come from "Modern Imperialism,"
represented by the image of several historical
characters including Britain and America. She
knows all of this because her parents bought
her many books. She knows about the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, about Communism in
Cuba, the American conflict in Vietnam, and
about famous Iranian revolutionaries like
Frezai, Fatemi, and Ashraf.

Her favorite book, however, is a comic book

entitled "Dialectic Materialism." In the book,
there are captions of Marx and Descartes
conversing. Descartes tells Marx that the
material world only exists in the imagination.
Marx takes a stone, asks Descartes if it only
exists in his imagination, and then hits
Descartes over the head to prove that it is
real. The author notes that, in the book and
in her visions, God and Marx look very similar,
since they both have long white beards. God
still comes to visit her sometimes. He asks her
if she still wants to be a prophet and she tells
God to talk about something else. He changes
the subject and tells her the weather will be
nice the next day.
She hears her parents talking in the next
room and sneaks up to their door in order to
hear their conversation. They are talking
about how "They burned down the Rex
Cinema..." The Rex is a theater that shows
modern movies. The poster on the matinee
depicts a scene from a crime thriller. The
doors to the theater are locked and police
stand guard outside, preventing anyone from
rescuing those inside. The police loom large
over the people, and soon they attack those
outside. Firemen do not arrive until much
later to extinguish the blaze. According to the
news, 400 people die in the fire. The people
know that the Shah had ordered the theater
be burned to the ground, but the Shah
blames a group of religious fanatics. In a large
half-page frame, the ghosts of those trapped
in the theater fly towards the exit, engulfed in
flames. Marjane's father tells her mother that
there will be demonstrations the next day.

Outside her parents’ bedroom, she tells God

that she wants to go to the demonstrations.
She tries on several different hats in a mirror
saying that she will go to the demonstration
as Che Guevara or maybe Fidel Castro. As she
looks at herself in the mirror, God quietly
walks out of her bedroom. She looks for him
 when she realizes he has left. Not finding him,
she storms down to her parents’ bedroom
and demands that they take her with them to
the demonstration the next day saying, "For a
revolution to succeed, the entire population
must support it." Her parents tell her that it is
dangerous and that she can participate later
on. Her father takes her to bed as she begs to
be a part of the demonstrations. Lying in bed,
crying, she cries out for God but "that night
he didn't come."

“The water cell”, The Water Cell Analysis

“Persepolis” and
An angry mob gathers in the street. They are “The Water Cell” is written as a narrative of
“the letter”
shouting “Down with the King!” Marjane’s
Iran’s political past. The chapter starts with a
parents are a part of the mob. The police
shoot at the mob and the mob throws scene of ironic humor. Marjane’s parents had
stones at the police. At the end of every day,
been in the streets all day supporting the
Marjane’s parents return from the
demonstrations with aches and pains in their Marxist revolutionary forces. When they
bodies. Marjane asks her parents to play the
return home, Marjane wants to play
game Monopoly with her but they laugh. In
defiance, she tells her parents, “I love the “Monopoly,” a board game that symbolizes
King, he was chosen by God.” She tells them
Western children’s indoctrination to Western
that her teacher, as well as God himself told
her this. In addition, she says, it is written in capitalist values. It is a humorous situation
the front of their schoolbooks.
but, by the end of the chapter, Marjane begins
Her father then tells her the story of how the
to come to a nascent understanding through
King came to power. He tells her that Reza
her mother and father’s stories of why
Shah, the father of the current King, had
symbols of capitalism, such as the game, are
been a soldier who had helped organize an
looked down upon in her household.
army to overthrow the Emperor of Persia
and install a republic. Her father’s history is a
flashback to Reza Shah’s rise to power: Reza
Shah and his conspirators sit around a
campfire and plot their attack. Reza
declares, “If it is God’s will, we will reach the
capital in 19 days.” One of his co-
conspirators thinks, “And even if [God] isn’t,
what can stop us?”
Marjane’s father tells her that during this
time there had been great movements all
over the world to install republics; Gandhi
had advocated for peace to overthrow the
British in India, Ataturk had declared that
Turkey should be a Western nation. Reza
Shah had wanted to follow these men’s
example but he had not been a lawyer like
Gandhi or a great General like Ataturk.
Instead, he had been “an illiterate low-
ranking officer.”
He tells her that the British had learned of
Reza Shah’s desire to overthrow the Persian
emperor and had decided, because of
Persia’s great wealth of oil, that they would
help him. They had approached Reza and
told him that he could be Emperor, a
political situation that would be much better
for him personally. The British had dissuaded
Reza Shah from starting a republic because,
Throughout the novel, Satrapi plays with
techniques of point of view. She relates the
history of Iran and the persecution of its
people not just from her perspective but also
from the perspectives of her parents, her
grandmother, and from others with firsthand
knowledge of the political and social situation
of Iran during this period. These points of
view, however, are always interconnected to
the author’s own point of view. Satrapi
connects and interweaves the stories of those
around her into her own process of self-
actualization and growing up.
The historical narrative that Marjane’s mother
and father present to her is an alternate telling
of the historical fall of the Persian Empire and
rise of the Shah. It is important to note how
official history is often only loosely connected
to the personal experiences of history. In this
way, Persepolis offers a particular perspective
on history, largely a political and leftist
retelling of Iranian history. This historical
understanding is shaped not by an outside,
subjective understanding of the events
occurring in the country during this period
but, instead, by those who are directly
affected by the political turmoil of the
as they said to him, “The religious leaders
are against it...a vast country like yours
needs a holy symbol.” Reza Shah had asked
what he needed to do and the British tell
him that he must give them the oil when he
becomes Emperor and that they would do
everything else.
Marjane wonders if God had helped Reza
Shah nevertheless. Her father then tells her
that her grandfather had once been a prince, grandmother tells her the stories of her
a son of the Emperor. Marjane imagines a
fantasy in which her grandfather, as a young
man, rides an elephant with symbols of
royalty – castles, the sun, a lion with a sword
– all around him. When the Shah had come
to power, he had taken everything of her
grandfather’s. Then, because her
grandfather had been an educated man, the
Shah had made him Prime Minister. Her
grandfather had begun to read Marx and to
meet Bolshevik intellectuals. These
Bolshevik’s had persuaded him of the
political fraud of the new Persia and he had
become a Communist, disgusted that
“people are condemned to a bleak future by
their social class.”
Her mother then comes in and tells how her
twentieth century.
Satrapi uses alternating tones of seriousness
and humor to play with the notion that the
novel involves serious themes of violence,
persecution, torture, and corruption all seen
from the viewpoint of a child. In these
chapters, one can see these themes in the
imaginative reconstructions of history that
Marjane envisions while her parents and her
people. Much of the adult humor, however,
such as the old man being proclaimed a
martyr, is over the head of the young child and
it will not be until later that she will
understand the ways in which dark humor
pervade the people’s situation. Humor, thus,
becomes a tool of sanity.
The dissonance between social classes
becomes a central theme in these chapters.
Marjane first learns that her own family has
suffered through poverty and social
disadvantage. Her grandfather had been a
political enemy of the Shah and so Marjane’s
mother had spent much of her childhood with
little food or clothing. She feels a certain kind
of pride, knowing that her family had suffered
for the ideals that it believes in. As the novel
grandfather had been imprisoned for his progresses, the theme of suffering and dignity
political beliefs. When her mother had been will take on more resonance. Marjane will
a girl, soldiers had often come and taken her begin to question her own family’s sacrifice in
grandfather to prison where “sometimes the light of the forced sacrifice of so many of
they put him in a cell filled with water for the poor and underprivileged people of the
hours.” Her mother had sometimes visited nation.
him, but his health had deteriorated quickly.
Marjane first becomes aware of this class
He had had rheumatism and suffered in
dissonance in “The Letter.” This chapter tells
pain. Ending the story, her father asks her if
the story of Marjane’s maid, Mehri, who
she would like to play Monopoly now.
comes from an impoverished family and is
Marjane tells him that she only wants to
adopted by the Satrapis. Marjane has a
take a long bath. She sits in the tub with God
difficult time coming to grips with the idea
beside her, trying to understand what it was
that Mehri’s adoption was not a completely
like to be in a water cell. When she gets out
benevolent act. Mehri becomes the
of the tub, her hands are wrinkled, just as
housemaid for the family and does not receive
her grandfather’s hands had been in the
the advantages of education or upbringing
water cell.
that Marjane receives. Mehri remains
Persepolis illiterate; illiteracy is often seen as a symbol of
control because the illiterate are often not
After school one day, Marjane returns home
able to come to a self-understanding of the
and finds her grandmother visiting. She asks
systems of power that govern their lives. The
her grandmother about her grandfather and
idea that Mr. Satrapi would deny Mehri a
about his arrests. Her grandmother does not
chance at love with a neighbor highlights the
want to talk about him and instead tells her
nuanced, yet confusing, circumstances of class
about the poverty she and her family had had
conflict in Iran. In this chapter, Marjane has
to endure. Sometimes, she says, she had
not yet come to understand it fully, but it does
simply boiled water on the stove so that the
add to the general sense of injustice that she
neighbors would not know that they had
nothing to eat. feels in her childhood self.

Her grandmother tells her that Reza Shah had

been very harsh, but that his son had been
“ten times worse.” Every king since the dawn
of time has kept their promises to the people,
but the Shah had not. He had spent his time
throwing celebrations of the past dynasties of
Persia. He had visited the tomb of Cyrus the
Great and bowed before the headstone while
the giant man lied in the ground under him.
The people, however, did not care about any
of these celebrations. Now, her grandmother
tells her, there is a revolution.

When they go to the kitchen to eat, they learn

that Marjane’s father has not come home. He
had left to take pictures of the
demonstrations, something that is strictly
forbidden. They wait and worry for hours.
Finally, he returns and they all tell him that
they thought he was dead. He tells them that
he saw something incredible. He had gone to
the hospital to take pictures and he had seen
a great crowd carrying out the body of a
young revolutionary. The crowd had called
him a martyr. Then, an old man being carried
out on a stretcher had also been picked up by
the crowd. They had called this old man a
martyr. The old man’s widow had stopped
them, telling the crowd that he was not a
martyr but that he had died of cancer. The
crowd had told her that it is okay and that he
can be a martyr anyway. The old woman had
then joined in their chants: “The King is a
Killer!”

Marjane’s parents and grandmother start to

laugh at this story. Her grandmother says, “If
I die now at least I will be a martyr!! Grandma
Martyr!” Marjane does not understand why
they would be laughing at a story about an
old man dying of cancer. She decides to find
out what she is missing and begins reading a
book entitled The Reasons for the Revolution.

The Letter

Marjane reads constantly of the reasons for

the revolution. Her favorite author is a Kurd
named Ali Ashraf Darvishian, “a kind of local
Charles Dickens.” Darvishian writes stories of
children that have been forced into hard
labor. Because of these stories, Marjane
finally understands why she feels ashamed
when riding in her father’s Cadillac. “The
reason for my shame and for the revolution is
the same: the difference between social
classes.” Then she remembers that they have
a maid at home, which also makes her
ashamed.

She recalls Mehri’s story. Mehri had been

only eight when she had come to live with the
Satrapis. Mehri’s parents had given her up
because they had too many children at home
to feed. When Marjane was born, Mehri had
been ten and she had taken care of the new
baby. She had played with her, cooked her
food, and told her stories. They got along
well.

At the beginning of the revolution, in 1978,

Mehri falls in love with the neighbor’s son.
They begin to write letters to each other, but
because Mehri is illiterate, Marjane has to
write the letters for her. Mehri tells the boy
that she often talks to her sister about him.
Marjane asks who her sister is and Mehri tells
her that she is her sister.

One day, Mehri talks with her real biological

sister who works as a maid for Marjane’s
uncle and tells her that she has a fiancé.
Mehri’s sister becomes jealous and tells
Marjane’s uncle who then tells her
grandmother who tells her mother.
Eventually the story comes to her father. Her
father goes straight to their neighbor’s son.
The boy is wearing a Bee Gee’s t-shirt when
he answers the door. Mr. Satrapi tells the boy
that Mehri is not really his daughter but is,
instead, his maid. The boy decides that he
does not want to continue seeing her and give
Mr. Satrapi all the letters they had written to
each other.

Seeing that the letters are in Marjane’s

handwriting, Mr. Satrapi asks his daughter
why she had not told him of the situation. He
explained that Mehri’s love is impossible
because “in this country you must stay within
your own social class.” Disgusted with this
answer, Marjane goes to Mehri and tells her
that the next day they will go and march with
the demonstrators. They sneak out of the
house and spend the next day marching and
protesting. When they return, Marjane’s
parents are furious and her mother slaps both
of them across the face. It is revealed that
they had decided to protest on the most
dangerous day of the Revolution, “Black
Friday,” when there had been “so many killed
in one of the neighborhoods that a rumor
spread that Israeli soldiers were responsible
for the slaughter.” Marjane and Mehri sit on
her bed, both with dark hand marks across
 their faces from the slap, and Marjane thinks
that it is “really our own who had attacked
us.”

The Party Analysis

"The Party," "The There are many more massacres after “Black “The Party” deals with issues of collective and
Friday.” In a large frame, there are rows of the
Heroes," and individual forgiveness. As the Shah is deposed
dead, all with their eyes open and the mouths
"Moscow" agape in terror. These demonstrations mean from his throne, the nation erupts in a huge
that the Shah’s reign is in trouble. The Shah
party. The Shah finds that he is not welcome
makes a declaration that he will move the
country towards democracy, but he is never in any of the western countries that he had
able to install a real government. He finds
formerly been in alliance with. In an important
fault in all the Prime Ministers. This only
makes the demonstrations more violent; graphic frame, Marjane’s parents say that
statues of the Shah are torn down and his
they must forget about the whole thing and
effigy is burned. Finally, the Shah steps down
and all the people celebrate the biggest move on with their lives. In this frame, a large
celebration in the country’s history.
snake dragon wraps around the picture, a
Jimmy Carter, President of the United States,
symbol of evil and lies. This represents the
refuses to give refuge to the Shah. Mr. Satrapi
innate injustice still at work in the Iranian
says, “Carter has forgotten his friends. All that
conscience. Forgetting, thus, is not as easy a
interests him is oil.” Her father insists that
process as Marjane’s parents believe it will be.
Anwar Al-Sadat will accept him into Egypt
because they have been friends since both
This issue of national forgetting is contrasted
betraying their region by making a pact with
with Marjane’s personal issues of forgiveness.
Israel. Marjane does not understand. Her
When she and her friends learn that their
father declares, “as long as there is oil in the
friend Ramin’s father had been in the Shah’s
middle east we will never have peace.” As a
secret police, they attempt to reenact the
large snake wraps around the frame, her
violence of the Revolution by meting out
mother and father decide to talk about
justice on Ramin. Luckily, they are stopped
something else “now that the devil has left!”
and Marjane learns from her mother that she
At school, Marjane’s teacher tells them to must forgive. Satrapi uses the rhetorical
tear out the picture of the Shah. Marjane is device of anaphora. She and her mother
confused and says that the teacher told them repeat the phrase “have to forgive” as a way
that God chose the Shah in the first place. The of convincing both themselves and, on a
teacher tells Marjane to stand in the corner literary level, the reader that they are the
for saying such a thing. Other strange things moral centers of the novel. When she
happen as well. Their neighbors rejoice that attempts to forgive Ramin, however, she finds
the demonstrations are over and one man’s that he is utterly defiant and even proud of
wife shows off a small mark on her cheek that the murders that his father committed. This
she claims is where a bullet almost hit her. demonstrates to Marjane that, just as
Marjane’s mother, knowing that the woman forgetting the past is an impossible task, so
did not protest, complains that the mark has too is forgiving those that find no fault in their
been there all along. past actions. Satrapi alludes to the idea that
this is a planted seed of coming injustice.
At play, a boy tells Marjane and a friend that
Ramin’s father had been in the Savak, the The question of heroism is also dealt with in
Shah’s secret police, and that he had killed a these chapters. The issue that Marjane deals
million people. Marjane and her friends with is coming to understand what makes one
decide to put nails between their fingers and a hero. There is a spectrum of heroism
beat up Ramin. Marjane’s mother stops them presented: on one end of the spectrum,
and tells Marjane not to do such things, that Marjane sees her own father. He is not a hero
it is not Ramin’s fault that his father had killed because he had not been imprisoned or
people. She tells Marjane that she must tortured, though he had demonstrated and
forgive. The next day, Marjane goes up to stood up for his political beliefs. At the other
Ramin and tells him, “Your father is a end of the spectrum is Ahmadi, the guerrilla
murderer but it’s not your fault, so I forgive war leader who not only had been tortured
you.” Ramin replies that his father is not a but also had been killed and cut into pieces.
murderer and that “he killed communists and Marjane mistakenly thinks that he had been
communists are evil.” Marjane’s mother is tortured with a household iron instead of a
shocked that Ramin would repeat such branding iron, a bit of childish humor thrown
things, and Marjane stares in the mirror, in to remind the reader of the narrator’s
repeating the mantra that “You have to childhood perspective.
forgive!”
Satrapi uses techniques of juxtaposition in
The Heroes “The Heroes” to create an atmosphere of
danger. She juxtaposes images of a familial
A few days after the Shah steps down, the
gathering - friends and family together,
political prisoners are released. Marjane’s
sharing stories and memories - with scenes of
family knows two of them, Siamak Jari and
intense torture and death. In one panel, the
Mohsen Shakiba. Both had been convicted of
top third of the page is taken up by Ahmadi’s
being communists. Siamak’s wife is Mrs.
body, which has been cut into pieces. The next
Satrapi’s best friend. One day, Laly, Siamak’s
panel shows a family gathered together. This
daughter, visits Marjane and Marjane tells
creates a mood of uneasiness and fear in
her that her father is dead and not away on a
Marjane and in the reader. It suggests that
trip, as she had been told. Laly runs to her
even in one’s own home, surrounded by one’s
mother and Marjane is punished for saying
own family, one is not safe.
such a thing. Marjane thinks, “Nobody will
accept the truth.”
The hero that Marjane finally comes to
identify with is her Uncle Anoosh who had
Then, when the prisoners are released,
been a political prisoner because of his
Siamak comes to visit and Marjane sees that
Marxist views. Anoosh becomes her hero
she has been wrong. Siamak is relieved to see
because he is both her blood relation -- this
his family and friends once again. Soon,
means that she is able to take on a familial
Mohsen joins them. They nonchalantly retell
identity of suffering -- and because he risked
their stories of torture and abuse. Their
his life for his ideals. Anoosh, however, does
fingernails had been pulled out and the
not see such nobility in his suffering and tells
bottoms of their feet had been whipped with
Marjane that the pain of his divorce is greater
electrical cords. The torturers had been
than that of his torture. Anoosh’s character
trained by CIA agents, so they “knew each
part of the body” and how to cause the most suggests that the bonds of family and love are,
pain. Marjane’s parents are so shocked that in the end, more important than political and
they forget to tell Marjane to leave the room. social ideals.
One of their friends, Ahmadi, who had been a
The term “dialectic materialism” (referred to
member of the guerilla army, had been
in philosophy as “dialectical materialism”) is a
captured and tortured in especially awful
running theme through these early chapters.
ways. The torturers burned his back with an
Dialectical materialism is considered the
iron. Marjane looks at their house iron and
founding principles upon which Marxism is
says that she “never imagined that you could
based. The materialism aspect of this theory is
use that appliance for torture.” In the end,
that all things are material, i.e. - all created
Ahmadi was killed and they cut him to pieces.
things come from physical matter and natural
Marjane tells Laly that she had been partially processes and not some supernatural force
right in telling her that her father was not on such as God. The dialectical part of the theory
a trip. Laly is angry and declares, “All torturers refers to Hegel’s dialectic of history, a
should be massacred!” Out at play, Marjane complicated philosophical statement on the
devises new games. The losers will be patterns of human history. Marx theorized
tortured with the “mustache-on-fire” that all human history could be seen as class
method, the twisted arm, and the “mouth conflict.
filled with garbage.” When she returns home,
Whether or not the author actually had and
she looks in the mirror and feels powerful.
read a comic book version of this Marxist
She sees small devil horns coming from her
philosophy is not as important as the symbol
head. Then, she becomes overwhelmed and
of the comic book. Satrapi is attempting to
cries to her mother. She asks her mother if
express the ways in which her child’s eye
she should still forgive, and her mother tells
understands the complicated and nuanced
her, “Bad people are dangerous but forgiving
political arguments happening around her.
them is too. Don’t worry, there is justice on
This is a self-referential statement since the
earth.” Marjane does not know what justice
reader is also reading a “graphic novel,” a
is, but decides to give up her “Dialectic
Materialism” comics. She only feels safe in comic book for grown-ups. These situations
the arms of God, her friend. show that, though she attempted to educate
herself in these political nuances, the real
Moscow
power of Iran’s political turmoil and suffering
did not occur in some philosophical sense but,
Marjane wishes that her father had been a
instead, in a real way that affected people’s
hero and she makes up stories about how he
lives. Anoosh, for instance, does not attempt
lost limbs, though none of the stories is true.
to engage the young Marjane in a discussion
She then meets her Uncle Anoosh, one of her
on Marxism and its causes and effects.
father’s brothers, and they tell her that he
Instead, he shows her the picture of his wife
had been in prison. She immediately loves
with the marked out face and declares that
Anoosh because now she has “a hero in my
the communists in Russia have no hearts. Acts
family.” Marjane invites her Uncle to stay
of love and heartbreak become paramount.
with them and he tells her that he will stay for
one night and tell her stories.

That night, he tells her the story of how he

had come to be imprisoned. Anoosh’s Uncle
Fereydoon had stood up to the Shah and had
proclaimed independence in the province of
Azerbaijan. Fereydoon had become the
minister of justice. Anoosh had similar
political ideas as his uncle, but Anoosh’s
father had remained loyal to the Shah.
Anoosh had become Fereydoon’s secretary
but one day he had come to work to find that
the Shah’s soldiers had arrested Fereydoon.
Anoosh had run away to his family’s home
and had arrived at his parents’ doorstep half
dead from his journey. His father had
welcomed him back, but the Shah’s police
had still been on his trail. Anoosh had learned
that Fereydoon had given himself over the
Shah instead of running away. In prison, his
girlfriend had come to him and they had
made a baby in order to have a “living
memory,” but she had left for Switzerland
soon after.

Anoosh himself had left and gone to the

U.S.S.R. Marjane wants to know what he did
there and he tells her that he had become a
student of Marxism. She asks him if he had
studied dialectical materialism and he is
surprised that she knows such a term. He tells
her that he had married and had had two
children. He shows her a picture but the face
of the woman is blacked out. Marjane asks
why and he tells her that the Russians are
different, that they have no hearts.

Anoosh tells her that after his divorce, he had

decided to return home with a false passport
and a disguise. The Shah’s guards had
recognized him, however, and he had been
put in prison for nine years. Marjane tells him
that she had heard he was tortured, and he
tells her, “What my wife made me suffer was
 much worse.” He tells her that he recounts
these stories because, “Our family memory
must not be lost. Even if it’s not easy for you,
even if you don’t understand it all.” Anoosh
puts her to bed and gives her a carved swan
that he had made out of bread while in
prison. In the last scene, Marjane dreams of
walking down a tree lined street, telling her
friends that many people in her family are
heroes and have gone to prison for their
political beliefs.

