Formal Paper

Alex Castro                                                                                                Castro 1

10/24/11

English 1B

                                    Formal Paper on Persepolis

In life we are faced with obstacles and choices that come along with them. Some may be harder to overcome than others. But it’s how we deal with those obstacles that separate us from the rest. Now imagine yourself as a young child having to witness first hand, all of the horrifying events and consequences that take place during a revolution.  Yet, still manage to keep your outlook the same. It’s not a common thing to ask but unfortunately this was not the case for Marjane. In the novel “Persepolis” we view the life of Marjane Satrapi and all of the changes she goes through, written in her memoirs during the Iranian Revolution in 1979. In today’s world there are constant changes happening every day. None of which can compare to the changes she faces with her faith in religion, the oppression being caused by the government and also dealing with any type of authoritative figure.

In the beginning of the novel, Marjane’s belief in religion seems very strong and faithful towards God.  “I was born with religion” (Satrapi, 6).  “At the age of six I was already sure I was the last prophet…” (Satrapi, 6).  Coming from a child, these are powerful words.  She doesn’t mean any harm nor does she wish to go against her religion, but when Marjane starts to see life from a whole other point of view, it changes her whole outlook completely.   Once she starts asking questions to her

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parents about the revolution and why things are the way they are, she gets many unexpected answers. One topic that she brings up is that god chose their current emperor but that’s when her father intervenes and tells her the real truth.  He was not a prophet or a chosen one; he was merely a low class soldier that was manipulated by the British into becoming an emperor instead of a president.  Their plan was to have complete control over their geological wealth because Iran was sitting right above an abundance of oil.  The next occurrence that affected Marjane was coping with death in general.  She experienced first hand on dealing with the death of her grandfather and her uncle Anoosh. When he came to visit her family during the revolution, she made a really strong connection with him and a bond was formed between the both of them.  But when she see’s her uncles face on the front page of the newspaper saying that another spy was killed just devastated her.  Even as an adult it can be heart wrenching to deal with a death in the family.  And for a young religious girl witnessing first hand how cruel life can be, her views on god begin to change.  She would speak to god on a daily basis before she would go to bed and have long talks with him.  Yet when her beloved uncle dies, she has a hard time accepting her religion because she is extremely upset with god.  One night that she was laying in bed, God speaks to her and asks how she is doing and her only response was, “Shut up, you get out of my life!!! I never want to see you again!” (Satrapi 70) This is another changing point where Marjane begins to lose her loyalty to god and all faith as well.  Once she loses her faith, it causes a domino effect where she begins to lose respect for any authoritative figure as well.

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            Marjane goes through a series of events that helps push her into becoming a rebel against any type of authority.  At first she shows that she has a lot of respect for adults and any rule or regulation that is enforced.  For instance she obeys her parents and prays when she is supposed to.  She does not talk back to her elders but simply questions herself in her thoughts about why certain things are the way they are.  Although it was never to a point where she expressed such great oppression.  But when she saw how much impact the revolution was causing, she felt she had to take it upon herself to change and become the leader who she was meant to be all along. She would watch her parents coming home from demonstrations as they were against what the Emperor Shah wanted for their country.  So they acted out and rebelled because they were not happy with their economy.  “When I finally understood the reasons for the revolution I made my decision.  Tomorrow we are going to demonstrate” (Satrapi, 181).  As of now marjane feels that she has seen enough tyranny and oppression that she wants to take things into her own hands and rebel against the government as well.  That attitude carried on with her into school as well.  A once well-respected student became a rebel in the classroom as well.  One type of rebellion is fighting/talking back to the person who is in charge which was her teacher.  Marjane thought it was okay to disrespect her teacher by talking back in class in front of her peers.  Soon after she began to ditch class so she can fit in with the fourteen year olds who would also cut class as well.

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“If I wanted to be friends with 14-year olds, I had to do it. I wasn’t chicken, so I followed them.  I had already broken the rules once by going to the demonstration in ’79.  This was the second time” (Satrapi, 111).  Rebelling against anything with rules was becoming to be another norm for marjane as she looked at it as nothing. Of course once she began acting up in class, her parents would soon be notified of her new behavior in school.  As her mother found out about her cutting class, she confronted Marjane about school.  She lied to her mother and told her it was okay.  When really she did not attend any classes at all.  “There was no other alternative. I had to lie” (Satrapi, 133).  This was only the beginning of her new attitude against all authority.  “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” (Satrapi, 117).  Marjane is going