The Sheep Analysis

"The Sheep," "The Marjane’s Uncle Anoosh stays with the family
Trip," and "The F- for a time. He and her father have intense
political debates. Marjane’s father is a bit
14's" perplexed by the political trajectory of the
country -- the Revolution had been leftist
while the Republic is now Islamic. Anoosh
explains that because Iran is largely
uneducated and illiterate, the people cannot
unite behind ideas. They must unite around
nationalism or a religious ideal. Anoosh
predicts that the religious leaders will have no
interest in ruling the country and will soon
return to their mosques letting the people
rule the country.
Outside at play, Marjane finds out that a boy
she has a crush on is moving to the United
States. The boy’s parents fear living under an
Islamic regime. Another boy is excited for his
friend, saying that he will probably meet
In “The Sheep,” Satrapi uses a conversation
between her Uncle and her father to explain
why Iran’s Revolution resulted in the rule of a
fundamentalist Islamic regime. During the
Revolution, leftist and religious factions
joined together to protest the rule of the
Shah and to bring about his demise.
However, after the Revolution, the Islamic
religious leaders stepped in to bring order to
the country. Anoosh’s explanation for this is
that the Iranian people, who are illiterate and
uneducated, need a religious and moral basis
for establishing a new state. Religion, not
ideas, provides this basis. Religion, thus, is
seen as a tool for the powerful to use in
Bruce Lee, though Marjane knows Bruce Lee order to rule the ignorant.
is dead. Soon, others in Marjane’s family
The title of this chapter, “The Sheep,” works
leave for the United States. Marjane’s mother
on a metaphorical level. In a literal sense, a
worries that they should leave, but her father
sheep herd is the mode of transportation
refuses to leave their affluent station in life.
that Siamak and his family use to cross the
In America, he declares, he would be a taxi
Iranian border and escape persecution, but it
driver and she would be a cleaning lady.
is also representative of the general
Marjane’s father is sure that everyone will
population of Iran, as well as Marjane’s
soon come back to Iran.
family who leave for the United States. Like
One evening, the family receives a phone call sheep that simply follow each other with no
and learns that Mohsen has been killed. He notion of direction or purpose, Satrapi is
had been drowned in his bathtub. The arguing here that the people of Iran have
authorities call it an accident, but “when they made an unconscious decision to follow the
found his body, only his head was religious leaders for no other reason than
underwater.” A group of men calling that they cannot determine a purpose or
themselves the “deliverers of divine justice” direction for the country without them.
soon comes for Siamak and, when they are Marjane’s family also imitates the sheep,
unable to find him, murders his sister. Siamak blindly leaving for a life in the United States.
and his family leave Iran, hiding amongst a
Anoosh’s arrest, imprisonment, and
flock of sheep to cross the border. Anoosh’s
execution represent the novel’s turning
pronouncements that everything will be all
point. Her hero, Anoosh, once again becomes
right become harder to believe. This is how
a victim of political persecution. While
“all the former revolutionaries became the
Marjane’s relationship with her parents is
sworn enemies of the republic.”
certainly a loving one, the novel portrays her
One day, Marjane’s mother picks her up from relationship with her uncle as the tenderest
school. Marjane asks why Anoosh has not one. This means that his death is particularly
picked her up and her mother tells her that difficult for her. Anoosh’s death represents
Anoosh has gone back to Moscow to see his Marjane’s break from a childish conception
wife. Secretly, Marjane understands that he of a God that had represented love, justice,
has been taken and imprisoned once again. and holy wrath for evil. Marjane finds herself
Her parents avoid the topic at dinner before lost and without direction, much as the
her father finally tells her the truth: Anoosh general Iranian population is lost and without
has been arrested but he has asked that his direction. Marjane’s crisis is the inverse,
one visitor be Marjane. She goes to visit him however, in that she begins her rejection of
and he tells her that she is “the little girl I religion while the people of Iran embrace
always wanted to have.” He gives her a bread what becomes a cruel religious
swan. It is the last time that Marjane sees her fundamentalism.
uncle. A few days later, a headline in the
The chapter “The Trip” uses important
newspaper reads, “Russian Spy Executed.”
imagery to chart the progress of Marjane’s
Marjane attempts to repeat her uncle’s
struggle with identity. The first imagine that
words that “Everything will be alright,” but
the author uses is a picture her own face
when her friend God appears Marjane yells at
right before she goes to protest the regime. It
him and tells him to get out of her life.
is half covered in dark and half covered in
Marjane imagines floating, alone, in empty
light. The dark symbolizes the metaphysical
space, “lost, without any bearings....” A shout
void that has occurred. She has rejected God,
interrupts her dream. Her parents yell for her
and she is lost in a kind of inner darkness.
to run to the basement because “we’re being
The light is representative of the spirit of
bombed!”
revolution that still permeates Tehran. She
The Trip and her parents still see a hope in the rise of
the leftist demonstrators, yet find that the
Marjane’s father reads the paper one
religious fundamentalists go much further in
morning and curses at the headlines -- the
their violence than had the Shah’s forces.
American Embassy has been occupied. The
This leads into the second image of darkness
paper shows a picture of a fire and an
-- the dark cloud that Marjane’s father sees
American flag. Marjane’s mother is
descending over the country on a television
uninterested because “the Americans are newscast. This cloud represents the same
dummies.” Her father tells them that this darkness and void that Marjane experiences
means there will be no more visas to the US, in her own life.
so Marjane is sad that “my great dream went
In “The F-14’s,” Marjane begins a struggle
up in smoke. I wouldn’t be able to go to the
with her feelings of nationalism. She is
United States.” A few days later, the
unable to find a cause to root for in the
television news announces that all
fundamentalist government and, instead,
universities will close. A bearded man
finds her national pride in the great Persian
declares that it is “better to have no students
empires. She correlates the war with Iraq
at all than to educate future imperialists.”
with the Arab invasion of Persia 1400 years
Marjane sees another of her dreams -- to be
before and claims that it is patriotic and just
like Marie Curie -- disappear. She fears that
to fight the Arab forces. Her father
“at the age that Marie Curie first went to
understands the real war is not just with
France to study, I’ll probably have ten
another country but is, instead, a war inside
children....”
of the country between those that envision a
One night, the car of Marjane’s mother modern Iran and those that adhere to
breaks down, and Marjane and her father extremism.
drive to get her. Suddenly, they see her
mother running down the street, crying and
in terror. She tells them that a group of men
surrounded her and insulted her. They told
her that she should wear a veil or else she
would “be pushed up against a wall and
fucked. And then thrown in the garbage.” Her
mother is sick for several days after the
incident. A decree that all women must wear
veils is instituted soon after the incident.
Marjane explains that there are then two
types of women: the fundamentalist woman
who covers herself from head to toe, and the
modern woman, who covers almost all of her
body except for her face and hands and who
shows opposition by “letting a few strands of
hair show.” Men are similar, differing only in
whether a man shaves his beard and tucks in
his shirt. Their neighbors change as well and
adopt the strict dress and customs. Marjane’s
parents instruct her always to tell people that
she prays everyday and soon it becomes a
competition between her and her friends to
see who prays more.

Despite these harsh rules, a spirit of

revolution is still in the air and for the first
time Marjane’s parents allow her to attend a
rally. With her face shown as half-dark and
half-light, Marjane goes out in the streets to
pass out fliers. A crowd chants: “Guns may
shoot and knives may carve, but we won’t
wear your silly scarves!” Then things get
“nasty,” and a group of fundamentalist men
attacks the protestors with clubs. They beat
and stab many of the protestors and Marjane
and her family run. It is the last
demonstration that they attend.

After the violence, she and her family go on

vacation to Italy and Spain because they
know it might be their last chance to leave the
country. In the hotel room, one evening,
Marjane’s father sees a Spanish language
news broadcast in which a picture of Iran is
slowly covered by a black cloud. Marjane’s
father is worried because the report seems to
be talking about the whole country and not
just the capital city. When they arrive back
home, Marjane’s grandmother tells them
that the country has gone to war. The
fundamentalists have attempted to “stir up
their Iraqi Shiite allies against Saddam” and
Iraq has declared war on Iran. It is the
“second invasion in 1400 years!” Marjane is
angry and ready to fight for her country.

The F-14’s

Marjane is with her father at work one day

when a group of fighter jets flies over Tehran.
Everyone in the office is terrified. Marjane
thinks it is the Iranian air force but her father
does not recognize the planes as Iranian F-14
jets. They turn on the radio to hear that Iraqi
jets have bombed the city. They quickly
return home. Marjane asks her father if he
will fight against Iran and he answers, “Of
course I’m not going to fight. Why should I?”
She tells him that the Iraqi’s have always been
Iran’s sworn enemies because, “The Arabs
never liked the Persians...They attacked us
1400 years ago. They forced their religion on
us.” Her father answers, “The real Islamic
invasion has come from our own
government.” When they reach home, they
find Marjane’s mother in the shower,
completely unaware that anything has
happened.

Later that evening, Marjane declares that,

“We have to bomb Baghdad!” Her parents tell
her that all the fighter jet pilots had been
imprisoned during the coup d’état and that
they would have to be released from prison
first. Marjane remembers that one of her
friend’s fathers is a pilot but her father tells
her that he had been imprisoned. Marjane is
angry with her father for being a defeatist.
Suddenly, the family hears the Iranian
national anthem playing on TV. The anthem
had been banned and replaced by a new
anthem of the Islamic regime. The family is
overwhelmed as they hear the music. The
news announces that Iranian fighter jets have
bombed Iraq. They celebrate the news and
learn that President Banisadr had ordered the
release of the pilots after they had negotiated
 to have the national anthem broadcast. The
rest of the news is not good: many planes and
pilots had been lost in the attack.

The next day at school, Marjane runs to find

her friend Pardisse whose father had been
one of the released pilots. She knows right
away that Pardisse’s father has been killed. In
class, the teacher asks all the students to
write a report on the war. Marjane writes a
long essay on “the historical context” of the
war. The teacher is not impressed, however,
and instead calls on Pardisse to read her
essay. In that essay, Pardisse writes of how
she has promised to take care of her mother
and little brother after her father’s death.
After class, Marjane tells Pardisse that her
father is a true hero. Pardisse tells her, “I wish
he were alive and in jail rather than dead and
a hero.”

The Jewels Analysis

"The Jewels," "The Marjane and her mother have a hard time
Key," and "The finding food at the supermarket because of
war rationing. Marjane’s mother breaks up a
Wine" fight between two women tussling over a box
of food. Marjane’s mother yells at the
women, “If everyone took only what they
needed there would be enough to go
around!” She then tells Marjane that they
“The Jewels” follows a narrative of tragedy
interwoven with comic relief. Mali and her
family represent the receding Western
influence in Iran and the wealth and privilege
that evaporate with along with it. Mali loses
should go to the convenience store to get as everything in the war. Her husband and her
much rice as they can because “you never
children seem chiefly concerned with the
know!” At the convenience store, Marjane’s
mother and father get into a fight over the material things that are lost. Mali, however, is
rationing of gasoline. Her father comforts her
more concerned with the loss of dignity that
and they attempt to find a restaurant, but the
roads are so jammed that they cannot get comes with becoming a refugee. This relates
home until 2 am. A gas station attendant tells
to a running theme of the novel, namely, one
the family that the oil refineries at Abadan
had been bombed by the Iraqis. Abadan is an of the greatest threats faced by the people of
Iranian border city where Mali, a good friend
Iran is not an outside invading force but is,
of the family’s, lives with her husband and
children. Marjane’s mother attempts to call instead, the turning of the people against one
Mali but they get no answer. Marjane notes
another.
that after Abadan, Iranian border towns had
been targeted by bombers. Marjane imagines
a glut of cars attempting to leave the border This chapter also illustrates the way in which
towns, all engulfed in flames.
women faced an increasing loss of identity
That night the family’s doorbell rings. They
and agency in the country. The political and
find Mali and her family at the door.
religious leadership of the country set an
Everything they own had been destroyed by
intolerant tone for the rest of society, and
the Iraqi bombers. Mali’s husband saves
women withstand the worst of this
some expensive jewels but complains that his
intolerance and violence. It is not only the
million-dollar home had been destroyed.
men, however, who perpetrate this injustice,
Marjane says that her father does not like
as Marjane finds out. Instead, the injustice is
Mali’s husband very much because he thinks
brought about by those who buy into the
he is “too materialistic.” Marjane takes the
ideology of the regime. The jewels, thus,
two boys to her room to sleep and they are
represent a feminine Iranian perspective that
disappointed that Marjane does not have any
is lost by intolerance and injustice, just as
toys. They tell her that they have all the Star
Mali’s jewels are sold for the highest price so
Wars toys at home.
that the family can survive.
Mali and her family stay with Marjane for a
“The Key” moves from narrating the injustice
week until they sell the jewelry. On a trip to
towards women to narrating the injustice
the grocery store, Marjane complains that
the boys are “brats” for complaining about perpetrated against children. They keys are
wanting things. One of the women finds a can the regime’s manipulation of young boys; it is
of kidney beans and says that they will make a sexual and materialistic manipulation, a
chili. Marjane comments, “We’ll just forget promise of women and wealth if they give
about the flatulence factor.” When one of the their lives in war. Satrapi interprets this as
boys asks what flatulence is, the entire group indoctrination. The key is more powerful than
of women and children laugh riotously. Their the promise of education and college that
laughter draws the ridicule of two women Marjane’s mother tells to one of the children.
standing nearby who whisper that all refugee The indoctrination, as Marjane finds out, is
women are whores. As the family drives also a form of class warfare. Only the poor
home, Mali says that it is difficult to lose children are given keys and Marjane’s cousin
everything but “to be spat upon by your own Shahab describes the incredible violence
kind, it is intolerable!” Marjane is ashamed inflicted upon young children.
and feels sorry for Mali.
“The Key” is also a chapter that highlights
The Key certain criticisms of the novel. It can be
interpreted that Satrapi does not take
Though the Iraqi army has modern arms and
seriously the religious perspective of
equipment, the Iranians have a much larger
conservative Islam. Instead, she understands
supply of soldiers. Each time an unmarried
these teachings only in the view of her
Iranian man dies in combat, a “nuptial
politically leftist perspective. Satrapi, critics
chamber” is built for him in the streets. The
claim, actually writes from a Western view.
nuptial chamber is an old Shiite tradition. It
Thus, Persepolis has been criticized as a novel
represents the ability of the dead man to
that takes only a thin view of religion and the
“attain carnal knowledge.” Marjane holds a
motivations of the people that adhere to
newspaper filled with pictures of “Today’s
conservative Islam.
Martyrs.” She asks her mother if the dead
mean anything to her and she tells Marjane
In “The Wine,” Satrapi explores themes of
that life must go on. She quotes a line of her
matriarchy. At a party to celebrate the birth of
father’s: “When a big wave comes, lower your her cousin, Marjane is suddenly handed her
head and let it pass!” Marjane thinks that this baby cousin, as her aunt cannot handle the
is a very Persian philosophy, “the philosophy stress of caring for her child during a bombing.
of resignation.” This incident represents Marjane’s
maturation process -- she is handed the reins
At school all of the girls line up twice a day
of matriarchal responsibility before she is
and mourn the war dead. They stand in single
ready. While all of the adults see Marjane’s
file lines and beat their breasts. Marjane
aunt as having lost her mind, the incident
reflects that self-flagellation is a national
carries more meaning for Marjane. It is her
ritual. Many of the men beat themselves,
first realization of a looming adulthood and
often violently with chains or knives, to prove
the fact that she will be asked to carry on the
their loyalty and machismo. Marjane, on the
family’s history. She doubts the “maternal
other hand, finds humor in all of the serious
instinct” precisely because she feels as though
rituals. She leads her entire school in defiance
she will not be able to become the family’s
of the school’s principal. They make funny
matriarch. This scene foreshadows the novels
masks for the soldiers and decorate a room
ending in which Marjane is sent away to
with toilet paper for the anniversary of the
Austria to continue her education. She is
revolution all of which gets Marjane and her
forced to grow up much sooner than she
friends into trouble.
wants.

The girl’s parents are brought in and the

principal scolds them for not educating the
girls at home. Marjane says that the reason
they are so rebellious is that “our generation
had known secular schools.” Marjane’s
mother and father become defiant as well.
The principal simply tells them that they must
obey or they will be kicked out of school.
When the principal tells the parents to make
sure the girls wear their veils correctly,
Marjane’s father angrily tells her, “If hair is so
stimulating as you say, then you need to
shave your mustache!”

One day, the Satrapi’s maid tells Marjane’s

mother that her oldest son has been given a
key at school. The school leaders tell him that
if he goes to war and dies, the key will get him
into heaven. In heaven, there will be women
and mansions. Marjane’s mother tells her to
bring her son over and she will talk to him.
When Marjane returns from school, she finds
her mother talking to the boy. She tells him
that all the talk of women and paradise is
nonsense and that one day he will go to
college and marry. Marjane goes to her room
and calls her cousin Peyman who is the same
age. She asks him if he has been given a key
to paradise, but he has not.

Marjane’s cousin Shahab comes for a visit. He

had been drafted into the military when the
war began and he is now home on leave. He
tells them horrible stories of how the military
drafts young children from the poor parts of
the country. “First they convince them that
the afterlife is even better than Disneyland,
then they put them in a trance with all their
songs...They hypnotize them and just toss
them into battle. Absolute carnage.” Marjane
learns that the keys are given to the poor
children. In a violent panel of artwork, dozens
of children with keys around their necks are
blown up by mines.

Meanwhile, Marjane is allowed to go to her

cousin Peyman’s party. Her mother makes
her a sweater with holes in it and she wears a
necklace with chains and nails because “punk
rock was in.” She says, “I was looking sharp.”

The Wine

The Iraqis begin to bomb Tehran and so all of

the tenants of Marjane’s building build a
shelter in the basement. When the sirens go
off, everyone runs down and turns off all
lights. Marjane’s mother tells her father to
put out his cigarette when they are there
because “They say that the glow of a cigarette
is the easiest thing to see from the sky.”
When the bombings end, everyone returns to
their apartments and begins to call their
relatives and friends.

Marjane describes how the insides of her

house change as well. Her mother puts up big
black curtains over their windows. She tells
Marjane that she does not want their strict
fundamentalist neighbors to see the parties
and card games that they hold every week.
Tinoosh, one of their neighbors, had been
reported and two Guardians of the
Revolution had raided his home and found
“records and video cassettes...a deck of
cards, a chess set. In other words, everything
that’s banned.” Tinoosh had been given
seventy-five lashes and can no longer walk.

The Satrapis hold a party to celebrate

Marjane’s aunt and the birth of her child. The
parties are necessary because “without them
it wouldn’t be psychologically bearable....”
During the party, the power goes out and
there is no light. The party continues,
however. The guests even have wine because
Marjane’s uncle is a self-taught vintner and
has set up a secret wine making lab in his
basement. The sirens begin to wail suddenly
and Marjane’s aunt loses her composure. She
hands her baby to Marjane and runs off. After
that, Marjane says she has “doubts about the
so-called ‘maternal instinct.’”

On the way home from the party, Mr. Satrapi

is pulled over by a soldier who makes him get
out of the car. The soldier verbally assaults
 him and accuses him of drinking alcohol.
Marjane’s mother begs that the soldier have
mercy on him. The soldier follows them home
to search the house. Marjane’s father tells
her that she and her grandmother must run
upstairs and he will delay the soldier. They
are to pour all of the alcohol in the house
down the drain. When they reach home,
Marjane’s grandmother gains the soldier’s
sympathy by telling him she has diabetes. She
runs upstairs and pours all the alcohol out.
Marjane’s father comes upstairs, furious, and
tells them that all the soldier wanted was a
bribe. He is exasperated and wishes he could
have a drink to calm down, but all the alcohol
has been thrown away.

The Cigarette Analysis

"The Cigarette," Two years pass and the war continues. “The Cigarette,” “The Passport,” and “Kim
"The Passport," and Everyday there are reports on the national Wilde” are three chapters that explore issues
news that Iran is winning the war, but
"Kim Wilde" Marjane knows this is a lie. She tells her older of Western cultural influence in a country
friends that not even the Americans have an whose regime seeks to ban all such influence.
army as large as the Iraqi one that has
supposedly already been destroyed by Iran. Marjane, like any other teenager, begins to
When the bell rings for class, Marjane’s grow up and rebel against her parents and her
friends tell her that they are going to get a
burger at “Kansas.” culture. Her rebellion takes the form of an
Kansas is a burger joint in one of the nice increased awareness of and engagement with
neighborhoods in North Tehran. The regime Western culture -- its food, dress, music, and
had not shut it down and Marjane thinks that style. Her rebellion, however, carries the
this is probably due to their ignorance. In the threat of severe consequences.
burger joint, they flirt with two teenage boys
The burger joint that Marjane and her friends
with cool haircuts. Marjane says, “In spite of
sneak off to is named “Kansas.” It is meant to
everything, kids were trying to look hip, even
symbolize a Western sense of normalcy - girls
under risk of arrest.” Back on the street, a
flirt with boys and teenagers can be teenagers
siren sounds and the boys dive into a gutter
without the threat of punishment or
because that is what they have been taught
persecution. The Western reader might also
to do. The girls laugh at the boys and call
be reminded of Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,”
them “chicken.”
who sought out her normal, real life in Kansas
After Marjane returns home, her mother after being thrown into the fantasy world of
chastises her for skipping class. Her mother Oz. The bombings that begin down the street
tells her that she must “know everything and that cause the boys in the restaurant to
better than anyone else if you’re going to throw themselves in the gutter remind the
survive!!” Marjane calls her mother the reader that, like Dorothy, Marjane is not in
“Dictator...the Guardian of the Revolution of Kansas anymore. Satrapi means here to
this house!” At dinner, they hear the compare the war torn fundamentalist country
announcement that Iran has taken to a kind of fantasy -- a land that is out of time
Khorramshahr, a strategic Iraqi city, but Mrs. and space when compared to Western reality.
Satrapi does not believe the news. Marjane In Marjane’s mind, Kansas, the Western style
asks her mother if she can go to the burger joint, is reality; the war outside is a
basement, her hideaway. horrific, unreal fantasy world.

It turns out that the news is true. Iraq offers a The end of “The Cigarette” can be seen as the
peace settlement and Saudi Arabia offers to novel’s climactic point. This chapter offers
pay for reconstruction, but the Iranian some of the novel’s most gripping
government turns down the offer. They visualizations. As Marjane walks down a dark
declare that they will conquer Karbala, an staircase, her descent is juxtaposed against
Iraqi holy city. The country plunges deeper images of the Iran-Iraq War, the way in which
into war. There are “belligerent slogans” the regime refused peace in order to keep
painted on the walls of the city, one of which control of the country through war, and the
causes Marjane to think of a graphic image of powerful ideal of martyrdom. Just as Marjane
a dead man: “To die a martyr is to inject blood descends into the dark basement, so too does
into the veins of society.” Marjane reflects her country descend into its darkest time.
that the regime depends on the war to retain
In the basement, Marjane makes her boldest
its political control of the country. A million
statement of rebellion by smoking a cigarette
people lose their lives in the war. The regime
that she had stolen from her uncle. She
becomes more repressive and seeks to stop
equates the smoking of the cigarette as a
“the enemy within” by arresting and
small act of rebellion against her mother. It is
executing those that defy its rule.
rebellion in the same way that the people of
In the basement, Marjane takes out a Iran are able to hold small acts of rebellion
cigarette that she had stolen from her uncle. against their leaders, such as playing cards or
Just as the people of Iran participate in small not fully shaving their beards or showing their
acts of rebellion against their government, hair. These rebellious acts underlie a tacit
Marjane declares that smoking the cigarette understanding that neither Marjane nor the
is a rebellion against her mother. She lights it Iranian people are truly free, yet these acts are
and coughs but decides not to give in and to also an expression of agency. It is in the
continue smoking. In that moment, she says darkest hour that both Marjane and her
that she moves from childhood to adulthood. country find means to declare a small bit of
independence.
The Passport
“The Passport,” however, is a rebuttal to
It is July of 1982. The family visits Marjane’s
uncle. He smokes a cigarette, though his wife Marjane’s act of independence. The reader is
scolds him for it. He has had a heart attack
introduced to her Uncle Taher who is literally
and can no longer smoke, but he cries, “The
stress I get from every gunshot I hear is much dying from both the cigarettes that he smokes
worse for me than the cigarettes.” He is
and the stress of war going on all around him.
stressed that his oldest son is in Holland but
that he and his wife cannot join him. He Taher had sent his son away to Europe in
recalls horror stories that he hears of young
people being executed in the streets by the order to escape the persecution of the Islamic
regime.
regime. The strain of this situation, however,
A few days later the family discusses her
is slowly killing him. Taher’s own act of
Uncle Taher’s situation. Marjane’s mother
rebellion against the regime and against his
worries about his son, stuck in a foreign
country eventually costs him his life when he
country where he does not even speak the
is unable to obtain a passport to leave Iran and
language. Marjane interjects that once they
seek medical care. Freedom as it is
grow up children do not need parents.
represented by the cigarette, Satrapi
Rather, parents need their children. Her
suggests, does not come without a price. A
mother and father think that she is quite a
cigarette becomes the symbol of freedom but
stubborn girl, but her father says that her
also a path of destruction.
stubbornness will help her later in life.
Marjane’s mother and father share a tender
moment, but the phone rings and interrupts
them.

They learn that Uncle Taher has had a third

heart attack and they rush to the hospital. At
the hospital, the family encounters the war
wounded. They walk past several men that
have lost their legs and other men lying on
stretchers in the hallways. When they reach
Uncle Taher’s room, Marjane’s aunt tells
them that he had the heart attack after a
grenade went off in the neighborhood -- the
regime had been trying to kill a group of
communists. The doctors tell Marjane’s aunt
that Uncle Taher needs open-heart surgery
and that he must go to England for the
surgery.

Marjane’s aunt goes to the director of the

hospital to ask for a passport for her husband
to go to England. She is surprised to learn that
the director of the hospital is her former
window washer. He has been made director
of the hospital because of his extreme
religious zealotry. The director tells her that
“if God wills it,” Taher will receive the
passport. She is furious that “the fate of my
husband depends on a window washer!” She
appeals to the chief physician but he tells her
the hospital is overwhelmed with those
wounded by chemical warfare. He tells them
that the Germans sell Iraq and Iran chemical
weapons and then the wounded are shipped
to Germany to be experimented on by
German doctors.

Marjane and her father leave the hospital and

visit his friend Khosro. Khosro had been in
prison with Anoosh and now makes fake
passports. He is harboring a young eighteen-
year-old girl who is accused of being a
communist. Khosro agrees to make the fake
passport but before he is able to, the young
girl he harbors is arrested and executed by
being blindfolded and shot while standing
against a wall. Khosro flees over the
mountains to Turkey where he is granted
asylum to live in Sweden with his brother. At
the hospital, Taher wakes up and tells the
family that his final wish is to see his son once
more. Three weeks later, he dies. On the
same day, his real passport arrives. He is
never able to see his son.

Kim Wilde

A year after her Uncle Taher dies, Iran

reopens its borders. The entire family rushes
to get passports. Marjane wants the family to
take a vacation but her parents tell her that
they want a vacation alone. They tell her that
they are going to Turkey. They promise to
bring her back Western things, such as
posters of Kim Wilde and Iron Maiden.
Marjane’s father declares that he really likes
Iron Maiden and the women of the family
cannot believe it.

In Turkey, the Satrapis go to a record store

and buy the posters. They then must think of
ways to get the posters back through
customs. None of the ideas they think of
seem feasible. Marjane’s mother then has the
bright idea of sewing the posters into a big
coat that Mr. Satrapi then wears. He feels
ridiculous in the big coat, but when they get
to customs, they assure the agent there that
they have nothing illegal and the agent lets
them pass.

When they get back to the house, Marjane’s

mother begins passing out the presents they
had brought her. They give her a denim
jacket, a Michael Jackson button, and a pair
of Nike sneakers. They then pull the posters
out of the coat and Marjane is elated. She
says, “I loved Turkey.”

She puts the posters in her room, wears the

sneakers and the jacket, and plays air guitar
just like Iron Maiden. She tells her mother
that she is going out, just down the street,
and thinks that her mother is more
permissive than most other mothers who
would not let their daughters go out alone at
such a young age. Marjane goes to the corner
and buys several tapes from men selling
Western goods on the black market. She is
being sneaky about it until a group of women
stops her. They are members of the women’s
branch of the Guardians of the Revolution.
They interrogate her on her Western dress.
They ask her why she is wearing punk
sneakers, and Marji secretly thinks they know
 nothing of what punk really is. They chastise
her for wearing a Michael Jackson button and
she tries to tell them it is a Malcolm X button
because “Back then, Michael Jackson was still
black.” They pull her scarf over her head and
threaten to drag her to the committee, the
“HQ of the Guardians of the Revolution.”
Marjane lies and tells them that her mother is
dead and that her stepmother is very cruel
and will burn her with an iron or send her to
an orphanage if she does not go home. The
women believe her, or pretend to, and let her
go. Back at home, she does not tell her
mother what has happened and goes to her
room and plays her new tapes very loudly.
She sings along with the lyrics: “We’re the
kids of America....”

The Shabbat Analysis

"The Shabbat" and The family and some of their neighbors sit in
"The Dowry" the Satrapi living room. One of the neighbors
tells them that Iraq now has long-range
missiles that can reach Tehran. Marjane tells
them all that Iranians “are Olympic
champions when it comes to gossip” and they
agree that it is probable that Iraq does not
have such sophisticated technology. Iraq
does have long-range missiles however and
soon new bombings begin. The missiles,
called Scuds, are able to do so much damage
that the family does not even go to the
basement when the sirens sound because it
The symbolism of jewelry continues in these
chapters. Jewelry represents both an essence
of feminism -- the woman as a rare jewel -- as
well as an act of defiance since it is illegal for
women to adorn themselves in any way. Neda
Baba-Levy is wearing a bracelet that Marjane
had given to her when she is killed in the
bombing in Marjane’s neighborhood. In
death, Neda is able to retain her feminine
would do no good if one hit their building. identity even though Marjane is filled with
Many people leave Tehran at this point and
agony. Marjane is then kicked out of school
the city becomes deserted. The Baba-Levy’s,
a family that lives next to the Satrapis, decide after an incident involving jewelry. She refuses
to go and live at the Hilton where the
to give up her jewelry to the principal,
concrete reinforced buildings are supposed
to be stronger. The Baba-Levy’s are one of the symbolizing the way in which she has grown
few Jewish families left in Iran.
into a rebellious youth, now assured of her
One afternoon, Marjane asks her mother for
identity.
money to go buy jeans. There had been
rampant inflation in Iran and her mother is
In “The Shabbat,” Satrapi uses sparse
shocked that jeans now cost so much. As
graphical and textual diction to express the
Marjane is shopping, there is the sound of a
loneliness and impact of the violence of war.
loud explosion. The news comes quickly that
Though her neighborhood is bombed, Satrapi
a missile has hit in the Tavanir neighborhood,
uses only one image of a bombed building.
the neighborhood where Marjane lives. She
Instead, the graphic frames of the last pages
rushes home as quickly as possible.
of this chapter depict only Marjane and her
mother against a blank white background.
When she reaches her neighborhood, she
This represents the idea that the violence of
learns that the missile has hit one of the two
war is a force that disconnects people from
buildings at the end of her street. Her home
their community and exposes the darkness of
is one of those buildings. As she approaches,
a person’s own self. War and death have an
she can barely look up. She hears her mother
intense personal dimension, and they can
yelling and running towards her. Her mother
cause more than physical violence to a person.
tells her that the missile hit the Baba-Levy’s
The last frame of the chapter, which is nothing
building next door and Marjane is glad
but a blacked out box, is the author’s lowest
because she thinks that the Baba-Levy’s are
point and a place from which she cannot fully
staying at the Hilton. Her mother is not so
return.
sure because it is Saturday, the Sabbath,
when all Jews are supposed to return home.
By the end of the novel, Marjane has entered
Her mother tries to change the subject.
into adulthood. Her self-actualization journey
As Marjane’s mother pulls her away from the also finds some resolution, as she is able to
wreckage of the house, Marjane happens to name herself definitively in the final chapter
see her friend Neda Baba-Levy’s bracelet as “a rebel.” Her parents understand that their
sticking out from a pile of rubble. “The daughter has now come into her own in a
bracelet was still attached to...I don’t know fundamental way. Her father sees the
what...” Marjane covers her head and cries potential in this rebellious self, but Marjane’s
out, but “No scream in the world could have mother also understands that such
relieved my suffering and my anger.” rebelliousness could also cause her daughter
to lose her life.
The Dowry
This danger is represented by the dowry. In
A few years pass and it is 1984. Marjane says
ancient Middle Eastern culture, a dowry was a
that she has now become “a rebel.” When the
way for a man to show respect to his wife and
principal of her school tries to take her
to his wife’s family. In the current Islamic
jewelry, she yells back at them. One day, the
regime, however, this symbol of the dowry
principal attempts to take the jewelry and, in
has lost its meaning. The dowry, now, is given
a fit of rage, Marjane hits the principal and
in exchange for a young girl’s life after she is
knocks her down. She tries to apologize but
executed. The dowry has become blood
the principal expels her. Because her
money instead of a symbol of honor. This
grandmother knows several bureaucrats, she
perversion of symbols, Satrapi suggests, is
can be placed in a new school. Her defiance
characteristic of the fundamentalist rule in
remains, however. One day, the teacher is
Iran. It is another example of the way in which
lecturing the students on how the Islamic
Satrapi sees a rich Persian history altered and
regime no longer has political prisoners.
defiled by an errant religiosity.
Marjane stands up and tells the teacher that
her uncle had been executed by the regime
Because she is able to leave Iran when she
and that the number of prisoners has
does, Marjane is able to leave with a whole
increased from 3,000 to 300,000 under the
self. This is symbolized by her grandmother,
regime. The students applaud her honesty,
whose bosom Marjane snuggles into on her
but the teacher is angry. last night in the country. Her grandmother’s
bosom is, thus, both a symbol of matriarchal
That evening, the teacher calls Marjane’s dignity and representative of her Persian
parents. Her father is proud of her for homeland. The novel ends with Marjane
standing up to the lies but Marjane’s mother growing from a childhood perspective into a
grabs her and shakes her. She tells her, “You grown feminist perspective. The essence of
know what they do to the young girls they childhood remains -- Marjane seems to lose
arrest? ...You know that it’s against the law to herself in the warmth and comfort of her
kill a virgin...so a Guardian of the Revolution grandmother -- but she has now become a
marries her... and takes her virginity before mature adult and is able to carry her
executing her.” grandmother’s wisdom and abandon her
anger and vengeance.
Her father tells her what happened to
Niloufar, the girl that had been hiding in Her grandmother also represents the past
Khosro basement. The man that marries a girl that Marjane carries with her. In a literal
is supposed to give the girl a dowry. If the girl sense, Marjane’s grandmother is a part of
dies, the family of the girl receives the dowry. Persia’s past, since her husband was a part of
This is how the family knew that Niloufar had Persian royalty. In a more figurative sense,
been killed. The family received 500 Tumans, however, her grandmother represents a
the equivalent of $5, for her life. Persian heritage that has sustained her
through the novel. Her homeland is also her
A week later, Marjane’s parents call her into
mother and grandmother, in this sense. As
the living room to talk. They tell her that they
Marjane tearfully leaves her home country,
are sending her to Austria because it has
she does not take the violent, fundamentalist
become too dangerous for her in Iran. She is
reality of Iran with her. Instead, she takes the
unsure of this at first, but her parents assure
holy, maternal land of Persia from which she
her that one of the best French schools in
was born.
Europe is in Austria. Her mother tells her,
“You’re fourteen and I know how I brought
you up. Above all, I trust your education.”
They remind her that, when she had been
younger, they had sent her to summer camp
in France. That had been “real
independence,” Marji remembers. Her
parents tell her that they feel it is “better for
you to be far away and happy than close by
and miserable.”

The next day, Marjane gathers some soil from

the garden and puts it in a jar. She invites her
friends over and gives away her posters. She
says that she understands how important her
friends are to her. That evening, her
grandmother comes and Marjane sleeps in
the bed with her. When her grandmother
undresses, jasmine flowers fall from her
breasts because she puts them in her bra
every morning. Marjane asks her
grandmother how she keeps such round
breasts, and she tells her that she soaks them
for ten minutes in a bowl of ice water every
day. Her grandmother gives her some advice:
she tells her that if anyone is a jerk to her, she
must tell herself that the person is stupid so
that she will not react to the person's cruelty.
“Because there is nothing worse than
bitterness and vengeance... Always keep your
dignity and be true to yourself.” Marjane
 smells her grandmother’s bosom and thinks it
smells good. She thinks, “I’ll never forget that
smell.”

The next morning, her parents hurriedly wake

her and tell her they must go. At the airport,
there is a long line of people leaving the
country. Many of them are young boys being
sent away because after they turn thirteen
they are no longer allowed to leave. They are
considered future soldiers and are needed by
the government. Marjane’s parents tell her
that they will come see her in six months, but
she knows that “they’d come to visit but we’d
never live together again.” They hug, cry, and
send Marjane through customs. She is
cleared at customs but turns to see her
parents once more. She looks back through
the protective glass to see her mother has
fainted and her father is carrying her out of
the airport. She thinks, “It would have been
better to just go.”

● CHARACTERS
Character Name Character Description/ Analysis
● Marjane Marjane is the novel's main character. The book
is a narrative of her life from six years of age until
fourteen years of age. She provides the
childhood perspective from which the historical
events of the novel are understood.

Opinionated, intelligent, independent, and

rebellious, Marjane Satrapi, born in 1969, is a
child when the Iranian Revolution begins in 1978.
She daydreams about becoming a revolutionary
like her beloved Uncle Anoosh, and she eagerly
reads everything she can about her country's
political situation. Education is a mainstay
throughout the rest of the precocious preteen's
life—she is constantly reading to learn more
about the world and herself. As she grows older,
she begins to question the methods and morals
of Iran's Islamic government, which always gets
her in trouble at school but never at home. Taji
and Ebi raise her to ask questions and push back
when she thinks something isn't right, and she
does. Over the 16 years covered in Persepolis,
Marjane matures and finds her own path in life,
but she always remains deeply devoted to her
family and her country. She is proud to be
Iranian, and she is proud to be a member of her
family. Though her travels take her far away, she
always carries a piece of home in her heart.

Marjane is a strong-willed, sometimes confused

protagonist who we follow from childhood to
burgeoning adulthood over the course of
Persepolis. The confusion stems from her valiant
attempts at trying to understand the embattled
and restrictive world that she lives in—post-
Revolution Iran—as well as her attempts at
trying to maintain her dignity, independence,
and individuality among often senseless torture,
suffering, and death. The main threats to her
sense of self and growth are the new regime’s
restrictive measures, most notably the
 imposition that all women must wear the veil,
which disallows in public the kind of modern
outlook and expression that Marjane would
prefer. As a child, she must contend with being
thrust into the consequences of the adult world
without being fully able or allowed—even by her
mother and father, who try to protect her—to
understand the shadowy mechanisms that
dictate the oftentimes sorrowful fates of her
friends and members of her family. She reacts to
the forces around her by variously denying,
lashing out against, emulating, supporting, or
resigning herself to them

● Mr. Satrapi Mr. Satrapi is Marjane's father. He is a leftist

political protestor that takes part in the
demonstrations of 1979, yet he is also an
established engineer and maintains a middle
class lifestyle.

● Mrs. Satrapi Mrs. Satrapi is Marjane's mother. She holds

leftist political views and often urges Marjane
and her friends to rely on education as a way to
further themselves and their country. Marjane
often equates her with an overbearing presence
as she grows older, yet she maintains a close
bond and relationship with both her parents.

● Anoosh Anoosh is Marjane's uncle. He was imprisoned by

the Shah for his communist views, but was
released after the Revolution. He had been
married in Russia, but his wife divorced him.
Anoosh is arrested by the Islamic regime and
executed on the false charges that he is a Russian
spy.

Uncle Anoosh had fled Iran years earlier fearing

he would be arrested for treason. After spending
several years in the USSR (Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union), he returned
to Iran, where he was arrested and imprisoned
for nine years. Upon his release, he visits
Marjane's family and becomes one of her
favorite relatives. Within a few months he is
 rearrested and executed as a Russian spy.

Marjane’s Uncle who fled to the USSR after

Fereydoon is caught and executed for opposing
the Shah. He returns to Iran to see his family but,
though disguised, gets imprisoned. He becomes
a role model for Marjane, who considers him a
hero. However, after the revolutionaries take full
power they again arrest Anoosh (just because he
was antiShah does not mean his views accord
with the new regime’s). He gets sent to prison
again and executed, but not before Marjane gets
to speak to him one more time in jail and he gives
her a second bread swan.

● Grandmother Marjane's grandmother lives with Marjane's

family for a while. Her husband had been a prince
of the Shah and had been made prime minister.
He had been arrested for conspiring with
communists and tortured in a water cell. Her
grandmother provides Marjane with a
matriarchal figure.

Grandmother plays a large role in Persepolis and

in Marjane's life. Her late husband was the son of
Ahmad Shah, a former emperor of Iran. When
Reza Shah took over Iran, Grandma's husband
and his family lost everything. Living in poverty,
she held the family together while her husband
was jailed off and on for his communist beliefs.
Surprisingly liberal-minded for someone of her
generation, she is suspicious of governments
that claim to have the people's best interest at
heart but really only do what is best for
themselves. She is the person to whom Marjane
goes for advice, and she is the one who comforts
Marjane when things go terribly wrong.
However, she is not softhearted—her
expectations for her granddaughter are just as
high as Taji's and Ebi's. Beyond anything else, she
wants Marjane to remember who she is: the
granddaughter of a man who dedicated his life to
making his nation a better place. She expects the
 same kind of commitment and ideals from
Marjane.

● Siamak Jari Siamak is a hero of the revolution. He had been

captured and tortured by the Shah's police and
had been released after the Revolution. The
Islamic regime also seeks to capture him and
they kill his sister in the process. Siamak escapes
Iran by hiding in a group of sheep being
transported across the border.

For a long time he is a political prisoner of the

Shah’s regime. He is released but later targeted
for assassination. His assassins do not find him
and kill his sister instead. He flees across the
border hidden among a flock of sheep with his
family.

● Mohsen Shakiba Mohsen is a hero of the Revolution and a friend

of Marjane's family. Mohsen had been captured
and tortured by the Shah's forces. He is
murdered by the new Islamic regime by being
drowned in a bathtub. The regime frames his
death as a suicide.

He is for a long time a political prisoner of the

Shah’s before being released after the ousting of
the Shah. He is then murdered in his bathtub by
the Revolutionaries.

● Mehri Mehri is Marjane's nanny and maid. She was

taken in by the Satrapi's as a young child because
her impoverished family could not support her.
Mehri falls in love with a neighborhood boy but
she cannot be with him because she is from a
lower social class than he is.

Marjane’s childhood maid and friend.

● Mali Mali is a close friend of the Satrapi's. She comes

to live with them for a while after their border
town is bombed by Iraqi forces. She and her
husband had been wealthy, and the work
portrays them as quite materialistic, but they lost
 everything in the bombing.

Marjane’s Mother’s childhood friend who stays

with Satrapi family after their house in destroyed
in southern Iran during the start of the Iraq-Iran
War.

● Taher Taher is Marjane's uncle. He suffers numerous

heart attacks from smoking and from the stress
of war. After his third heart attack, he is refused
a passport by the hospital director and dies
without seeing his son for a last time.

Marjane’s Uncle, he dies from his fourth heart

attack after being frightened by an exploded
grenade. Before he dies, knowing of his ill-health,
Marjane’s family tries to get him a fake passport
through Khosro, but Khosro flees from the
regime and a real, government-issued passport
arrives only on the same day as Taher’s burial

● Khosro Khosro is a friend of Marjane's family. He is asked

to make a fake passport for Marjane's Uncle
Taher, but he leaves the country before he is able
to complete the job because of government
persecution.

A man who spent time with Anoosh in prison

and agrees to make a fake passport for Marjane’s
uncle Taher but must flee the country before he
can do so.

● Niloufar Niloufar is a young girl that hides in Khosro's

basement. She is captured and executed by the
Iranian government.

A young communist, Khosro hides this woman

until she is caught and executed. Marjane’s
parents use her as an example to explain to
Marjane of the dangers that young women face
when arrested. Niloufar was forcibly married off
to a prison guard and raped before execution
because it is illegal to kill a virgin woman by the
strict religious guidelines of Iranian law. To add
 brutal insult to terrible injury, Niloufar’s family
was then sent a dowry for the wedding after the
execution.

During most of her youth, Taji's father was in jail,

and young Taji grew up in poverty. She, more
● Taji Satrapi
than anyone else in the Satrapi family, knows the
importance of a good education. Her education
gave her the tools to improve her social status,
and she wants the same for Marjane. Taji
recognizes early on that her daughter is not
made to live under Iran's repressive laws, so she
pushes Marjane to focus on her studies,
especially French, so she can one day leave and
do what she wants with her life. Taji understands
this means Marjane won't always be close, but
it's a sacrifice she's willing to make for her
daughter's happiness. Though also a liberal, she
does not have Ebi's natural optimism about Iran's
future. Her fleeting wish to relocate to the West
is tempered by the negative experiences her
friends and family have had outside of their
homeland. It is too late for her to start over
again, and she doesn't want her daughter to miss
that opportunity.

Mustachioed Ebi Satrapi is one of six brothers.

Though he is not as outspoken as his brother
● Ebi Satrapi
Anoosh or his Uncle Fereydoon, he is a rebel in
his own right. Well-read and politically up-to-
date, Ebi prefers to get all his news and
information from the BBC, which, unlike Iranian
state media, presents an outside perspective of
current events. Though he never explicitly says
he's a communist, he provides Marjane with
reading material about Marxist theories and
tends to agree with the socialist ideals of his
brother. Unlike Anoosh, however, Ebi is cautious.
Following the Iranian Revolution, he keeps his
rebellion inside the home—where he reads
Western books, listens to Western music, drinks
alcohol, and holds in-depth discussions about the
state of Iran's government. He insists his
 daughter be educated about the topics facing
their country so she can form her own opinions
and speak intelligently on nearly any subject. Ebi
loves Marjane unreservedly, and he would do
anything to protect her. Yet he also knows she
needs to make mistakes, such as getting married,
for herself.

Markus and Marjane date and smoke marijuana

together. He gets her involved in buying their
● Markus
supply, and soon she's the drug dealer for the
whole school. When Marjane catches Markus
with another woman, they break up and never
see each other again.

Reza and Marjane meet and fall in love at the

university. After two years of surreptitious
● Reza
dating, they grow tired of not being able to be
seen together in public. They marry and soon
realize they have made a mistake. They
eventually divorce.

● Marjane’s Parents (Mother and Father)
Though many characters in Persepolis appear
and then disappear, Marjane’s parents are
constants in the graphic novel, the two people
who most affect Marjane, and whose cues and
beliefs Marjane follows or alternately disregards
over the course of her growing up. Educated,
politically active, and modern, and accepting of
Western culture, Marjane’s parents represent
for her an ideal mode of living. During the
Revolution her parents demonstrate against the
Shah and take other risks to achieve the kind of
government they think is best for the people.
They are dismayed, however, when the regime
that takes the Shah’s place is even more
repressive, and though at first they demonstrate
against the Islamic Republic, too, and even let
Marjane come along—though they always worry
about what information to share with her and
from what she should remain protected—they
realize the danger is too great. They continue
living secular, modern lives—but only while
indoors. Still, they wish to give Marjane the kind
 of education and life that will most benefit her,
and by the end of the graphic novel they decide
that what is best for Marjane is if she leaves them
for the foreseeable future and completes her
education in Vienna, Austria, away from the
repressive Iranian regime.

● God As a child, Marjane finds much comfort in God,

who becomes a friend as well as a source of
support. However, as the world around Marjane
becomes uglier and uglier, and as she comes to
understand that much of this ugliness is a result
instead. He flees across the border hidden
among a flock of sheep with his family.

● Laly The daughter of Siamak.

● Ahmadi Friend of Marjane’s Father, Siamak, and Mohsen,

who is tortured and executed.

● Fereydoon Cousin of Anoosh and the man who declared

Azerbaijan as independent from Iran. He gets
executed by the Shah’s regime.

● Paradisse Marjane’s friend whose father dies while a

fighter pilot bombing Baghdad. Paradisse writes
to Marjane, “I wish he were alive and in jail rather
than dead and a hero.”

● Mali’s Husband Mali’s husband, who also lives with the Satrapi’s
for a while after his own house gets destroyed.
Marjane’s Father considers him very
materialistic.

● Mali’s Two Boys Mali’s children. These young boys are

materialistic and not very aware of their family’s
losses and deprivations incurred during the Iraq-
Iran War.

● Mrs. Nasrine The Satrapi’s family maid, whose son receives a

plastic key painted gold in school, which is a
tactic used by the regime to tempt boys to
become martyr’s during the Iran-Iraq war. She
loses her faith due to the way the regime uses
religion to manipulate its people.
● Mrs. Nasrine’s Son A schoolboy who receives a plastic key painted
gold and is very unaware of how the government
and the school are manipulating him into
wanting to become a martyr during the Iran-Iraq
war

● Marjane’s Grandmother An early confidant of Marjane’s. At the end of the

novel she gives Marjane important advice about
how to live and survive in a world with people
who wish to cause other people suffering.

● Marjane’s Great-grandfather Was emperor of Persia before the Father of the

Shah overthrew him.

● Marjane’s Grandfather He was a Persian Prince, and though at first

Marjane gets excited by this fact, the truth of the
matter is that he was often imprisoned and
tortured for his communist beliefs.

● Ramin’s Father Ramin’s father is a member of the secret police

under the Shah. Marjane and her friends at first
blame Ramin for his crimes.

● Ramin Ramin’s father is part of the secret police and

Marjane and her friends decide to punish him for
his father’s crimes, though later Marjane tells
him that she forgives him.

● Shahab Marjane’s cousin who, while on leave from the

army, describes the way young men turned into
soldiers are convinced by the army that
martyrdom will bring glory in the afterlife.

● Neda Marjane’s friend and the daughter in the Baba-

Levy household. After the Baba-Levy home is
destroyed in fighting, Marjane discovers Neda’s
bracelet—and the arm attached to it—in the
rubble.

● Baba-Levy Family The Jewish family next door to the Satrapi’s who
gets killed by ballistic missiles. They refuse to
leave Tehran because their family has lived in the
city for 3000 years.

● Marjane’s Baby Cousin Marjane and her family take the time to
 celebrate his birth with the rest of her family
even though sirens ring throughout the city day
and night.

● Marjane’s Baby Cousin’s Mother – She hands her baby to Marjane and flees without
him as a siren interrupts the party
commemorating his birth.

● Hossein A neighbor who sends Mehri letters.

● Two women in the supermarket Marjane and Mali’s family overhear these two
women denigrating refugees from southern Iran.

● Hospital Director The hospital director once was Taher’s family’s

window washer. He has, since the Revolution,
become very devout and reached a high position
in society.

● Two Members These are two members of the women’s branch

of the Guardians of the Revolution who accost
Marjane about the western clothes she is
wearing and her improperly veiled hair

● Young policeman He accosts the Satrapi family one day on their

way home and threatens to search their house
for illegal goods, but he quickly vanishes after
Marjane’s Father offers him a bribe.

● Peyman Marjane’s friend who holds a party in his house

● Tinoosh A neighbor who is arrested after someone

informed the police about his holdings of
forbidden Western party objects.

● Kaveh Marjane’s friend who left to live in America.

● Golnaz Marjane’s childhood friend.

● Mashid Marjane’s childhood friend.

● Narin Marjane’s childhood friend.

● Minna Marjane’s childhood friend.

 ● Graphic Novel

THEME DESCRIPTION

The medium of storytelling is as important as the story itself in a graphic novel. By using frames of drawing
with minimal text, the graphic novel calls on the reader to enter into a different kind of textual interpretation.
A reader must read the captions of the frames and interpret this text within the context of the paneled art.
Artistic style becomes as important as text for relaying narrative to the reader.

Persepolis brings a particular graphic style to the autobiographical narrative. Satrapi draws in a minimalist style:
black and white, often only six to eight panels on a page. This style is meant to represent a childlike
understanding of the world since the novel follows Satrapi's own childhood. The black and white symbolizes
both the past and how the Islamic revolution left Iran devoid of its rich colorful cultural history. The medium
of the graphic novel is also important here because iconic representations of Islam are forbidden by the Islamic
regime. The novel is, thus, a form of protest as well as art.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Tension Between Past And Present

THEME DESCRIPTION
 Throughout the novel, Marjane feels a tension between the great and glorious past of the Persian Empire and
the violence and problems of modern Iran. In the novel's opening chapters, she identifies herself with the
great prophets of the past dating back to Zarathustra. She imagines herself as a symbol of love and tolerance.
When the Iran-Iraq War begins, she vehemently defends it as a just cause and relates it to a 1400-year
conflict that has been waged between the Arabs and the Persians.

This unwavering belief in the past is put in tension with the novel's present day political intolerance and
religious fundamentalism. Marjane's pride in her history is in direct conflict with the imprisonment of political
revolutionaries and, later, the execution of those that speak out against the strict cultural demands of the
Islamic regime. Marjane's journey through the novel is an exploration of how one can love one's past while
denouncing its present condition.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Bildungsroman

THEME DESCRIPTION

The bildungsroman is a genre of literature in which the protagonist undergoes a process of intense moral
growth and self-actualization. For a work to be considered a bildungsroman, the protagonist must progress
from childhood to adulthood, leave home to undergo a journey, and develop a more mature
understanding of his or her self.

Satrapi's novel, especially if considered in the larger context of the second volume of the series, falls into
all of these categories. Marjane begins Persepolis as a child and by the end of the novel declares her
independence from her mother and father through the ritual of smoking a cigarette. Marjane's parents
force her to leave her war torn home for her safety and this begins her journey. Throughout the novel
Marjane must reconcile her own beliefs and understanding of the world with the strict cultural rules of the
Islamic regime.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Class Conflict

THEME DESCRIPTION

Class conflict is an underlying tension throughout the novel. At the beginning, Marjane
cannot quite grasp how her father can drive a Cadillac and her family can have a maid while
also preaching the virtues of class-consciousness and equality. Iran's history is seen as a
history of both great wealth and great poverty. The 1979 Revolution is characterized by
Satrapi as largely a Marxist revolution undertaken by the urban cultural elites on behalf of the
impoverished people of Iran's countryside.

This conflict is more clearly seen in the chapter "The Letter." In this chapter, Marjane's maid
is forced to abandon her love for a neighbor. They cannot be together, Mr. Satrapi tells his
daughter, because their social classes are not supposed to marry. Marjane sees a great
injustice in this belief because, at the same time, her parents march in the streets for a
Marxist revolution in the nation.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Modernity Vs. Fundamentalism

THEME DESCRIPTION

The inability of the Marxist and Socialist revolutionaries to gain political power after
the 1979 Revolution causes a great strain for families such as the Satrapis. These
families see themselves as modern people. They hold Western political and social
beliefs. This is not just seen in the kinds of Western material things that Marjane and
her family seek out -- things like rock posters, jean jackets, hamburgers, and Cadillacs.
It is also seen in the social values that they hold -- a belief in the rights of women,
liberal education, and human rights.
 Religious and ideological fundamentalism is portrayed as a hindrance to the
development of Iran. This fundamentalism represses its people. It not only takes away
the material things that the people enjoy but it also takes away their identity and
dignity. According to the author in the book's introduction, one of the chief reasons
for writing Persepolis is to show the perspective of a modern Iran persecuted and
punished by a few "extremists."

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTE EXPLANATION

● The Abandonment of Faith

THEME DESCRIPTION

Much of the novel's first half is a recounting of the author's loss of naivety and faith. As a
child, Marjane sees herself as a prophet in the line of Zarathustra, Moses, Jesus, and
Mohammed. Her imaginary friend is her vision of God as an old man with a long flowing
beard. In these scenes from childhood, God encourages Marjane to become a prophet and to
stand up for love and justice.

As Marjane begins to confront the political and social realities of her world, the reader sees
her slowly detaching from her faith. As she hears stories of political imprisonment and
torture, she finds that God no longer gives her comfort. As the Islamic regime comes into
power, she feels that she cannot defend a faith represented by such fundamentalism. The
imprisonment and execution of her Uncle Anoosh causes a break in her faith and she
describes herself as lost and alone in the universe.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● The Relationship Between Parents And Children

THEME DESCRIPTION

Throughout the novel, Satrapi uses her own relationship with her parents as a
metaphor for her relationship with her country and the wider world. The conflict and
love she experiences with her parents is a necessary part of her growth as a person.
Her relationship with her mother and father is both tender and full of tension. Her
parents love her and seek to provide her with the best in education and upbringing.
They hope to provide her with a life full of privileges.

At the same time, however, Marjane feels a great tension between her parents'
political views and their actions. Their belief in equality and liberation for the working
classes conflicts with the privilege that they hold and seek in society. On one occasion,
Marjane compares her mother to the Guardians of the Revolution, the secret police
force of the Islamic regime. The end of the novel is a representation of the eventual
break that all children must have with those that raise them. In Marjane's case, she
also breaks with the country and culture that raised her.
 KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Rebellion and Independence

THEME DESCRIPTION

Marjane has been a rebel ever since she was a little girl. At age six she wants to be a
prophet even though her declaration angers or puzzles the adults around her. As she
gets older she rebels against her parents, who tell her she can't go to public protests,
and then against her teachers, who make her take part in repeated mourning
ceremonies for the martyrs. She fights against the increasingly strict dress code, the ban
on Western culture, and pretty much everything the Islamic Republic tells her to do.
She pushes back to make a point about things she thinks aren't right, such as policing a
person's beliefs or private activities.

Marjane comes from a long line of rebels on both sides of her family. Her Uncle
Fereydoon was part of the group that declared the Iranian province of Azerbaijan an
independent nation, and her Uncle Anoosh spoke out against the former Iranian
government. Her maternal grandfather was a former prince who dedicated his life to
defending innocent people. Her grandmother and parents have all rebelled against the
former and current regimes in their own ways—from reading illicit philosophy texts to
protesting against the government in public to sharing their ideals with Marjane. They
nurture her rebellious spirit so she will ask questions and form her own opinions instead
of blindly following the messages of the state.

The rebellious characters in Persepolis seek freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of

religion, and freedom to live one's life the way one chooses. Marjane rebels because
she wants to be in control of her own life. Even when she's young she fights to make
her own decisions, and by the time she's 12 she decides she's ready to be an adult. At
14 she is confident she doesn't need her parents anymore, and she moves to Austria
sure that she will be able to take care of herself. It isn't until she's living in a boarding
house that Marjane understands the downside of being fully autonomous. She can
make her own decisions now, but she also has to cook and clean for herself and navigate
her way through a strange land full of unfamiliar customs. She also learns being
independent doesn't necessarily mean one has total freedom. As a boarder in other
people's homes, Marjane must follow their rules and do what they say as long as she
wants a place to live. She must abide by the rules set by her school and by society in
general. Even after achieving her independence, Marjane remains a rebel—ready to
protest against rules or situations she finds unjust.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Culture Clash

THEME DESCRIPTION

"As a family we were very modern and avant-garde," Satrapi says at the
beginning of Persepolis. Though they are proud Iranians, the Satrapis embrace
Western clothing, music, books, and other aspects of popular culture, as well as
Western philosophy. Throughout her life Marjane identifies as Iranian and feels
a deep connection with Iran because she was raised there, but she also finds
herself drawn to the West. During her early teenage years she's stuck
somewhere between the two, wearing her hijab while sporting a jean jacket and
Nike shoes. This combination of cultures is easy for her, as she is in charge of
deciding which parts of Western culture she wants to adopt.

Things change when she moves to Vienna, Austria, at 14. Now Marjane is
immersed in Western culture, and she wasn't prepared for how different nearly
everything would be once she left Iran. Her Iranian values, such as reserving
sexual contact until marriage, staying away from drugs, and respecting one's
parents, are all called into question. Adhering to her former way of life makes
 her feel like an outcast; however, giving up her beliefs just to fit in makes her
feel like a traitor to her family and her country. She tries to find a balance
between the two cultures but eventually ends up losing herself in drugs and
boys.

Marjane is relieved to return to Iran with its familiar culture and friendly faces.
But the West has changed her more than she realized. Living among other
teenagers in Vienna shifted her beliefs about premarital sex, a topic that is still
taboo with many Iranian teenagers, including her childhood friends. Marjane
has inadvertently absorbed Western culture, which makes her return to Iran feel
like a visit to a foreign country. She again has to learn to assimilate, and again
she isn't fully able to shift her views. At the end of the book she leaves Iran for
good in search of the freedom afforded to her in the West. This time she knows
it's not about changing herself to fit in, but about finding the place and the
people who are the right fit for her.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Public vs. Private Selves

THEME DESCRIPTION

The Islamic Republic's strict laws about proper dress and behavior cause sudden
changes in Marjane's friends, family, and neighbors. Women who once wore miniskirts
now cloak themselves in the chador (cloth that covers the head and upper body leaving
the face exposed), and children who never showed any religious inclination boast they
pray several times a day. For the most part these people haven't actually changed their
personalities or beliefs—they're just trying to avoid punishment by obeying the laws.
Behind closed doors these same people throw parties, drink alcohol, and question the
regime's rules. Marjane soon recognizes the "contrast between the official
 representation of my country and the real life of the people," and it seems as if
everyone is leading a secret life. Devout public exteriors serve as masks for individuals'
private selves, and the difference between the two can be disorienting. In "The Socks"
Marjane says of herself and her classmates, "Our behavior in public and our behavior in
private were polar opposites," which make them feel "schizophrenic." It's hard to know
oneself when bouncing between two completely different personalities. Because of
this, Marjane struggles with figuring out who she is and who she wants to be.

In Marjane's experience it is incredibly difficult to discern the nature of a person from

the public persona alone. This is the case when she reunites with her childhood friends
after returning from Austria. On the outside they look like "the heroines of an American
TV series," fully made-up with fashionable hairstyles and clothing. Because of their
appearance Marjane assumes they hold the same values as she does, so she gets a nasty
surprise when one of them calls her a whore after learning she's had more than one
lover. "Underneath their outward appearance of being modern women, my friends
were real traditionalists," she says. The same thing happens with her art school friends
when she mentions she takes birth control pills. Marjane expects people of her
generation—especially those who rebel against the Islamic regime through their
clothes and makeup—share her progressive views. Learning they don't share her beliefs
makes her realize that people's public facade doesn't necessarily have the purpose of
avoiding government persecution. Sometimes its purpose is to project an appearance
of "coolness" and sophistication.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Children, War, and Growing Up

 THEME DESCRIPTION

The memoir follows its protagonist, Marjane, from childhood to young adulthood, and
as such it traces the effects of war and politics on her psyche and development. By her
own admission, Marjane thinks that the moment she comes of age occurs when she
smokes a cigarette she stole from her uncle. However, by this point Marjane has
encountered so much sorrow, death, and disaster, with enough grace, dignity, and
sympathy, that her tiny act of rebellion against her mother’s prohibition of cigarettes
comes across as hopelessly childish—as more of a defense mechanism against the
repression enacted by the state than an act of maturity. What might have, during
peaceful times, been seen as a rite of passage into adulthood becomes muddied by the
heightened stakes of the war, and Marjane must grapple with growing up quickly even
as she still retains many of her immature instincts. War both stunts and quickens her
growth, and brings out both the weepy and sensitive child and the strong and willful
adult in her. Persepolis shows children to be extremely malleable ideologically and
behaviorally during war precisely because children do not yet have the capacity to
understand the complexity of the situations around them. For example, we see how
many boys easily become radicalized and come to believe in the heavenly benefits of
martyrdom because they are naturally trusting of authority. In fact, the graphic novel
opens with Marjane professing the fact that she and her friends did not understand the
meaning of the veil newly imposed by the Islamic Republic; they only knew it as a
change from the time before, when they did not need to cover their hair. This alerts us
to the fact that for a child born into this new rule, the rule will seem perfectly normal,
just as not wearing a veil felt normal for Marjane before the Revolution. Children, thus,
take their cues about what is normal in the world from the adults around them, and
Marjane and her friends throughout Persepolis emulate in reality or imagination the
roles of soldiers, torturers, demonstrators, prophets, heroes, and political leaders.
Rather than thinking rationally or sophisticatedly about all the different players in this
societal moment of crisis, Marjane at first follows or reveres anyone with power and
popular appeal. However, the graphic novel literally illustrates her growth into young
adulthood as she becomes continually confronted with the contradictions and
confusions of life. Marjane’s growing up is complicated by the fact that the Iranian
government understands that the children of today are the adults of tomorrow, and so
wants to influence children to become adults who will support the Islamic Republic.
Marjane’s school thus becomes a microcosm of the wider world in which the
government’s ideology gets thrust onto the populace. Not only must the girls wear veils,
whereas once they did not, but after the Revolution they must also tear out the photo
of the Shah—a man whom they were once told to adore. This confusion leads Marjane
to understand that she cannot simply follow the opinions of others—she must make up
her own mind about the political realities and questions surrounding her. She must
grow up.
 KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● The Personal vs. the Political

THEME DESCRIPTION

THE PERSONAL VS. THE POLITICAL Persepolis is a story about Marjane Satrapi,
her family, her friends, and the people she knows—and also about the nation of
Iran. These two stories cannot be unspooled from each other—one cannot be
told without the other, and no individual in the story can exist or be understood
outside of the context of the historical change happening in Iran around him or
her, no matter how much he or she might try. From the start, Marjane’s story is
about how the individual engages with the political—as her parents
demonstrate against the Shah during the Revolution—and how the political
encroaches on the personal—as after the Revolution Marjane must suddenly
wear the veil at school. Indeed, what Marjane at one point pinpoints as the
source of the Revolution—class differences—she recognizes in her own family
home: the family maid, Mehri, does not eat dinner at the table with them. The
question, then, becomes one of degrees: if one cannot escape the political in
one’s life, how much should one participate in the political sphere, and does one
actually have a choice in the matter? For the Satrapis, the question manifests
itself in questions over how much risk they want to take to protect their rights—
do they want to demonstrate and possibly be beaten, for example? The Satrapis'
solution is to try to recede as much as they can, to appear like good citizens of
the Islamic Republic even as they privately hold parties, make wine, and buy
imported goods. Yet even these choices are political acts, as they are forbidden
and might lead to arrest. Though Marjane cannot outwardly rebel much beyond
improperly covering her veil, she finds small ways to resist the oppressive rules
imposed on her by the Islamic Republic. The personal and the political, then,
become inexorably intertwined in Iran. To assert one’s individuality in clothing
or spoken opinion becomes a political act. Furthermore, Marjane expresses that
 government policies really affect people’s behaviors: “It wasn’t only the
government that changed. Ordinary people changed too.” Under such a
repressive regime, what once felt like an enormous separation between the
public sphere and the private one considerably narrows. By the end of the
graphic novel, Marjane’s mother is both covering the windows to protect
against flying glass—a consequence of the ongoing warfare, indiscriminate in its
destructiveness—and from the eyes of prying neighbors, who might inform the
authorities about the family’s Western ways, which would be an individually
targeted and motivated act.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Gender

THEME DESCRIPTION

Persepolis opens at the moment in Iranian history when it becomes obligatory for
women to wear the veil and schools become segregated by gender. The Revolution
brings many changes to Tehran, but the changes imposed on women and men in how
they dress and look—women must cover their heads, men must cover their arms and
not wear a necktie—might be the most immediately relevant and personally frustrating.
Over the course of the graphic novel, Marjane begins to understand that to be a woman
in her new society is to be subjugated to a lesser role than the one she expected to have
in her younger years. As a child, she imagines herself a to be the last prophet, explicitly
despite the fact that all the other prophets were men. However, as the graphic novel
progresses, she realizes that though she “wanted to be an educated, liberate woman”
this “dream went up in smoke” with the Revolution. Though she had once wanted to
be like the celebrated scientist Marie Curie, she thinks that “at the age that Marie Curie
first went to France to study [chemistry], I’ll probably have ten children.” Marjane
comes to understand that her destiny as a woman is dependent on the state’s
allowance or disallowance of women’s freedom. Early in the days after the imposition
 of the veil, Marjane’s mother gets assaulted for not wearing a veil, and at a
demonstration against the veil Marjane sees women getting beaten up and even a
woman getting stabbed. Though her mother thinks earlier that she “should start
learning to defend her rights as a woman right now,” Marjane understands this to be
impractical and dangerous, so she resigns herself instead to committing small acts of
disobedience, like improperly wearing her veil. However, she continues to speak out
against the contradictions and unfairness she notices around her, which gets her
expelled from school. Soon after her parents reveal to her the extent to which the state
believes it has a right to control women’s bodies—it is against the law to kill a virgin
woman, so before executions of virgin women a prison guard will rape the condemned
prisoner. The situation appears both completely hopeless and dangerous to an
outspoken girl like Marjane, and so her parents decide to send her out of the country,
to Vienna, where she will have the freedom to be and grow as pleases and befits her as
an independent woman, an independent person.

KEY STATEMENTS

QUOTES QUOTES EXPLANATION

● Class Conflict

THEME DESCRIPTION

Class differences can be seen throughout the story. Marjane is from a wealthy family
her father drives a cadillac and has a maid. Class difference can be seen in the “ The
Letter”. In this chapter Mehri and Hossein could not get married because they are not
in the same social class. Marjane’s father told Marjane that “ You must understand that
their love was impossible.” “Because in this country you must stay within your own
social class.” Another example of class difference can be seen in the key paradise. “The
key of paradise was for the poor people. Thousands of young kids, promised a better
life , exploded in the minefields with their keys around their necks.” While Marjane who
was from a rich family got to go to her first party. Marjane wore a sweater full of holes
and a necklace with chains and nails. Punk rock was in. These examples show a major
difference between classes. While the poor kids are dying with keys around their necks.
The rich kids are all dressed up in punk rock, having a great time partying. This example
shows how different classes live their lives. Another example can be seen by Marjane
favorite author. He told stories of how kids at young ages had to start working, this is
an example of differences between social classes because the poor kids had to work
while Marjane a kid from a wealthy family could read books and enjoy her childhood
life.
Ignorance is not bliss. Although the conventional phrase is “Ignorance is bliss,” I
disagree. I find it interesting to believe that even after people such as Nelson Mandela,
Harriet Tubman, John F. Kennedy, and others, who have not turned away from the
issue, did not screen themselves, and changed history... people would still rather block
out a bad situation yet still know it’s happening, than to know and help improve it. I
believe that acknowledgement of the world around us is important, and should only be
screened to certain extent. Many people believe that censoring sensitive issues from
adolescents is valuable and mandatory, but maybe early acknowledgment is more
important than savoring such naïvety. The imagination rooted in children, allows them
to think in a unique way– rare in adults, which catalyzes innovation. In Marjane Satrapi’s
novel Persepolis, Marji becomes cognizant of the Islamic Revolution at the age of tender
age of 10. Thus, she knew of social injustices; class struggle, gender inequality, and had
the support of her parents, influencing her positively rebellious personality.
Once Marji discovered the struggles that come between two classes, she “finally

understood the reasons for the Revolution, and made [her] decision” (38) on her

political stance. Subsequently, realizing that she had been unexpectedly oblivious to

the truth of the Revolution, she began to do her research. She took up reading and

began to notice class differences. “Reza became a porter at the age of 10. Leila wove

carpets at the age of five. Hassan, three years old, cleaned car windows. I finally

understood why I left ashamed to sit in my father’s Cadillac. The reason for my shame

and for the revolution is the same: the difference between social classes” (33.) Marji

had never noticed the discrepant struggles between classes, and still did not

understand the adversity of the lower class. Not until it broke Mehri’s heart. Mehri is

the Satrapis’ maid, who had been sold to their family because her own family could not

afford to feed her. One day, she began a distant relationship with the neighbor, and it

immediately fell into turmoil once he found out she was merely a maid. Marji’s father

explained to Marji why it could not work. “You must understand that their love is

impossible[...] In this country you must stay within your own social class” (37). Marji

was infuriated by the inequity. “But that isn’t 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” (37). That night, after sitting bed,
distressed and angered, Marji declared. “Tomorrow we are going to demonstrate,”

habitually, Mehri denied, but Marji would not allow that to stop her, “Don’t worry! We

are going anyway” (38-39).

As a female in Iran during the Revolution, there is no doubt that Marji would be

baffled by the inequality and oppression. The most prominent reason for her zealous

hatred for the oppression of females is because her mother. Marji’s mother called one

day crying after being harassed by two men. “Two guys… two bearded guys!... Two

fundamentalist bastards[...] they insulted me, they said that women like me should be

pushed up against the wall and fucked. And then thrown in the garbage.” For the next

several days, Mrs. Satrapi suffered in a state of paranoia and depression. She would lay

in bed; shielding people, denying food, bed ridden. A few days later, after Mrs. Satrapi

had gotten the strength to get out of bed, an offensive remark came from the television,

disgusting both Marji and her mother. “Women’s hair emanates rays that excite men.

That’s why women should cover their hair! If in fact it is really more civilized to go

without the veil, then animals are more civilized than we are” (74) explained the male

news reporter. From an early age, Marji and her female classmates were forced to wear

veils around their heads. They did not understand the significance and reason for

wearing them and wore them carelessly. Several years later, Marji accompanied her

parents to demonstrate against fundamentalism and the veils. “Guns May Shoot And

Knives May Carve, But We Won’t Wear Your Silly Scarves!” read signs Marji helped pass

around. In response for revolting against veils, men attacked the women demonstrators
with bats and threatened, “The scarf or a beating!” (76). Marji was infuriated and

disgusted. Men’s justification for the veils that they were only to benefit and protect

women, when it only shattered their individualism and made the inequality between

genders evident.

Tieing up all information that Marji learned as a child, is the fact that her parents

encouraged her awareness and rebellious behavior. The day before the scarf

demonstration, Marji asked to go. Her father denied, claiming it was too dangerous, but

her mother did not. “She should start learning her rights as a woman right now!” (76)

declared Mrs. Satrapi. Mrs. Satrapi knew that there was a growing side of Marji’s

personality that would one day do something to change society for women. She knew

that it was important for Marji to understand the truth about Iran early on. Years before

the Revolution occurred, Marji wanted to be the last prophet. At school, she was asked

the typical question, “What do you want be when you grow up?”, but gave a very

untypical response. She confidently answered that she would be a prophet, which

startled and worried her teacher. Immediately, Marji’s parents were called in to have a

conference with Marji’s teacher.

“Your child is disturbed. She wants to become a prophet.”

“What about it?”

“Doesn’t this worry you?”

“No! Not at all!” (8).

Her parents were curious about Marji’s desires, knowing that they were exceptionally
unusual for a six year old girl, but did not try to change anything. To enhance her

intelligence, her parents bought her books about the Revolution, and the history of Iran.

“To enlighten me they bought me books. I knew everything about the children of

Palestine. About Fidel Castro. About the young Vietnamese killed by the Americans.

About the revolutionaries of my country” (12). This allowed Marji to create ideas of her

own and learn about all types of government, leaders, and heroes. From reading about

heroes and meeting her own heroic Uncle Anoosh, Marji intended to be one herself.

As a result of the collective factors of recognition, Marji grew to be a rebellious and

advocated woman. She would correct false and biased statements, and became

fearless. Whether by her peers, or by the principle, Marji never let herself be inferior.

She was applauded in class for her bravery. Her teacher made a statement that Marji’s

proved false with personal experience. After biasedly teaching students about the

Islamic Regime, Marji rebutted– proving that there were still political prisoners. “Since

the Islamic Republic was founded, we no longer have political prisoners.” said Marji’s

teacher. Infuriated, Marji denied. “Ma’am. My uncle was imprisoned by the Shah’s

regime, but it was the Islamic Regime that ordered his execution. [...] How dare you lie

to us like that?” (144). Marji was not afraid to speak her truth. She was afraid of nothing

and would go to any length to fight for her beliefs. After seeing her friend Baba-Levy’s

hand under the rubble of destruction from the bombs, she had crossed her limit and

turned her life around. “After the death of Neda Baba-Levy, my life took a new turn. In

1984, I was fourteen and a rebel. Nothing scared me anymore” (143). To most people,
 the utmost form of terror is seeing a loved one killed. It’s a traumatic experience luckily

not witnessed by the majority. Often, overcoming one’s biggest fear initiates bravery

and courage.

Marji’s willpower and incomplete knowledge of the cruelty and futility in

society, creates the quintessential balance of innocence and empathy. After hearing of

the injustices happening in Iran, she decided she would become the next prophet. “At

the age of six, I was already sure I was the last prophet. [...] I wanted to be a prophet…

because our maid did not eat with us, because my father had a Cadillac, and above all

else, because my grandmother’s knees always ached” (6). It is evident that Marji intends

to do good by becoming the next prophet. Marji believes that she will end all corruption

and misery by implying that she will be the last prophet. This is the product of knowing.

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious

stupidity.”

― Martin Luther King

● Modernity vs. Fundamentalism

THEME DESCRIPTION

NATIONALISM, HEROISM, AND MARTYRDOM

When the Revolution comes, Marjane, like her family, rejoices. After decades under the
despotic American-backed Shah, she and her family believe that this moment will ensure that
the Iranian people will finally be free to decide for themselves who will lead their country and
how. Put another way, Marjane is an Iranian patriot and a nationalist, in the sense that she
believes profoundly in the value and need for an independent Iran ruled by Iranians. Marjane’s
love for her country and belief that it should be free is so great that she feels the urge to fight
for it, and glorifies those who do fight for it—particularly those people who die in the name of
the cause: martyrs. Marjane, just a child at this time, thinks of heroism in romantic terms, and
sees martyrdom especially as extremely positive and desirable. In fact, Marjane hopes her own
family members will be heroes and she is disappointed that her father is not a hero. She is
ecstatic when it turns out that Anoosh, her uncle, has had to flee to the USSR to protect himself
from the Shah’s government against which he was fighting. Yet as Marjane starts to come to
grips with the actual consequences of martyrdom and heroism—Anoosh, for example, gets
executed by the new regime because of his former political activities—her positive feelings
about heroism and martyrdom begin to fade. Even more importantly, as the Revolution results
in a new regime even more oppressive than the Shah’s, and an Iran ruled by Iranians turns out
to be no better and in many ways worse than an Iran ruled by foreign powers, Marjane is forced
to grapple with the very notion of nationalism. What country or which people should be the
object of her nationalism? Though before and just after the Revolution she complains that her
father is “no patriot” because of his pessimism, as she grows up and sees the actions and impact
of the Islamic Republic she begins to recognize her own country’s stubborn foreign policy and
ideologically-driven warmongering for what they are. She realizes that the boys sent off to war
as martyrs are being brainwashed and used, their lives wasted, in service to nationalism. She
sees that just as nationalism can overthrow a dictator, so it can also be used to prop up a
dictator. And yet, at the same time, when she hears the Iranian National Anthem, Marjane is
“overwhelmed” with emotion. Facing this conundrum in her feelings about her country,
Marjane begins to understand that she can both love her country and hate it at the same time.
She begins to understand that a country is not one monolithic culture, one monolithic religion
(her neighbors are Jewish, for example), nor one monolithic people: she sees how the people
in Tehran make fun of southern Iranians, how the country is very much divided, and how there
are many competing narratives about Iran’s past, present, and especially future. Much of the
book’s aim, as Marjane explains in her preface, is to give readers at least one narrative about
Iran: her own.

● The Abandonment of Faith

THEME DESCRIPTION

Religion
Religion is at the crux of the social and political changes in Iran following the revolution
of 1979. The Islamic fundamentalists who filled the void left by the outgoing shah, or
sovereign of Iran, instituted Sharia law, or rules outlined in the Islamic holy text the
Qur'ān. Sharia law applies to public and private behavior, and it can even be used to
punish people for their private beliefs. As a child Marjane was a devout Muslim. She
considered God her best friend, and she hoped to someday be the first female prophet.
As she got older her beliefs changed. They evolved partly because the new philosophies
she studied, such as dialectic materialism (Marxist philosophy that argues that historical
events are caused by social forces driven by material needs), conflicted with the very
notion of religion. In addition her views about God did not match the strict and
repressive rules the Islamic regime enforced in His name. A prime example of this is the
death of Marjane's Uncle Anoosh. Marjane is devastated when the Islamic Republic
sanctions his execution. God tries to comfort her, but she pushes Him away. The men
who killed her uncle purportedly did so to ensure God's laws were upheld. She can't
reconcile the God who would approve of her uncle's killing with the God who wants to
comfort her for it—and she gives up religion altogether.

It's six years before Marjane reconnects with religion. God comes to her in a dream and
tells her the subject of her French baccalaureate test. Marjane asks her mother to pray
for her success on the exam. "Each time I asked my mother to pray for me, my wish was
granted," Marjane says. It appears God has been watching her this whole time, waiting
for the moment she needed help. The more evidence she has of His protection—such
as surviving a winter on the streets of Vienna—the more she is willing to welcome Him
back into her life. She may have given up on religion, but God never gave up on her.

Marjane has forgiven God by the time she is studying for her university theology exam,
but she still doesn't associate herself with the ruling regime's interpretation of Islam.
She prays in her own language, not Arabic, and she doesn't believe the veil should be
mandatory. "God is always with us, he is in us! Right?" she asks the mullah administering
the exam. For Marjane there is a clear distinction between religion, which she finds
repressive, and faith in God, which she finds comforting and uplifting. One can exist
without the other, and in Marjane's experience they do.

RELIGION, REPRESSION, AND MODERNITY

Persepolis explores the intersection of religion and modernity, as well as the impact of
religious repression on the religious feeling and practices of those who must endure it.
At the beginning of the story, when Iran is ruled by the Westernized, American-backed
dictator Shah, Marjane defines herself as “deeply religious” even as she and her family
think of themselves as also being “very modern and avantgarde.” In fact, her religion at
the start seems like a type of freedom. Religion, Islam and Zoroastrianism, and its many
stories and traditions allow Marjane an escape not only into fancy and imagined glory—
she sees herself as the last prophet—but also into ideas of social equality, aid for the
weak, and the end of suffering. In pre-1979 Iran, Marjane does not see religion and
modernity as incompatible: in her self-written holy book she adds a commandment that
“everybody should have a car.” Indeed, God, who comes into the book as his own
character, provides Marjane with much comfort, companionship, and meaning. But the
Revolution, which many Iranians supported because they wanted freedom from the
decadent, violently oppressive, and foreign-backed Shah, ended up bringing to power
a regime of conservative religious hard-liners who saw modern Western-style culture
as incompatible with Islam. This new government—the Islamic Republic of Iran—soon
passed laws that rigorously regulated all behavior on strict religious grounds and
outlawed consumption of or interaction with essentially anything seen as Western,
such as American music or clothing. Much of the graphic novel depicts how the Satrapi
family, devoted as it is to Western ideas and practices, must hide these affinities behind
closed doors (smuggling in, making, or buying Western luxuries like wine and posters of
rock bands), while outwardly professing their devotion to the religious values defined
by the rulers of the nation so as not to suffer terrible consequences that could range
from beatings to torture to execution. Further, Persepolis shows how, while Iran
ostensibly became more religious under the Islamic Republic, the government’s
attempts to force their religious practices onto the populace actually causes Marjane
and others to lose their personal religions. After the execution of Anoosh at the hands
of the Revolutionaries, Marjane yells at God to leave her, and he disappears as a
character from the graphic novel. Under the new regime, she can no longer explore and
think about religion on her own terms, and instead religion gets co-opted for
nationalistic and political reasons. For instance, Mrs. Nasrine, the family maid, shows
Marjane and Marjane’s Motherthe plastic key painted gold given to her son by his
teachers. The key, given to the poorer boys of Iran, represents their guaranteed entry
to heaven if they are to die as soldiers in the Iraq-Iran War. Religion, here, becomes a
tool used by the government to not only justify but make schoolboys want to go to a
war that is almost certain death for them. Seeing such a usurpation of religion, Mrs.
Nasrine expresses that though she has been “faithful to the religion” all her life, she’s
not sure she can “believe in anything anymore.” Further, Persepolis depicts the
hypocrisy of many of the representatives of the Islamic Republic, who declare their
religious allegiance to the laws but also take bribes or overstate their devotion for the
chance at extra money or promotion. The state-sanctioned religion makes shows of
religion valuable as a means of career advancement, but does not inspire true religious
values in many of even its most powerful adherents. Ultimately, the graphic novel
portrays the repressive religion imposed by the Islamic Republic as actually standing at
odds with the heartfelt religious feeling and belief experienced by an individual.

● The Relationship between Parents and Children

 THEME DESCRIPTION
Though Satrapi introduces various friends and acquaintances throughout
Persepolis, it is her parents, grandmother, and extended relatives who make the
greatest impact on her life. These are the people she trusts and the individuals
she misses the most when she leaves Iran. The family bond between Taji, Ebi,
Grandmother, and Marjane is particularly strong. "In my culture, parents were
sacred," Marjane writes after watching Julie completely ignore her mother.
Marjane has the utmost respect for her parents and perhaps even more for her
grandmother, who holds her to a higher standard than anyone else. The shame
Marjane feels after telling Grandmother about her false accusation against an
innocent man is worse than anything she experienced before, including being
homeless in Austria. Ebi and Taji also challenge their daughter as a means of
helping her grow—Ebi gives her books to read so she can be better educated
about the war and Iran's place in the world, while Taji pushes Marjane to focus
on her education instead of fooling around and having fun. Family is Marjane's
support system in Persepolis, but it also pushes her to become a better person.
● Rebellion and Independence

THEME DESCRIPTION
Throughout this story, there are examples of revolutions and social protest. One
example was the cultural revolution. The cultural revolution was when all bilingual
schools were closed down because they were symbols of capitalism. “Everywhere in
 the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veil.” The year of the
revolution Marjane and her friends took action by demonstrating in the garden of
Marjane’s house. Marjane parents demonstrated to get rid of the king. “Things started
to degenerate. The army shot at them. “And they threw stones at the army.” There is
also smalls signs of rebellion which is more supervision because if noticeable the police
can put a stop to it but what about things they can’t see ? Smalls signs of rebellion can
seen when they throw parties, drink alcohol, etc. even though they're not supposed to.
Also Marjane wear what she wants and does not dress according the the proper ways
of the muslim women. An example can be seen when she wore tight pants, punks shoes,
and a Michael Jackson pin. She also smoked to rebelled against her mom, and she cut
class to go eat burgers.

● Culture Clash

THEME DESCRIPTION
The historical body count by the end of Persepolis is enormous: from the start of the
Revolution to the end of the Iraq-Iran War over a million people die—on the battlefield,
in the streets, and in prison cells—killed by the Shah and by the Islamic Republic that
replaces the Shah. By the end of the book, Marjane expresses her sorrow that “we could
have avoided it all”, indicating a belief that much of the damage done to the Iranian
people was a result of the Iranian regime’s own actions: its warmongering with Iraq, its
radicalization of young soldiers, its religious fanaticism, its valorization of martyrdom.
Official, legally sanctioned punishment for infractions as small as an improperly worn
veil or the possession of forbidden party fare could be shockingly severe, including
torture and death, and the people who carry out these punishments are usually agents
of the regime. As such, Marjane claims, “it was really our own who attacked us.”
Marjane must therefore contend with the reality of the complicity of the people around
her. In the early days after the end of the Revolution, Marjane and her friends find out
that Ramin’s father was part of the secret police under the Shah that killed many
people. They decide to get revenge by holding nails between their fingers and attacking
Ramin. However, Marjane’s motherteaches her that one cannot blame and punish the
child of the perpetrator, who has nothing to do with the crimes committed. She claims
that one must forgive, and Marjane takes this to heart. Later, however, after seeing the
deaths perpetrated by the new Islamic Republic, she contradicts herself somewhat,
saying that “bad people are dangerous, but forgiving them is, too.” This comment
suggests the realization of an impossible situation, the realization that despite what the
storybooks might say, forgiveness is not a cure-all, that forgiving bad people won’t
 magically turn them good. At one point, Marjane’s mother claims, “Don’t worry, there
is justice on earth.” But the book seems to constantly question the veracity of this claim.
In Persepolis little justice is to be found.

● Public versus Private Selves

THEME DESCRIPTION

The graphic novel is an interesting genre for the modern reader in many ways. The
marriage of the visual form and the literary form, or the “twinning of words with
images”, as Kathyrn Strong Hansen puts it, is the primary appeal of the form. The ever
reducing attention of the modern reader is captured by the riveting visuals — “Graphic
novels cater to young people’s growing affinity for the visual rather than written
media.” The form doesn’t privilege text over image or image over text and it is the
symbiotic relationship of the visual and the literary which is responsible for the success
of the genre.

Graphic novels are no longer a boyhood past time, and are often tools of pedagogy.
Many graphic novels approach serious issues such as immigration (American Born
Chinese, Gene Luen Yang), the holocaust (Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman),
caste discrimination (Bhimayana, Navayana Publications). Almost always, there is a
deeper interest that author-illustrator of graphic novels have. For Marjane Satrapi, the
concern with Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return was:

this old and great civilization has been discussed mostly in connection with fundamental ism,
fanaticism, and terrorism. As an Iranian who has lived more than half of my life in Iran, I know
that this image is far from the truth. That is why writing Persepolis was so important to me. I
believe than an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists.

A noticeable trend in graphic novels is the use of the literary device of memoir or
autobiography. While there are no statistics to prove the point, examples should
suffice. Joe Sacco’s Palestine is based on his experiences in the Gaza strip in December
1991 to January 1992; Kiyama’s The Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in
San Francisco describes his experiences as a Japanese migrant in the changing
landscape of 20th century San Francisco; Joe Kubert’s Fax From Sarajevo: A Story of
Survival is the true story of his correspondence with his friend Ervin Rustemagic during
the two and a half years of bombing and destruction of his home city. These then
become non fiction graphic narratives.

Writing social histories from one’s personal point of view, as one witnessed or
experienced it, can be problematic. As readers, how much can we trust the narrative to
give us the truth knowing the subjectivity of the narrative and the
narrator/author/protagonist who gives us the story? Autobiographical pieces of work
are a representation of memory and testimony — how much can we rely on memory?
And finally, how much do we rely on it? This paper examines these questions using
Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis as case study.

Persepolis opens in 1980, a year after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The author was
ten years old at the time. The book spans fourteen years of her life during which Marji
goes to Austria for four years, comes back to Iran, attends University, gets married. At
the end, in 1994, Marji leaves Iran for good. The graphic novel then becomes a teen
 interest novel of sorts, a coming of age novel where we’re taken into Marji’s life — her
understanding of the revolution, her experience of losing loved ones to the revolution,
some have moved away from Iran, some have been killed, her failed relationships and
her experience of being an immigrant in Vienna. No detail of her life has been left out.
Satrapi has been bold in revealing information she’s uncomfortable about, about issues
that are subjects of taboo in Iran where she comes from. She talks about her drug abuse
and her attempted suicide. Satrapi then effectively bares her soul to the reader and this
candour draws the reader in. A reliable narrator has been found in Satrapi when she
refuses to gloss over the ugly experiences in her life.

Demonstrating that she has not solely divulged information that she as a writer “feels
comfortable talking about”, as many memoirs do, but rather has provided an invaluable
insight into her sense of self…In affording us glimpses at her highs and lows she has created a
close proximity to us, making us feel like a confidant or friend of hers.

Some critics argue that Persepolis is a simplistic exploration of Satrapi’s own confused
identity. One must question then her motivation to pen Persepolis. Is it socio politically
motivated or personally motivated? Satrapi makes her intent clear in the introduction
to the book. It appears that she’s motivated by the need to uphold a sense of pride that
comes with nationality. And although this is a personal motivation, it would be wrong
to dismiss Persepolis as just a personal account.

“Autobiographies are not written in a vacuum.” This is true for this case where the novel
opens with a panel of Marji’s portrait and in the third panel she moves to a scene from
the revolution. With the fourth panel, Satrapi is back to talking about how the
revolution affected her. The lines between the personal and the political, if any existed
to begin with, are blurred in this account.

Marji is no ordinary child — when she realises that she doesn’t know enough she reads
everything she can and she learns about the children of Palestine, about Fidel Castro,
about the Vietnam War. Marji cannot possibly distance herself from the political
because of the surroundings she’s born in. Her grandfather was the prince of Iran before
he was overthrown in 1925, her parents demonstrate regularly against the current
regime, their family friends have spent time in prison as political prisoners and Uncle
Anoosh, one of the most influential people in Marji’s life loses his life to the revolution.

For the most part, the personal events in Marji’s life are influenced by the political
revolution. It is the “the political confluence of the everyday and the historical” we see
in Persepolis. Some of her friends leave Iran to go to America, her school’s shut for
nearly a year because the regime has decided to revise books. Yet even when Marji
seems to be acting completely separate from the revolution, it later ties in with the
revolution. The chapter titled ‘Kim Wilde’ begins with Marji asking her parents to bring
a denim jacket and posters from Turkey, where they’re going for vacation. Here, Marji
is like any other teenager who wants to keep up with the latest trends in fashion and
who’s obsessed with their favourite artist. To assume that Satrapi digresses here would
be presumptuous because later in the chapter Marji is stopped by two women who are
‘guardians of the revolution’ and reprimand Marji for being improperly dressed. Satrapi
doesn’t lose sight of the political environment, neither does she push it to the sidelines.

Having said that, the second volume in Persepolis, The Story of a Return is largely a
personal account of Satrapi’s life in Vienna. Satrapi talks about her bout of depression,
her drug abuse, her love interests. The political tension in Iran goes unmentioned.
 Satrapi concluded the two volume series in 1994 when she left Iran for good. She didn’t
want to write a third volume based on second hand information. She feels a need to
stay true to oneself and to one’s own experience. Perhaps this is why for the four years
she stayed in Vienna, Satrapi doesn’t talk about the events in Iran.

Yet Iran lingers in the spaces. Marji talks about the burden of being Iranian in the
western world (Figure 2). The story of an immigrant who’s left the country because of
political turmoil is one of the many narratives of a revolution, and not one to be ignored.
It is the personal touches, the human elements that make Persepolis such a strong
narrative. In the last chapter of the first volume titled ‘The Dowry’, when Marji is leaving
Iran to go to Austria, she fills a jar of Iranian soil to take with her and she gives her most
precious things to her friends so that they don’t forget her. (Figure 3)

If Persepolis is not a chronological account of events in Iran, it’s not meant to be. The
graphic novel is meant to represent the pain of leaving home as was felt by the people.
Satrapi has succeeded in her goal — we no longer associate Iran and Iranians with
fanaticism, we’re shown through Marji’s example that this fanaticism was imposed on
the people and that they suffered at the hands of the few in power.

“Satrapi is disabusing the idea that the world is made up of vastly differing lands, instead she
beseeches us to realise that the same threats exist within every society and the observ er must
learn to separate the identities of nations from governments and religions from the extremists
they foster.”

Satrapi doesn’t give us a year by year history of the Iranian revolution, but she gives us
so much more. Figure 4 shows the readers a side of the revolution no objective account
can give.
 In her personal account, she gives us moments of lightness when those who’ve suffered
because of the revolution forget the gloom that hangs in the air and laugh about it.
These moments serve as the much needed relief from what could have been a very
morose story had they been absent. (Figure 5) “The human side of history had so much
more meaning, and seemed to imprint a deeper and easier understanding in my mind
than most accounts.” writes a reviewer on Amazon.
Hillary Chute writes: “In this sense, Persepolis — ostensibly a text about growing up and
the private sphere — blurs the line between private and public speech.” In conclusion,
the personal doesn’t distance the readers from the political. On the contrary, it is the
personal which makes us invested in the narrative to read it till the very end. The
personal and the political need not be seen as two exclusive strands in the narrative —
they overlap and interact all the time. The narrative is a subjective one, coloured by
Satrapi’s personal experiences and opinions. The subjectivity doesn’t take away from
the chronicle; it adds to it and makes it all the more richer.

● Symbols

Veil
The hijab, which is a veil worn by Muslim women, plays a large part in Marjane's adolescence
and early adulthood. Many devout Muslim women chose to wear the veil prior to the Islamic
Revolution of 1979 as a symbol of their religious belief. When the new Islamic regime came into
power in 1980, the veil was suddenly mandatory for every woman venturing into public. Marjane
first wears a veil when she is 10. She and her friends aren't quite sure what to make of their new
accessories, but the more the wearing of the veil is enforced, the more Marjane begins to resent
it. It is a constant reminder of the Islamic government's ever-tightening grip over her life and the
lives of those she loves. It symbolizes the oppression she feels in her homeland under the Islamic
Republic.

The veil is an extremely vital piece of clothing to Marjane’s identity, not because she feels pious
and wants to wear it and thus asserts it as part of herself, but instead because she doesn’t want
to wear it and must anyway. Persepolis opens with Marjane describing how she first has to start
wearing the veil at school. This moment for her most markedly divides her pre-Revolutionary life
and her post revolutionary life, when the rise of the Islamic Republic creates an enormous schism
in society between those who are traditionally religious and those who are not and prefer to
dress with Western influences. Marjane, though she still considers herself Muslim, belongs to the
latter category. But the Islamic Regime dictates the moral code of society, and Marjane must
contend with a world that disallows her regular mode of expression. The veil for Marjane and for
many women in Iran becomes the key symbol of repression, particularly against women.

Golden Key
In "The Key," 14-year-old poverty-stricken schoolboys in Iran are given golden keys by the
government as propaganda to encourage them to join the army. Meant to be worn around the
neck during battle, the keys supposedly open the gates to heaven for fallen soldiers. Heaven is a
glorious place full of riches, food, "houses made of gold," and virginal women. The government's
promises of martyrdom are just like the golden keys themselves: cheap plastic trinkets in a
cosmetic covering of gold paint—they are beautiful, aspirational, and fake. The keys make the
boys feel special even though their purpose in the war is to be another warm body on the field.

Red Socks
The clothing women wear in Iran during Marjane's 20s is very specific. In addition to the hijab,
they must also wear a chador, which is a long, flowing gown that hides the shape of the body.
Meant to protect a woman's modesty and prevent men viewing the outlines of her body, the
garment offers little opportunity for expressing personal style. Women can wear what they want
at home, but deviations from the dress code in public can lead to arrest or physical punishment.
That doesn't mean everyone complies. Marjane and her classmates are known to add a bit of
flair to their outfits—jewelry, nail polish, lipstick—as a little jab at the repressive regulations. One
day Marjane wears red socks underneath her gown. Maybe she did it on purpose, or maybe she
just forgot she was wearing them before she left the house. In any case, someone sees them, and
she is arrested for violating the dress code. Marjane's red socks symbolize the small, possibly
subconscious acts of rebellion Marjane and her friends engage in under the Islamic regime.

Moon
Marjane and her art school friends party a lot to let off steam from the pressures of schoolwork
and the Islamic Republic. The parties are often raided by the guardians of the Revolution. During
one raid Marjane's friend Farzad falls to his death from the top of an apartment building. Satrapi
tells this part of the story entirely in pictures. As Farzad and the other men at the party escape
by jumping from one rooftop to the next, the crescent moon hangs low in the sky behind the tall
buildings. In one frame Farzad is seen reaching toward the moon as if he wants to grab hold of it.
In the next frame he is falling to his death on the street below. This tragic story is a metaphor for
life within the Islamic Republic. The moon represents the desire for personal freedom. Farzad,
like many residents of the Islamic Republic, is so close to reaching it, but then he missteps and
falls. Every time the progressives think they're going to come out on top—as in the Iranian
Revolution or the mujahideens' attempted liberation of the country—the fundamentalists get
the upper hand.

Bread Swan
Marjane receives her two bread swans from Anoosh, her uncle who spends much of his life
hiding in Moscow from the regime of the Shah or imprisoned by it, and who, shortly after his
release from prison after the success of the Revolution, gets arrested and executed. Anoosh is a
man who spent so much of his life hiding or imprisoned, and yet the bread swan represents his
ability to maintain his humanity in dreadful situations. Having few materials to work with, he
creates a sculpture of a swan from the bread he receives in jail. Despite its modesty, its splendor
comes from the fact that Anoosh has been able to find whatever good remains in his situation
and create a work of art. He has not become embittered or angry, but instead focused his
energies on his sculpture. The bread swan indicates the redeeming quality of art, and suggests
that Marjane’s book functions in a similar sense of redemption after all the trauma and suffering
she experiences.

Plastic Key Painted Gold

The plastic key painted gold is a beautiful object from the outside. Mrs. Nasrine’s son is given
the key by his teachers at school, to represent the “beautiful” idea that if he were to die for Iran
in the war against Iraq he would be a martyr and immediately enter heaven. Mrs. Nasrine,
however, sees the key, which being plastic is actually nothing more than a trinket, as propaganda
and brainwashing—she believes that the regime wishes to sacrifice her son for the cause of a
political war rather than putting any real value on his life. The key, then, is a way for the regime
to further the war and people’s enthusiasm for it, but it also comes to represent in the book how
the regime’s promises emphasize beauty and reward but are often self-serving and hollow. It
turns out, also, that only the lower class boys, who are shipped off to the front, get these keys
from their schools. The rich boys do not get fed such stories of paradise. Thus, the key also
demonstrates the great class divide entrenched in Tehran’s society.

Cigarette
 When Marjane reaches her teenage years, she smokes a cigarette in order to rebel against her
mother’s strict rule. Marjane skips school in order to buy an illegal hamburger, and when she
returns her mother yells at her and indicates that to skip school is to throw away her future. Later
that day, Marjane smokes a cigarette as a symbolic gesture against her mother’s “dictatorship”
and feels that she has reached adulthood. This insubordinate gesture, which is actually quite
childish, becomes a way to deal with the heavy stresses of the war. On the one hand, Marjane
wants to be a normal teenager; on the other hand, every move she makes might have enormous
consequences for her future—taking the wrong step might ensure that, in fact, she has no future.
Consequently, the gesture is broader even than Marjane intends, and is directed against all the
repressions in her life: from her parents, who rightly pressure her to behave responsibly, but also
from the regime, which makes life difficult and restrictive enough that she has to sneak around
in order to lead what she considers a normal life. That Marjane uses the language of the regime—
“dictatorship”—to describe her relationship with her mother indicates just how intertwined her
personal life has become with the larger political issues of her day.
● QUOTES

Theme Quotes Explanation

For a revolution to succeed,
the entire population must
The Story of a Childhood support it.
-Persepolis, 17
In this quote, the young author argues that she
should be allowed to attend revolutionary
demonstrations with her parents. Her parents do not
want her to attend the demonstrations because the
Shah is taking violent action against protesters. This
quote is darkly humorous because it is a
revolutionary maxim spoken by a young child.

This quote illustrates the author's young naïveté in

regards to the political turmoil of her country and it
symbolizes many of the naive assumptions of the
Iranian revolutionaries. In previous frames, the
author dresses up, plays childish games, and
pretends to be historical revolutionary figures such

The reason for my shame
and for the Revolution is the
same: the difference
between social classes.
-Persepolis, 33
...it is not for you and me to
do justice. I'd even say we
have to learn to forgive.
-Persepolis, 46
as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. This is meant to
symbolize how a young generation is forced to
become revolutionary even though they know little
about the turmoil they fight.
Here, the author struggles with the competing
idealism of her parent's political persuasion and the
reality of their middle class life. The author discovers
the realities of class divisions from reading the work
of a famous Kurdish author. She experiences this
division when her maid, Mehri, is not allowed to be
with a boy she fell in love with because of differences
in their classes. Marjane feels a great sense of
dissonance in her own life because of these
disparities. In a sense, her identity is undergoing a
revolution just as the nation is undergoing a
revolution because of these class conflicts.
This quote, spoken by Marjane's mother, represents
both the liberal ideals that her family sought to
practice and the naiveté of the Marxist and Socialist
revolutionaries. Marjane's family sought to ground
their beliefs not in the religion or past societies but in
the leftist political ideology. In this ideal, all blame for
the atrocities of the nation is placed on the Shah and
when he is overthrown during the Iranian Revolution,
the ideal is that the revolutionaries will forgive the
Shah's followers to create a unified nation.
This, however, was not the reality. Marjane's mother
asks her to forgive those that perpetrated violence
against the revolutionaries without considering that
the Shah's followers were not ready to abandon their
allegiance. This naiveté on the part of the former
 revolutionaries is one reason that a fundamentalist
Islamic regime was able to take power after the
Revolution.

Russians aren't like us...it's

This quote, spoken by Marjane's Uncle Anoosh, is an
indictment on the Russian form of communism that
hearts they don't have. They
ruled the country during his time there. Anoosh left
don't know how to love. for the U.S.S.R. because he believed that Marxism was
the political system that would be best for Iran and for
-Persepolis, 59
the world. However, while there, he learned that the
communism of Russia was as cold and dictatorial as
the Iranian regime. This became personal for him, as
well, for the heartache that his Russian wife gave him
by divorcing him.

Anyway, as long as there is
oil in the Middle East we will problem with the West. The history of Persia is a
never have peace.
-Persepolis, 43
Marjane's father gives her this diagnosis of the Iranian
history of foreign invading forces entering the country
in order to exploit its natural resources. This history
continued in the modern age as the British
orchestrated Reza Shah's overthrow of the Persian
dynasty. According to Marjane's father, the United
States had been the latest foreign power to mettle in
Iran's affairs. It is because they have an interest in the
rich oil fields of Iran.

I didn't know what justice Here, Marjane continues a process of shedding the
was. Now that the
intellectual and spiritual structures that sustained her
Revolution was finally over
once and for all, I development as a child. The first structure to fall is her
abandoned the dialectic
unwavering belief in the efficacy of the leftist
materialism of my comic
strips. The only place I felt revolutionary forces. Marjane's mother sends
safe was in the arms of my
confusing messages telling Marjane both that she
friend.
-Persepolis, 53 must forgive all while harboring deep hatred for those
that tortured and persecuted the revolutionaries.

Marjane first attempts to take on the guise of the

torturers whom she sees as having great power. She

They insulted me. They said
that women like me should
be pushed up against a wall
and fucked. And then
thrown in the garbage.
...And that if I didn't want
that to happen, I should
wear the veil…
-Persepolis, 74
"The Arabs never liked the
Persians. Everyone knows
that. They attacked us 1400
years ago. They forced their
religion on us."
"Ok, enough of that. The
real Islamic invasion has
come from our own
government."
- Persepolis, 81
plays games in which she pretends to torture her
friends. At first, she says that she has a feeling of
"diabolical...power," but this feeling soon turns in
self-loathing. Her mother can offer no political answer
to how one should treat their enemies and so
Marjane puts away the elementary politics of her
youth and finds comfort in the arms of her God friend.
This event happens to Marjane's mother when she is
assaulted by a group of men angry with her for not
wearing the conservative dress for Islamic women.
This quote demonstrates the misogynistic nature of
the fundamentalist Islamic regime that took power
after the 1979 Revolution. Marjane sees this kind of
misogyny as a way of depriving women of their
individuality and their identities. In the eyes of these
fundamentalist men, women who do not voluntarily
deprive themselves of their humanity must be
dehumanized. This leads to the threats and the
violence that Marjane's mother experiences.
In this conversation, Marjane and her father discuss
the legitimacy of the Iran-Iraq War and the legitimacy
of the Iranian religious government. At the outset of
war, Marjane claims a patriotic identity rooted in the
long history of Persian subjection by Arab invaders.
She sees the Iraqi attacks on Iran as the same as the
Arab invasion of Persian over a millennium ago in
which Islam was brought to the country.
Marjane's father, on the other hand, sees a different
cause for the war. He blames the Islamic regime,
which he says, is corrupting the country from the
inside. As the war continues, Marjane will slowly

I think that the reason we
were so rebellious was that
our generation had known
secular schools.
-Persepolis, 98
Dictator! You are the This quote is illustrative of the contentious aspect of
Guardian of the Revolution
Marjane's relationship with her mother. While most
of this House!
-Persepolis, 113 of the book shows a tender and loving relationship
realize that his view on the war is more correct than
hers is. The real danger to the country comes not from
an outside invading force but from her fellow citizens
that turn on each other in brutal and heartless ways.
This quote demonstrates the book's belief in the
power of education to free people from the
superstition of religion and the subjection of political
dictators. Throughout the novel, Marjane's parents
put an emphasis on her education. Here, Marjane
sees the root of her rebellious nature as being rooted
in the education that she had received before the
regime took over. In an earlier chapter, Marjane's
Uncle Anoosh claims that the Iranian people allowed
the Islamic regime to come to power because they
were uneducated and illiterate and needed a strong
symbolism in order to bring order to the country. By
becoming educated, Marjane sees the power of her
family to reject the strictures of the regime and to
rebel against its brutality.
between Marjane and her parents, through the
process of growing up Marjane also finds fault in her
parent's viewpoints and beliefs. In this fit of anger,
Marjane compares her mother's strict oversight of her
schooling and social activities to the violence and
strictness of the regime's secret police force.
Throughout the novel, Satrapi compares her reliance
on and disagreements with her parents as a symbol of
her love for and critical attitude toward her
motherland. By accepting certain aspects of the
 relationships and rejecting others, Marjane is able to
construct her own identity and grow into her own self.

The Veil I really didn't know what to
think about the veil.
Many devout Muslim women wore the veil prior to
the Islamic Revolution, but it was a choice, not a
requirement. After the new Islamic regime assumed
power, veils suddenly became mandatory for women
outside the home. Marjane doesn't dislike the veil
itself—it is meant to be a symbol of freedom and
devotion in the Islamic faith. At age 10 Marjane is
extremely devout, so wearing the veil wouldn't
necessarily be a problem. The thing that's problematic
is she's being told what to wear. Marjane doesn't like
to be told to do anything. That, more than the
meaning behind the veil, is what gives her pause.

The Letter In this country you must stay Marjane doesn't understand why the family's live-in
within your own social class. maid, Mehri, can't marry the boy who lives next door.
She was under the impression her father wanted to
break down the barriers between the classes. That's
not really the case. Iran has a firmly entrenched class
system, and it is very difficult to move up in social
status. Instead of breaking down class barriers, Ebi
hopes for equal treatment between the classes. Just
because individuals are poor doesn't mean they
should be punished or oppressed.

The Party The battle was over for our
parents but not for us.
The end of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 brings relief
to adults, such as Marjane's parents, who are eager to
go back to their quiet everyday lives. The children,
however, have become used to the excitement that
accompanied the revolution and aren't ready to give
it up. Those whose parents had opposing views during
the war still consider themselves enemies, which is
why Marjane decides they should punish Ramin for
his father's alleged murder of a million people. The
revolution is a game to the children but not to the
adults.

The Heroes Bad people are dangerous In the previous chapter, "The Party," Taji tells Marjane
but forgiving them is too. to forgive those who have done bad things. After
hearing Mohsen's and Siamak's stories of torture,
however, Taji suddenly decides "all torturers should

The Sheep You are the little girl I
always wanted to have.
The F-14s The real Islamic invasion has Marjane and Ebi hurry home to Taji after the first Iraqi
come from our own
government.
The Key Of course they mean
something to me! But we
are still living!
The Dowry Always keep your dignity
and be true to yourself.
be massacred." Marjane doesn't know what to think.
Taji wants Marjane to understand that when people
forgive too much, the wrongdoers continue to do
increasingly terrible things. At some point it has to
stop. This escalation of wrongdoing will cease only if
the world's onlookers stop making excuses for those
who inflict evil upon others.
This is probably the greatest compliment Uncle
Anoosh could give Marjane. He has two daughters,
but they are in Russia with his ex-wife. He hasn't seen
them in almost a decade—after his divorce he
returned to Iran, where he was held as a political
prisoner for nine years. Anoosh missed out on much
of his daughters' childhoods, but he gets a second
chance with Marjane. She is also everything he'd hope
his daughters would be—smart, inquisitive, and
unwilling to accept everything she's told at face value.
She's also completely enamored with him, which
makes her all the easier to love.
bombs hit Iran. Marjane, who is 10, casts all Arabs as
enemies who have been trying to take over Iran for
thousands of years. She says the Arabs forced their
religion on the Persians. Ebi knows better than that.
Iran has been a predominantly Muslim country since
the 9th century. Iraq isn't invading to force Iranians to
become "more" Muslim—if anything, Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein fears an uprising of fundamentalists
in his own country. The strict Islamic rule Iranians are
now facing comes directly from its own
fundamentalist government.
Hundreds of Iranian men are dying each day in the
Iran-Iraq War, and Marjane worries her mother
doesn't care about the ongoing loss of life. Taji insists
that the deaths of the martyrs do matter to her but
that it is more important to take care of those who are
still living than to mourn the dead.
This is Marjane's grandmother's cardinal rule—be the
person you are, not the person you want to be.
Grandmother tells Marjane this shortly before

The Horse Better that you dance at the
Lido than in a hole in the
wall.
The Croissant Each time that I asked my
mother to pray for me, my
wish was granted.
Skiing I feel like I'm constantly
wearing a mask.
The Convocation Is religion defending our
physical integrity or is it just
opposed to fashion?
Marjane leaves for Austria, and Marjane remembers
it every time she engages in activities or behaviors
that don't feel right. Her grandmother's words are a
constant reminder to be proud of her heritage and
how she was raised.
Taji has always encouraged Marjane to be the best at
everything she does. That's true even if she's doing
something that would bring shame to any other
family, such as becoming a professional cabaret
dancer. That's why she says dancing at the Lido—a
world-famous Paris nightclub and cabaret—would be
preferable to dancing at a nondescript "hole in the
wall." Taji and Ebi will love Marjane no matter how
she chooses to spend her life as long as she is living it
to the fullest.
God comes to Marjane in a dream and tells her the
topic of her French baccalaureate exam will be
Montesquieu's "Slavery of the Negroes." Marjane and
God were really good friends until the death of her
Uncle Anoosh a few years before, and she hasn't
talked to Him since. She needs to do well on the test,
so she asks her mother to talk to God about it. This is
the first baby step toward Marjane accepting God and
spirituality back into her life. She's not ready to talk to
God on her own—that comes during preparations for
her entrance exams for art school—so she sends her
mother as an intermediary. It's important to note God
was the one who came to Marjane, not the other way
around. He has been watching over her the whole
time even if she didn't know it.
Marjane says this to one of the several therapists she
visits upon returning from Austria. She feels like she
has to keep the truth of what happened in Vienna a
secret so as not to add even more emotional burdens
to her parents' already heavy loads, but withholding
the truth feels false. Keeping her secrets to herself
makes her feel more isolated than ever.
Marjane isn't just rebellious—she's brave. She stands
in front of the student body and asks the questions
everyone else is too afraid to ask. She's not trying to
 be sarcastic here—she genuinely wants to know why
the width of her pant legs is the business of the Islamic
Republic. If there's a scripture-based reason for the
administration's rules, then she will abide by it. If it's
just another way of controlling women, then she
won't.

The Socks We nevertheless learned to Persepolis is a serious and sometimes heartbreaking

draw drapes. story, but there are also lighter moments punctuated
by Satrapi's dry wit, such as this one. The female
models at Marjane's art school must comply with the
dress code of the chador, a billowy, shapeless gown
that covers the body from the neck down. The
model's shape is completely obscured, which makes it
impossible to practice figure drawing. That's bad
news for burgeoning artists, but Satrapi makes light of
it by joking it helped her and her friends learn to draw
drapes—the rippling fabric of the chador. Quips such
as this keep the mood of the book from veering into
despair. As Marjane learns during her visit with Kia,
sometimes laughter is the only way to deal with
tragedy.

When we're afraid, we lose Marjane describes how the Islamic regime controls its
all sense of analysis and citizens by strictly regulating personal appearance.
reflection. People spend so much time worrying about their
makeup, the length of their pants, and the placement
of their veils that they have no time to question the
actions of their government or their happiness with
their own lives. Fear prevents people from fighting
back against their oppressors, which is exactly what
the fundamentalist government wants.

The End We're crushed not only by The traditions Ebi is talking about are the ones that
the government but by the apply a conservative stance to women's rights and
weight of our traditions! personal relationships. Marjane and Reza married
because they felt they had to—it was unheard of for
unmarried men and women to live together to see if
they were ready for marriage. Ebi feels traditions such
as these force people into making decisions that aren't
necessarily the best for their happiness. Marjane will
enjoy more freedom and be happier if she leaves Iran.
The Story of a Childhood “I wanted to be a prophet
because our maid did not eat
with us. Because my father
had a Cadillac. And, above
all, because my
Grandmother’s knees always
ached.”

“I realized then that I didn’t

understand anything. I read
all the books I could.”

“Once again, I arrived at my

usual conclusion: one must
educate oneself.”

“I want to be justice, love

and the wrath of God all in
one.”

“Listen. I don’t like to preach,

but here’s some advice.
You’ll meet a lot of jerks in
life. If they hurt you,
remember it’s because
they’re stupid. Don’t react to
their cruelty. There’s nothing
worse than bitterness and
revenge. Keep your dignity
and be true to yourself.”

“I had learned that you

should always shout louder
than your aggressor.”

The Story of a Return “I finally understood what

my grandmother meant. If I
wasn’t comfortable with
myself, I would never be
comfortable.”

“Life is too short to be lived

badly.”

“In every religion, you find

 the same extremists.”

Embroideries
“To be the mistress of a
married man is to have the
better role. Do you realize?
His dirty shirt, his disgusting
underwear, his daily ironing,
his bad breath, his
hemorrhoid attacks, his fuss,
not to mention his bad
moods, and his tantrums.
Well all that is for his wife.

When a married man comes

to his mistress… he’s always
bleached and ironed, his
teeth sparkle, his breath is
like perfume, he’s in a good
mood, he’s full of
conversation, he is there to
have a good time with you.”

"You think I'm stupid?!!!... I Being called westernized is an insult in Iran. It's the
CONTRASTING REGIONS: can tell by your tie! Piece of most ironic of insults, too, considering how many
IRAN AND EVERYWHERE westernized trash!" (14.33) people secretly idolize western culture, like pop music
ELSE IN THE WORLD and movie stars.
QUOTES
It had been four years since Marjane locks onto grocery stores—and detergent—
I'd seen such a well-stocked as symbols of Western safety. In Iran, they can barely
store. […] Even today, after find bread sometimes because people hoard food due
all this time, you can always to the constant threat of war. Detergent is a sign of
find at least a dozen boxes of both safety and a little bit of Western excess. Just how
good-smelling laundry many good scents can there really be though?
powder in my house. (20.38,
20. 41)

"It's wonderful to have This attitude seems to be the exception in many

international friends." places in the world, especially when it comes to
(21.47) Iranians, whom many people are scared of. Lucia's
family, however, enjoys meeting Marjane and talking
to her about her culture. Marjane relishes the brief
opportunity to be treated as a human instead of as a
 scary Iranian.

"It's true what they say This is coming from a nun. A nun. Even Whoopi
about Iranians. They have no Goldberg in Sister Act wouldn't mouth off like this. But
education." (22. 32) it just goes to show us how widespread hatred for
Iranians is. Even nuns in Vienna hate them… and they
probably eat those weird little sausages in a can.

I was distancing myself from
my culture, betraying my
parents and my origins. […] I
was playing a game by
somebody else's rules.
(24.29)
Do you think Marjane is being too hard on herself?
After all, pretty much any place she goes is going to
have different rules than Iran. She has to compromise
a little in order to fit in, right? Or does she
compromise too much?

"I AM IRANIAN AND PROUD Today, this would be akin to shouting that you have a
OF IT!" (24.47) bomb in an airport. While it wasn't as dangerous back
in Vienna in the 1980s, it still doesn't win Marjane any
friends. Most people, even then, look upon Iranians
with disdain and fear.

My eight housemates were This is a huge change for Marjane because, as you
eight men, all homosexuals. may or may not know, there are no homosexuals in
(25.4) Iran. At least, that's what Iran wants you to think.

"As soon as they learn our
nationality, they go through
everything, as though we
were all terrorists. They treat
us as though we have the
plague." (25.42)
The way the world treats Iranians affects them
greatly. Their morale isn't just beaten down by their
own government, it's beaten down by the world. It
must be hard to stand up for yourself when everyone
makes you feel like you're worthless.

It had been so long since I'd
been able to talk to someone
without having to explain my
culture. (25.62)
Marjane has a hard time being an Iranian anywhere in
the world. Even outside Iran, she's constantly having
to explain Iran. It must be exhausting. She has a good
time just relating to her mother on a person-to-
person level. Maybe this is why when people from
other countries get together, they prefer speaking
their culture's language instead of English.

I didn't understand why the This isn't TV… it's not HBO, either… it's ridiculous
mother-in-law [on TV] hated censorship. The director didn't make any effort to
the hairdresser so much. change the context, he just changed one word and
Much later, I got to know a assumed his viewers would swallow it without
 girl who dubbed television question. Sadly, most of them probably did. That's
shows. She told me that how Iran is the place it is: many people swallow what
Oshin was in fact a Geisha those in power tell them without questioning it.
and since her profession Heck—it's how all sorts of places operate.
didn't suit Islamic morals,
the director of the channel
had decided that she'd be a
hairdresser. (31.17)

Then came 1980: the year it One thing that's important to note is that only women
WOMEN AND became obligatory to wear wear the veil. The boys' clothes change, but they're
FEMININITY the veil at school. (1.4) never as restrictive as a veil. Couldn't they at least
make the boys wear a propeller beanie or something?

I wanted to be an educated, Marji really wants to be independent, even if—like

liberated woman. And if the Marie Curie —she does so at the expense of her
pursuit of knowledge meant health. As we've said a few times, freedom always
getting cancer, so be it. comes at a price, even if we're talking about the
(10.14) freedom that comes with gender equality.

"They insulted me. They said
that women like me should
be pushed up against a wall
and fucked and then thrown
in the garbage." (10.19)
This traumatic experience happens to Marji's mother
because she's not wearing a veil. Iran decides to let
the rapists win—instead of punishing these men, their
solution is to repress women further, and make them
all veil their bodies. By doing this, they are also saying
that all men are rapists who cannot control their
urges. Neither sex wins when this attitude prevails.

"[Marji] should start learning Marji gets a lot of her feminist nature from her
to defend her rights as a mother. If her mother was the type of person to wear
woman right now!" (10.32) the veil and force Marji into wearing it also, without
having a discussion about how wrong she felt it was,
Marji would be a different person. Heck, we probably
wouldn't have this book were it not for her mother's
influence.

"Soon, it won't just be food. Whoa. Persepolis just got real, y'all, turning into an
With all those sluts out episode of the Bad Girls Club. It's incredible how fast
there, we're going to have to the women of Iran turn against each other, referring
watch our husbands." to other women as sluts for no reason other than to
(12.42) shame them and humiliate them in public.

"They told him that in The government uses women as a propaganda tactic
Paradise there will be plenty to lure boys into war. All this really does is reinforce
 of food, women, and houses to the boys of Iran that women are no more than
made of gold and property. More than ever, we need Destiny's Child to
diamonds." remind all the independent women to throw their
hands up at us.
"Women?"
"Yeah. Well, he's fourteen
years old. That's exciting."
(13.39-13.41)

"It's against the law to kill a
virgin, so a guardian of the
revolution marries her and
takes her virginity before
executing her. Do you
understand what that
means??" (19.19-19.21)
The implications of this are insane. It further
illustrates how much women are considered
property, objects to be used by the men of Iran. It also
helps explain why Marji's mother is super-protective
of her daughter. As women, Marji and her mom have
more to fear in Iran than men do. It's a dangerous
place for women.

Simone [de Beauvoir] Standing up and peeing like a man is a purely symbolic
explained that if women act for Marjane to recognize her independence. It
peed standing up, their doesn't actually do anything except get her leg all wet.
perception of life would It does, however, help her to realize that she needs to
change. […] As an Iranian take concrete actions to assert herself.
woman, before learning to
urinate like a man, I needed
to learn to become a
liberated and emancipated
woman. (22.22, 22.23)

From the moment I arrived That repressive air is heightened by the fact that all
at the Mehrabad airport and the woman, including Marjane, have to wear the veil.
caught sight of the first It's hard to read.
customs agent, I
immediately felt the
repressive air of my country.
(29.1)

"What's the difference Marjane has some great friends: Despite wanting to
between you and a be "liberated" women, they judge Marjane and her
whore???" (31.24) sexuality. How hypocritical. We can only imagine
what they'd think of Miley at the 2013 VMAs…

I realized then that I didn't After listening to a conversation between her parents
COMING OF AGE understand anything. I read and her grandparents, Marji realizes that she's simply
all the books I could. (4.40) too young to understand the adults' conversation.
 She decides to read, but we have to wonder if that's
an adequate replacement for life experience.

"His father did it, but it's not This is important advice from Mom that young Marji
Ramin's fault." (6.34) is getting old enough to understand. She had just
bullied a boy because of something his father did, but
as she gets older, she's starting to gain some
perspective. She even does the Big Girl thing and
apologizes.

"My God! He repeats what Oh, Mom. Here she is again calling attention to the
they tell him." (6.38) general ignorance of children—they repeat what their
parents tell them. We're not sure if this ever changes,
because let's face it: as Marji gets older, she becomes
a combination of both her parents' ideals. Even as an
adult, she's still repeating what her parents say, to
some extent. It's just filtered.

"Don't you know that when
[parents] keep saying
someone is on a trip it really
means he is dead?" (7.7)
Marji is at an awkward social stage where she
understands that her parents are kind of lying to her,
but she still doesn't understand that it isn't socially
acceptable to tell a friend that her dad is dead. Emily
Post would not approve.

If I wanted to be friends with Marji has reached an age where she wants to have
14-year-olds, I had to do it. older friends. The problem is that she's not mature
(15.7) enough to pretend to act like a fourteen-year-old, and
she ends up making a lot of mistakes. Though maybe
that's what growing up is about.

"I will always be true to Marji tells herself this in the mirror at age fourteen,
myself." (19.58) and she grapples with this for the rest of the book…
and probably for the rest of her life. We say this a lot,
but maybe this is what growing up is about: learning
who you are, and staying true to that. That's what it's
like for Marjane, at least.

I headed straight for the This is the first thing Marjane does after she finds
supermarket to buy herself in the boarding school in Vienna. Does buying
groceries like a woman. groceries on one's own make you a woman? She also
(20.37) starts going by Marjane instead of Marji at this time,
so there's that to factor in, too.

My mental transformation This statement is accompanied by an image of

was followed by my physical Marjane looking like the hulk, ripping through
 metamorphosis. (24.1) clothing. It's an appropriate comparison, seeing how
she grows seven inches in a year and totally changes.
Maybe the Hulk was secretly designed by a hormone-
addled teenage girl. You wouldn't like them when
they're angry, either.

It was beginning to look like And she doesn't mean beginning to look a lot like
something. (24.11) Christmas either. She's talking about finding her
personal style, which is very important as a teenager.
Marjane spends a lot of time crafting her unique look,
and the fact that her character stands out on every
page shows that she succeeded.

I decided to take this little
problem as a sign. It was
time to finish with the past
and to look forward to the
future. (29.32)
Marjane returns home to her room, including a too-
small desk and punk rock posters she's not into
anymore. When she looks for her tapes, she can't find
them—turns out her mom gave them away. Marjane
decides to throw away all the stuff from her childhood
and move on. We think this might mark the last step
on her journey to adulthood. She's found her identity,
and she doesn't need things around that symbolize
her struggle for it anymore. Or maybe she just had to
make room for a Marky Mark poster.

The revolution is like a This is a good quote from a very young Marji, and it's
WARFARE bicycle. When the wheels true. We'd like to add that a revolution is like a really
don't turn, it falls. (2.4) long tandem bicycle. It takes a lot of riders to keep it
going, and they have to be in sync. If one person stops,
the whole thing is going to tip over.

"Marji, run to the basement! It would be easy to say that the war begins with the
We're being bombed!" sound of bombs dropping, but there was a slow boil
(9.60) building up to it. The bombs are more like popping the
zit of war. Things have been festering under the
surface for a long time before they explode.

"The Iranian fundamentalists
tried to stir up their Iraqi
Shiite allies against Saddam.
[…] He's always wanted to
invade Iran. And here's the
pretext. It's the second Arab
invasion." (10.50)
Iran seems to be living in a time warp, dealing with
invasions every thousand years or so. Why are they
perpetually at war? Could it be because of every
regime's insistence on cultural ignorance? By ignoring
the mistakes of the past, they might be doomed to
repeat them.
"Dad […] are you going to
war? Are you going to fight?
We have to teach those
Iraqis a lesson!" (11.11)
Marji gets a little wrapped up in Iranian nationalism,
which isn't exactly a bad thing. She also has to grapple
with the fact that her father can be a hero without
going to war. In fact, fighting wouldn't even be the
best place for her father since he's an intellectual. He
shows us that there's room for more than just brute
force even when a country is at war.

War always takes you by This is a good quote, but we have to ask, does it
surprise. (11.19) really? Haven't they been expecting war the whole
time, what with all the political turmoil? Is it just the
act of war that takes you by surprise, like the bomb
that almost kills your family?

After the border towns, War often starts out small and escalates. The Iraqi
Tehran became the bombers didn't directly affect Marji's family's lives
bombers' main target. (14.1) until they changed their focus to Tehran, which is
where they live. Although the family hides in the
basement, they also start rebelling more at this time.
Maybe the closer war hits to home, the stronger your
reaction is.

While people were dying in
our country, she was talking
to me about trivial things.
(20.13)
Well, you can take the girl out of Iran but you can't
take Iran out of the girl. Marji believes that all Iranians
should be concerned about the war in Iran, and gets
mad when Shirin, Zozo's daughter, is not. Does she
have a point? Should Shirin shut up about gloves and
be more politically active? What can she do all the
way in Vienna?

"Everything has to be rebuilt Marjane's mother says the second line here, and
now." Marjane calls her mother "disillusioned" (29.47). Is
she disillusioned or realistic? Iran has been at war for
"While we wait for the next
over 2000 years it seems. She's right that there will be
war which will destroy
another one eventually. Does that mean they
everything again." (29.44)
shouldn't rebuild?

"The entire war was just a
big setup to destroy both the
Iranian and the Iraqi armies.
The former was the most
powerful in the Middle East
in 1980, and the latter
represented a real danger to
Here's another reason that Iran will never be at peace:
other powers pit them against other countries.
Marjane's dad is referring to U.S. and British
involvement in these wars in the 1980s and '90s.
What are these countries' relationships with Iran like
now? We bet that, whenever you read this, they're
not good.
 Israel." (29.53)

In 1994, the year of my It's pretty morbid to remember the year of your
marriage, Iraq attacked marriage by thinking about what war happened then,
Kuwait. (37.1) but in Iran, there's always a war happening. So it
might be morbid, but it's not unusual for an Iranian to
do this. Especially since this war in the Middle East will
likely directly impact Marjane's life in Iran.

In 1979 a revolution took This quote does two things: (1) It sets the scene—
POLITICS place. It was later called "The Marji is growing up in a time of political turmoil, and
Islamic Revolution." (1.3) (2) it shows us that revolutions are only named after
the fact, which is an interesting way to think about
history.

"I love the king. He was
chosen by God. […] That's
what it says on the first page
of our schoolbook." (3.6,
3.10)
This quote is such a messy stew of religion, education,
and monarchy that it could only go under the theme
of politics. Politics tries to find its way into all aspects
of life, and the current regime wants to brainwash
kids at a very young age. That is why they tell them
that God chose the king. A kid won't ever want to go
against God's wishes.

"Since the dawn of time,
dynasties have succeeded
each other but the kings
have always kept their
promises. The Shah kept
none." (4.11)
We never thought we'd meet anyone more dishonest
than an American politician, but the Shah takes the
cake. He doesn't just take the cake, either—he takes
it, eats it, and spits the crumbs in the face of his
kingdom. He makes things hard for everyone.

We had demonstrated on This is a complicated quote to unpack. When Marji

the very day we shouldn't
have: on "Black Friday." That
day there were so many
killed in one of the
neighborhoods that a rumor
spread that Israeli soldiers
were responsible for the
slaughter. But in fact it was
really our own who had
attacked us. (5.46-5.47)
says it was their own who attacked them, she's
referring to two things: (1) The scandal surrounding
the attack that was blamed on Israeli soldiers, and (2)
the people who slapped them for protesting on that
day. Politically, Iran is still conflicted, and plagued by
people attacking their own.

As long as there is oil in the Oil is a huge political motivator, because it's desired
Middle East we will never by every industrialized country. If people find a way to
have peace. (6.15) create electricity from lobster, then Maine is in
trouble.

Politics and sentiment don't Marji's father is talking about the relationship
mix. (6.17) between Egypt and the Shah, but the same quote can
be applied to Marji's internal conflict regarding her
feelings and her politics. You've heard the phrase it's
business, not personal, but sometimes business is
really personal. Just ask Donald Trump, who loves
"hiring" his friends on Celebrity Apprentice. We're
looking at you, Joan Rivers.

"The elections were faked We're not sure if this is Marji's father telling the truth
and they believe the or him buying into political propaganda, but he
results." (9.5) definitely believes that this is the truth. At least their
election didn't hang on the interpretation of a few
hanging chads.

"The regime got scared
because if these opponents
had reached Tehran, they
would have freed those who
represented a real threat to
the government…" (29.66)
Marjane's dad talks a lot about Iranian politics in this
chapter, and it can be confusing, especially for an
outsider. The short of it is this: the few in power killed
hundreds of thousands of people to ensure they
stayed in power. That's some corruption right there.
Notice that Dad says "real threat to the government,"
instead of a real threat to the people. The powers that
be are not concerned with the people—only
themselves.

Between 1980 and 1983, the
government had imprisoned
and executed so many high-
school and college students
that we no longer dared to
talk politics. (35.22)
Fearmongering is the main political tool in Iran.
Disagree with your official? Go to jail. If the United
States was run this way, pretty much everyone would
be in jail at this point. How many times have you
disagreed with the president? Exactly—it happens.

The regime had absolute
power and most people, in
search of a cloud of
happiness, had forgotten
their political conscience.
(37.28)
The Iranians seem to have forgotten that politics
directly impact their lives. Instead of staying involved
(remember all the protests?), they stay at home and
watch cable TV. If they don't stay involved, how will
they keep past mistakes from recurring?

We didn't really like to wear The reason why women have to wear restrictive
the veil, especially since we clothing is pretty much "because we said so." It's
 didn't understand why we simply a way to limit freedom… and limit the ability to
FREEDOM AND had to. (1.5) express yourself through your hairstyle. No
CONFINEMENT fauxhawks or feathered bobs for the Iranian girls.

"[The police] forbade people This is a double dose of oppression here. Not only are
to rescue those locked the police locking people inside a theater to burn,
inside." (2.24) they're forbidding others to rescue them. It's a brutal
act that no one should have to witness. Not as bad as
sitting through The Canyons, but still pretty bad. (We
kid, of course. As Marjane says, you have to laugh
your way through trauma.)

"Sometimes they put Yikes. The regime doesn't just want to confine people;
[Grandpa] in a cell filled with it wants to torture them. Being in a cell filled with
water for hours." (3.41) water isn't like getting to spend the day in a swimming
pool… it's like sitting in a bathtub until your whole
body is so pruny, your skin almost falls off. Ick.

"Children, tear out all the The education system in Iran seems to work like this:
photos of the Shah from you should believe what we tell you now, and not
your books." (6.18) think about it, especially when what we're telling you
now is the exact opposite of what we told you last
week. It's almost like Marji is living in a real life 1984
or The Handmaid's Tale.

The political prisoners were Ah, freedom—how glorious it must be to breathe

liberated a few days later.
There were 3000 of them.
(7.1)
fresh air after being imprisoned for years. The
problem is that they're being released into Iran, which
is almost a public kind of prison. The former prisoners
still have to watch what they say and how they act, or
else they might go back to jail again. There is no get
out of jail free card in Iran.

"I was 18 years old when my
Uncle Fereydoon and his
friends proclaimed the
independence of the Iranian
province of Azerbaijan."
(8.9)
Freedom always comes at a price. Uncle Fereydoon is
killed and, although it takes many years, Uncle
Anoosh, who tells Marji this story, is also killed after
being branded a traitor to Iran. They don't really care
for freedom there, in case you haven't realized that
yet.

As for Houshang, Zozo's It's hard for someone to succeed after they flee the
husband, he was a CEO in country. Zozo's family sacrifices quality of life for their
Iran, but in Austria, he was freedom in Vienna. They don't seem happy though.
nothing. (20.18) Do you think it's worth it?
 "How good it feels to walk We wonder when the last time was that Marjane's
without a veil on my head." mother got to walk around in public without a veil. It's
(25.36) freeing to be able to do this on the streets of Vienna.
Can you imagine being required to wear something
when you go out, especially something you don't
want to wear? What if we all had to wear Bieber shirts
every time we left the house? What if he had to wear
a shirt, any shirt? There would be riots in the street
either way.

A part of me understood [my Marjane has picked up on something that happens to

old friends]. When people who, for example, have super-strict parents or
something is forbidden, it live in a rural town. The attraction of the forbidden:
takes on a disproportionate whether it be fame, drugs, or sex, is strong. Iran is like
importance. (30.12) living in a rural town full of super-strict parents. As
soon as they are moderately liberated, Marjane's
friends want the whole Hollywood lifestyle.

Since we weren't married,
we couldn't kiss each other
in public, or even give one
another a friendly hug to
express our extreme joy. We
risked imprisonment and
being whipped. (32.46)
Reza and Marjane have a hard time saying saying nice
things to each other. Maybe this is because they can't
be nice to each other in public, for fear of
imprisonment. Their secret affection eventually took
its toll on the relationship.

I thought my father was Living under the regime, Marji gets scared simply
FEAR dead. That they had shot when her father is late coming home from work. In
him. (4.23) Iran, he might not be late because of work, or because
of a traffic jam—he might be late because he's dead,
shot in the streets by soldiers. That's scarier than
rush-hour traffic in Boston.

"Don't worry. Everyone who This is oversimplification on Marji's dad's part. They're
left will come back. They're not just afraid of change; they're afraid of the regime
just afraid of change." (9.20) changing so much that they become the enemy and
get imprisoned… or worse.

It was war all right. Right War causes fear, and fear causes people to stockpile.
away, the supermarkets It's like a snowstorm in New England when everyone,
were empty. (12.1) afraid they'll lose power for a few hours, needs
enough Wonder Bread to last for three weeks. At least
we'll be prepared for the zombie apocalypse, right?
"Put your cigarette out. They
say that the glow of a
cigarette is the easiest thing
to see from the sky."
"But we're in the basement
here!" (14.3)
This is a funny exchange—of course no one can see
the light from a cigarette in a basement—but it shows
how absurd the paranoia can get when you're
cowering in fear from a bomb.

"The masking tape is to
protect against flying glass
during a bombing and the
black curtains are to protect
us from our neighbors."
(14.6)
Paranoia and fear are at an all-time high in Tehran at
this time, because enemies come from all sides.
Marji's mom has to try to protect the family against
Iraqi bombers and neighbors, who might turn the
family in because of their non-Fundamentalist
lifestyle. No wonder they're so paranoid: they can't
trust anyone.

I was very scared. It was the Being from Iran, Marjane is accustomed to living with
end of my career. (27.23) fear. That's just how they roll there. As a result, even
though she's scared of getting expelled for drug use…
she doesn't curb her drug use any. At least she stops
dealing, though—that's a step, we guess.

"Don't tell anyone that I'm Marjane is afraid of seeing her friends for a couple of
back. I don't want to see reasons: (1) There's that whole "inability to admit her
people!" (29.34) shame" thing—living homeless in Vienna isn't
something you proudly tell people about; and (2)
she's probably afraid that she won't be able to relate
to them anymore. They've been stuck in Iran for
years—what could they have in common at this
point?

Suddenly, from the other
side of the street, I saw a car
full of guardians of the
revolution arrive, followed
by a bus. When they came
with the bus, it meant a raid.
"If they see me with this
lipstick, they'll take me
away." (33.3)
There's no such thing as being an easy, breezy,
beautiful Cover Girl in Iran. Beauty is anything but
easy and breezy there, and simply wearing lipstick can
be a punishable offense. Next time you're afraid you
have lipstick on your teeth, think of that: at least you
have teeth to get lipstick on. If you were imprisoned
for wearing makeup in Iran, who knows what might
happen?

"It's fear that makes us lose These are Grandma's words of wisdom, and they
our conscience. It's also especially ring true for Marjane. The worst things she
 what transforms us into does—attempt suicide, live on the streets, turn in a
cowards." (34.37) homeless man—are all the result of fear.

"I'm not coming to any more This quote, said by one of Marjane's friends after the
parties. It's too frightening." police kill another friend at a party, is the equivalent
(35.82) of "letting the terrorists win." What makes this more
scary is that, in Iran, the threat isn't always from
outside. It's fear of your own police force that keeps
people cowering in fear at home. Kind of like stop-
and-frisk in New York City.

"People came out [of the
MORTALITY hospital] carrying the body
of a young man killed by the
army. He was honored like a
martyr." (4.28)
That's the one very small upside to dying in Iran:
you're probably going to be honored as a martyr. The
downside is that, well, you're dead, and that your
memory is being exploited for political gain,
depending on which side honors your death.

At school, they lined us up This whole honoring-the-dead thing sounds kind of

twice a day to mourn the war nice, but it's once again turning death into
dead. They put on funeral propaganda. It's a way of forcing people, especially
marches and we had to beat kids, into believing that dying for their country is a
our breasts. (13.9) good thing.

"I don't want to die!" (18.6)
This is the only time Marji explicitly expresses this.
The closer the bombs get to home, the more the
reality sets in: Marji and her family could actually die.
It's easy for them to think that it won't happen to
them when the bombs are farther away.

I saw a turquoise bracelet. It
was Neda's. Her aunt had
given it to her for her
fourteenth birthday. The
bracelet was still attached
to… I don't know what…
(18.45-18.46)
Talk about close to home—Marji is talking about the
death of her next door neighbor here. The building
literally next door to the one Marji lives in is flattened
by a bomb… with her neighbors inside. This is the
closest young Marji has ever come to death, and she
doesn't know how to deal with it. This chapter even
ends with a black panel, showing us that there are no
words, or even images, to express the fear, anger, and
grief.

After the death of Neda
Baba-Levy, my life took a
new turn. In 1984, I was
fourteen and a rebel.
Nothing scared me anymore.
Now that Marji has practically looked death in the
face, she's realized that she has to live her life to its
fullest. She harnesses her grief into energy used to
speak her mind and stand up for what she believes in.
After all, she's kind of survived being killed in a way.
(19.1) That's a liberating feeling, because what else could be
scarier than that?

Many [streets] had changed Iran seems to relish its death, or maybe they've just
names. They were now been desensitized to it. Everyone knows someone
called Martyr What's-His- who has died in some war or conflict. Coming back
Name Avenue or Martyr from the world outside Iran though, Marjane has
Something-or-Other Street. difficulty re-acclimating herself to death's prevalence.
It was very unsettling. I felt
as though I were walking
through a cemetery. (29.38-
29.40)

"How many did they kill?" The war took a huge toll. These are frightening
numbers, and the fact that many of these were the
"No one knows exactly.
Iranian government executing its own people is even
Many thousands, or rather,
scarier.
many tens of thousands of
people."
"And the victims of the
war?"
"Between 500,000 and
1,000,000." (29.70-29.72)

It's said that red tulips grow We know we're beating this martyr thing to death
from the blood of martyrs. (sorry), but here's one last example of how much the
(32.43) Iranians glamorize dying for Iran: Your blood will grow
flowers. Seriously?

"Poor Farzad. He was so This is a loaded line for tons of reasons. What is this
handsome. I can't believe girl saying? Handsome people can't die? Most likely
he's dead." (35.80) she's in shock because her friend died. You don't
expect your friend to die, especially not at the hands
of the police during a party.

Since the night of September
9, 1994, I only saw
[Grandma] again once,
during the Iranian New Year
in March 1995. She died
January 4, 1996… Freedom
had a price. (38.88)
Death is irreversible. Marjane will always live (well,
until she dies) with the fact that she left Iran for her
own freedom, and that means she barely got to see
her grandmother again. What's that? Oh, we have a
speck of dirt in our eye. That's all, we swear. *sniffle*
 Only my grandmother knew Marji is referring to a holy (well, holy-ish) book that
FAMILY about my book. (1.31) she's writing herself. Marji's grandmother is the
person in her family whom she is the closest to.
Maybe this is because she tells her, "I'll be your first
disciple" (1.31). She always believes in Marji, even at
a very young age.

My grandpa was a prince. Marjane's grandpa may have been a prince, but she's
(3.34) no Disney princess. Instead of prancing around in a
gown and singing to blue jays, she is conflicted about
so many things: class differences, culture differences,
ideological differences… many of these come from
being in a family whose status and history are both at
odds with what they truly believe in.

"It's a bit late to show your This is a little bit of dark comedy that only comes from
affection!!!" (8.24) family relations. Anoosh's mother is yelling at
Anoosh's father as Anoosh lies almost dead in bed.
Her anxiety about her son's wellbeing manifests itself
in the only way she knows how: yelling at her
husband.

"It's important that you Family stories are important, even the ones that are
know. Our family memory difficult to relive. Maybe the ones that are difficult to
must not be lost." (8.53) relive are especially important. Anoosh wants to
share these with young Marji to teach her. Perhaps he
doesn't want her to repeat his mistakes.

"The basis of education We agree with this, but what happens when the
comes from the family!" family's educational ideals are directly opposite those
(13.25) of the state-run government's ideals? Is there a way
to compromise? Marji's father stands up for his
family's ideals and insults the female school
principal's moustache. So there you go—way to go,
Pops.

Her mother had already
abandoned her. Since that
day, I've had doubts about
the so-called "maternal
instinct." (14.25-14.26)
This little aside says a lot about Marji and her
observation skills. Her aunt, who had just had a baby,
leaves Marji's small cousin in Marji's arms and runs.
This woman decides to save herself over her baby,
causing Marji to draw the conclusion that the
"maternal instinct" isn't universal, and some women
will save themselves first. This isn't a strange
conclusion for Marji to make, particularly since she
 lives in a society where neighbors will turn in
neighbors for being different. "Saving yourself first" is
a big part of the culture in Iran, unfortunately.

"Get real. Up to a certain This is something Marji says—and believes—as a

age, you need your parents, headstrong fourteen-year-old. She's right, up to a
then later, they need you." point. She'll later learn that she will always need her
(16.9) parents, and they will always need her.

In my culture, parents were Marjane is shocked at the way Julie treats her
sacred. We at least owed mother—she doesn't even answer her sometimes.
them an answer. (23.8) Why do you think the attitude toward family is so
different in Vienna than it is in Iran?

Where was my mother to
stroke my hair? Where was
my grandmother to tell me
that lovers, I would have had
them by the dozen? Where
was my father to punish this
boy who dared hurt his
daughter? Where? (28.8)
Marjane realizes that she never has related to any of
the friends she has in Vienna, that she never opened
up to any of them, so now they cannot support her. In
order to get the support she needs, Marjane has to
return to Iran and to her family.

Brother and sister are the
terms used in Iran by the
representatives of the law to
give orders to people
without offending them.
(29.3)
It's a little strange that Iranians call each other brother
and sister given how they seem to hate each other so
much. You'd think this would remind them that they
should all be working together, not against each
other, but it doesn't. If everyone in Iran is family, this
is the most dysfunctional family ever.

Deep down I was very Are these two things totally opposite? Can you be
RELIGION religious but as a family we modern and religious, or is religion naturally old
were very modern and fashioned? Maybe Jesus should be turning water into
avant-garde. (1.19) Moscato, instead of just plain ol' wine.

That night [God] didn't Why doesn't God come to Marjane the night she
come. (2.43) decides to be a revolutionary? Is it because he doesn't
agree with violence? Or is he just catching up on
Breaking Bad?

The only place I felt safe was This quote is accompanied by an illustration of Marji
in the arms of my friend. in the arms of God. Or it could be Karl Marx, because
(7.45) she thinks Marx looks like God. But we're pretty sure
it's God. Even though Marji isn't religious in the way
that Iran wants her to be religious, she takes solace in
 her personal faith.

"Everything needs to be
revised to ensure that our
children are not led astray
from the true path of Islam."
(10.10)
Having religious leaders run Iran turns out to be a very
bad idea. Not everyone believes in the same version
of fundamentalist Islam that they do. Replace "Islam"
with "Christianity" and instead of Iran you've just
perfectly described the state of Texas.

"If anyone ever asks you When religion becomes mandatory, the way it does in
what you do during the day, Iran, can it even be about faith anymore? Even though
say you pray, you Marji has a strong faith in God (admittedly, it's a little
understand?" (10.28) shaken at this point), her faith has nothing to do with
the amount of prayers she is required to make per
day.

[The Iranian National It's crazy to think that a hymn could replace a
Anthem] had been forbidden country's national anthem. What's next? Saying
and replaced by the new "under Allah" when praising the flag of Iran? Oh wait…
government's Islamic hymn.
(11.28)

It was a miracle. (14.43)
Marji says this after a soldier sympathizes with her
grandmother when Grandma lies and says she has
diabetes. He sympathizes with her because his
mother has diabetes too. Is this a miracle, as Marji
(who is strong in faith) believes, or is it just
coincidence?

Each time that I asked my This passage marks the first time in a while that
mother to pray for me, my Marjane has mentioned God. We have to ask: Does
wish was granted. (27.4) she only have faith in God when he's doing something
for her? What kind of way is that to treat a friend?

"That dose should have been
enough to finish off an
elephant! … Even though I'm
not a believer, aside from
divine intervention, I can't
find any other explanation
for your survival." (31.42)
Marjane takes the doctor's words divine intervention
as proof that this is, in fact, the reason for her survival.
Her BFF God totally saved her life. Whatever the
reason, she uses her faith to realize that she wasn't
meant to die during her suicide attempt, and she
redirects her energies toward strengthening her
identity instead of trying to destroy it.

A few months later, I learned There aren't many true religious men in Iran. Most of
[…] that the Mullah who had them use religion as a means to power, but the man
interviewed me had really in charge of admitting Marjane to college truly
 appreciated my honesty. believes, and he appreciates Marjane's true belief as
Apparently, he'd even said well.
that I was the only one who
didn't lie. I was lucky. I had
stumbled on a true religious
man. (32.62)

My uncle was the vintner. He
DRUGS AND ALCOHOL had built a genuine wine-
making lab in his basement.
(14.19)
Making wine in a basement in Iran is like smuggling
liquor into the U.S. during Prohibition. The
consequences of being caught would be severe. But
what kind of party would it be without wine? The
government doesn't allow people to party anyway, so
you might as well add forbidden wine to the mix.

In Iran, at parties, everyone
would dance and eat. In
Vienna, people preferred to
lie around and smoke.
(23.42)
Marjane forgets to mention that people in Iran also
like to drink, but there's still a contrast between the
two. Iranians get more social at parties when they
drink, but in Vienna, people instead get stoned and
become more isolated. Well, or they pair off and go
have sex in dark corners.

"I don't believe it. You… Marjane gets stoned at Julie's party, the first night she
You… You're stoned!" sees a naked woman and a naked man. The drugs are
(23.59) a big part in Marjane's "liberation." We have to
wonder if she'd have been as relaxed toward sex as
she is, having come from such an oppressive culture
in Iran, if she were totally sober.

I didn't like to smoke. […] So Marjane pulls a Bill Clinton with the whole I didn't
I pretended to participate, inhale thing. She wants to fit in, but she doesn't want
but I never inhaled the the side effects from it. What do you think her friends
smoke. (24.23, 24.26) would do if she just refused to participate?

Becoming a vegetable was Marjane's parents instilled in her a fear of drugs. Too
out of the question. (24.25) many drugs and you'll turn into a vegetable is kind of
their version of keep doing that and your face will
freeze that way. We're not sure if they have a point,
or if they're just saying it to instill fear in their
daughter. We do know that Marjane "vegetableizes"
a bit eventually, but it seems like she is able to snap
out of it.

The communal life went Living on the anarchist compound, Marjane

hand in hand with the use of experiments with all sorts of drugs. This is another
 all kinds of mood enhancers: reason we equate these anarchists with the free-
weed, hash… I tripped every wheeling hippie lifestyle of the 1960s in the United
weekend, and you could see States—both really liked their "mood enhancers."
it on my face. (26.49)

I didn't always like [tripping],
but I by far preferred boring
myself with [Ingrid] to having
to confront my solitude and
my disappointments. (26.75)
Marjane doesn't tell us anything about her "friend"
Ingrid. Maybe it's because the only thing the two of
them have in common is a taste for hallucinogenic
substances?

This is how, for love, I began Marjane goes to extremes to fit in because, as an
my career as a drug dealer. Iranian woman living in Vienna, she is an extreme
(26.105) outsider. Because of this, she makes fun of people to
fit in, changes her appearance, and yes, deals drugs.
Drugs seem to connect a lot of outsiders, at least on
the surface. How connected can you be if you're high
all the time though?

I had started taking more
and more [drugs]. At first,
Markus was very impressed,
then, he started to lecture
me, and finally, he distanced
himself. (27.4-27.26)
Ah, this perfectly illustrates what we talked about
above, with drugs connecting people at first, but
ultimately driving them apart. With Marjane high all
the time, Markus has no way to relate to her, so he
pulls away from her… and eventually finds someone
else.

That same night, Ali had a big
party at his house. I never
drank so much in my life.
(35.85)
Alcohol is both a form of defiance and a way to cope.
Marjane drinks because the government doesn't
want her to drink, so her raised wine bottle is like a
big ol' middle finger to the government. She also
drinks because a friend just died, though, which is
something she wants to forget, if just for a little while.

“Life is too short to be lived

The Story of a Return badly.”

“I finally understood what

my grandmother meant. If I
wasn't comfortable with
myself, I would never be
comfortable.”

“We can only feel sorry for

ourselves when our
misfortunes are still
supportable. Once this limit
is crossed, the only way to
bear the unbearable is to
laugh at it.”

“You are putting yourself in

serious danger...'

I think that I preferred to put

myself in serious danger
rather than confront my
shame. My shame at not
having become someone,
the shame of not having
made my parents proud
after all the sacrifices they
had made for me. The shame
of having become a
mediocre nihilist.”

“Culture and education are

the lethal weapons against
all kinds of
fundamentalism.”

“In any case, it's the

cowardice of people like you
who give dictators the
chance to install
themselves!”

“I was a westerner in Iran, an

Iranian in the West. I had no
identity. I didn't even know
anymore why I was living.”

“Oh my!! How you've grown.

Soon you'll be catching the
Lord's balls.”

“Prosperity consists of two

things: tea after a meal, and
a cigarette after tea.”
“Is religion defending our
physical integrity or is it just
opposed to fashion?”

“Night fell... "Night brings

good counsel", my
grandmother always told
me.”

“The regime had understood

that one person leaving her
house while asking herself:
"Are my trousers long
enough? Is my veil in place?
Can my make-up be seen?
Are they going to whip me?"
- No longer asks herself:
"Where is my freedom of
thought? Where is my
freedom of speech? My life,
is it livable? What's going on
in the political prisons?"

It's only natural! When we're

afraid, we lose all sense of
analysis and reflection. Our
fear paralyzes us. Besides,
fear has always been the
driving force behind all
dictators' repression.

Showing your hair or putting

on makeup logically became
acts of rebellion.”

“I'm happy to see you so

well-settled here. Now you
must make an effort, you
must become somebody. I
don't care what you do later,
only try to be the best. Even
if you become a cabaret
dance, better that you dance
at the lido than in a hole in
 the wall.”

“What do you want me to

say, sir? That I'm the
vegetable that I refused to
become, that I'm so
disappointed in myself that I
can no longee look at myself
in the mirror? That I hate
myself?”

“Third: live together as long

as you feel truly happy. Life
is too short to be lived
badly.”

“The harder I tried to

assimilate, the more I had
the feeling that I was
distancing myself from my
culture, betraying my
parents and my origins, that
I was playing a game by
somebody else's rules.”

“I wanted to die. Where

were my parents to take me
in their arms, to reassure
me?”

“In retrospect, I can see that

I had always known that it
wouldn't between us. But
after my pitiful love story in
Vienna, I needed to believe
in someone again...”

“In life you'll meet a lot of

The Story of a Childhood jerks. If they hurt you, tell
yourself that it's because
Embroideries they're stupid. That will help
keep you from reacting to
their cruelty. Because there
is nothing worse than
The Complete Persepolis bitterness and vengeance...
Always keep your dignity and
be true to yourself.”

“One can forgive but one

should never forget.”

“Nothing's worse than

saying goodbye. It's a little
like dying.”

“I want to be justice, love

and the wrath of God all in
one.”

“I had learned that you

should always shout louder
than your aggressor.”

“Once again, I arrived at my

usual conclusion: one must
educate oneself.”

“Saying goodbye is a little

like dying.”

“I realized then that I didn't

understand anything. I read
all the books I could.”

“Listen. I don't like to preach,

but here's some advice.
You'll meet a lot of jerks in
life. If they hurt you,
remember it's because
they're stupid. Don't react to
their cruelty. There's nothing
worse than bitterness and
revenge. Keep your dignity
and be true to yourself.”

“We found ourselves veiled

and separated from our
friends.”
“To each his own way of
calming down.”

“I wanted to be JUSTICE,
LOVE, and the WRATH OF
GOD all in one.”

“You must base everything

on these three rules: behave
well, speak well, act well.”

“I am the last prophet.

A woman?”

“Vais conhecer muitos

idiotas na vida. Se te
magoarem, lembra-te que é
porque são estupidos.
Assim, não vais reagir à sua
crueldade, porque não há
nada pior do que ser amargo
e vingativo. mantem sempre
a tua dignidade e sê
verdadeira contigo mesma.”

“If hair is as stimulating as

you say them you need to
shave your mustache”

“For a revolution to succeed,

the entire population must
support it.”

“We were not in the same

social class but at least we
were at the same bed.”

“In any case as long as there

is oil in the middle east they
will never have peace”

“Dalam hidup kau akan

bertemu banyak orang
brengsek. Kalau mereka
menyakitimu, katakan pada
dirimu sendiri itu karena
mereka bodoh. Itu akan
membantu mencegahmu
bereaksi pada kekejaman
mereka. Karena tidak ada
yang lebih buruk daripada
kebencian dan balas
dendam. Selalu jaga
martabatmu dan jujurlah
pada dirimu sendiri.”

“I wanted to be justice, love

and the wrath of God all in
one.”

“To speak behind others'

backs is the ventilator of the
heart.”

“To be the mistress of a

married man is to have the
better role. Do you realize?
His dirty shirt, his disgusting
underwear, his daily ironing,
his bad breath, his
hemorrhoid attacks, his fuss,
not to mention his bad
moods, and his tantrums.
Well all that is for his wife.
When a married man comes
to his mistress... he's always
bleached and ironed, his
teeth sparkle, his breath is
like perfume, he's in a good
mood, he's full of
conversation, he is there to
have a good time with you.”

“One isn't born courageous,

one becomes it.”

“It's not disgusting, that little

skin that hangs?"
"The foreskin? No, it's okay. I
think that generally speaking
, a dick isn't really
photogenic."
"I quite agree.”

“Tu oublies que tout le

monde n'a pas ta force, ni
ton courage..."
"On ne nait pas courageux,
on le devient".”

“Men's pride is situated in

their scrotums.”

“Love is the opposite of good

sense.”

“Would you like to become

my wife?"
"Imbecile! What a question.
It's my greatest dream!!!”

“I asked him what his work

was. He answered that he
devoted all his time to his
political activities... He was
undoubtedly busy with the
diplomatic relations
between his testicles and
women's breast.”

“I've never seen or touched

anything."
"Can you explain then how
you had children?"
"You're right. It's true I have
four kids. Four! But still I
have never seen the male
organ. He came into the
bedroom, he turned off the
light, and then Bam! Bam!
Bam! and voila I was
pregnant! What's more, I
was granted four girls. So I
have never seen penises.”

“Parler derrière le dos des

autres est le ventilateur du
couer.”

“It's fear that makes us

lose our conscience.
It's also what
transforms us into
cowards.”

“The regime had

understood that one
person leaving her
house while asking
herself:
Are my trousers long
enough?
Is my veil in place?
Can my make-up be
seen?
Are they going to whip
me?

No longer asks herself:

Where is my freedom
of thought?
Where is my freedom
of speech?
My life, is it liveable?
What's going on in the
political prisons?”

“When we're afraid, we

lose all sense of
analysis and reflection.
Our fear paralyzes us.
Besides, fear has
always been the driving
force behind all
dictators' repression.”
“In every religion, you
find the same
extremists.”

“I have always thought

that if women's hair
posed so many
problems, God would
certainly have made us
bald.”

“Anyway, that's how it

is! Either they obey the
law, or they're
expelled!! And make
sure they wear their
veils correctly..." - "If
hair is as stimulating
as you say, then you
need to shave your
moustache!" My father
actually said that.”

“War always takes you

by surprise.”

“People don't know

anymore why we've
had eight years of war.
Why their children
have died...This entire
war was just a big setup
to destroy both the
Iranian and the Iraqi
armies. The former was
the most powerful in
the Middle East in
1980, and the latter
represented a real
danger to Israel. The
West sold weapons to
both camps and we, we
were stupid enough to
enter into this cynical
game...eight years of
war for nothing! So
now the state names
streets after martyrs to
flatter the families of
the victims. In this
way, perhaps, they'll
find some meaning in
all this absurdity.”

“I rushed to the living

room to protect myself
from I don't know
what, behind my best
friend, a book.”

“Rule number six:

Everybody should have
a car
Rule number seven: All
maids should eat at the
table with the others
Rule number eight: No
old person should have
to suffer

Grandmother: In that
case, I'll be your first
disciple.
Persepolis: Really?
Grandmother: But tell
me how you'll arrange
for old people not to
suffer?
Persepolis: It will
simply be forbidden.”

“The Germans sell

chemical weapons to
Iran and Iraq. The
wounded are then sent
to Germany to be
treated. Veritable
human guinea pigs.”

“I learned that you

should always shout
louder than your
aggressor.”

“The Shah stayed on

the throne until 1979,
when he fled Iran to
escape the Islamic
revolution.
Since then, this old and
great civilization has
been discussed mostly
in connection with
fundamentalism,
fanaticism, and
terrorism. As an
Iranian who has lived
more than half of my
life in Iran, I know that
this image is far from
the truth. This is why
writing "Persepolis"
was so important to
me. I believe that an
entire nation should
not be judged by the
wrongdoings of a few
extremists. I also don't
want those Iranians
who lost their lives in
prisons defending
freedom, who died in
the war against Iraq,
who suffered under
various repressive
regimes, or who were
forced to leave their
families and flee their
homeland to be
forgotten.
One can forgive but one
should never forget.”

“I wanted to be an
educated, liberated
woman. And if the
pursuit of knowledge
meant getting cancer,
so be it.”

“Non si ha il diritto di
autocompatirsi finché i
propri problemi sono
ancora accettabili... E
quando invece non lo
sono più, il solo modo
di sopportare
l'insopportabile è di
riderci sopra.”

“I wanted to be justice,
love and the wrath of
God all in one”

“Don't let it get to you,

mom! The Western
media also fights
against us. That's
where our reputation
as fundamentalists and
terrorists comes from."
"You're right. Between
one's fanaticism and
the other's disdain, it's
hard to know which
side to choose.
Personally, I hate
Saddam and I have no
sympathy for the
Kuwaitism but I hate
just as much the
cynicism of the allies
who call themselves
"liberators" while
they're there for the
oil."
"Exactly. Just look at
Afghanistan! They
fought there for ten
years. There were
900,000 dead and
today the country is
still in chaos. No one
lifted a finger! Because
Afghanistan is poor!
The worst is that the
intervention in Kuwait
is done in the name of
the human rights!
Which rights? Which
humans?"
At the time, this kind of
analysis wasn't
commonplace. After
our own war, we were
happy that Iraq got
itself attacked and
delighted that it wasn't
happening in our
country. We were
finally able to sleep
peacefully without fear
of missiles... We no
longed needed to line
up with our food ration
coupon...the rest
mattered little. And
then, there wasn't any
more opposition. The
protesters had been
executed. Or had fled
the country any way
possible. The regime
had absolute
power...and most
people , in search of a
cloud of happiness, had
forgotten their political
conscience.”

“Where are you going

on vacation?”
“Nowhere. I’m going
to read. I love reading.”

“Guns may shoot and

knives may carve, but
we won't wear your
silly scarves!”

“Despite the doctor’s

orders, I bought myself
several cartons of
cigarettes (…) I think
that I preferred to put
myself in serious
danger rather than
confront my shame.
My shame at not
having become
someone, the shame of
not having made my
parents proud after all
the sacrifices they had
made for me. The
shame of having
become a mediocre
nihilist.”

“En la vida encontrarás

muchos imbéciles. Si te
hieren, piensa que es
su estupidez la que les
empuja a hacerte daño.
Así evitarás responder
a su maldad. Porque no
hay nada peor en el
mundo que el rencor y
la venganza... Mantén
siempre tu dignidad, tu
integridad y la
fidelidad a ti misma
(p.159)”

“To die a martyr is to

inject blood into the
veins of society”

“And so I was lost,

without any bearings...
what could be worse
than that?”

“With this first

cigarette, I kissed
childhood goodbye.
Now I was a grown-
up.”

“El motivo de mi
vergüenza y de la
revolución es el mismo
la diferencia de clase
social”

“cuando entré en su
habitación estaba
llorando... No
pertenecíamos a la
misma clase social,
pero al menos
estabamos en la misma
cama”

“They found records

and video-cassettes at
their place, a deck of
cards, a chess set. In
other words,
everything that's
banned.”

“LIFE IS TOO SHORT

TO BE LIVED BADLY”

“Preferiría que
estuviera vivo y
encarcelado que
muerto como un
héroe”

“Dans ta vie tu
rencontreras beaucoup
de cons. S'ils te
blessent, dis-toi que
c'est la bêtise qui les
pousse à te faire du
mal. Ça t'évitera de
répondre à leur
méchanceté. Car il n'y a
rien de pire au monde
que l'amertume et la
vengeance. .. Reste
toujours digne et
intègre à toi même.”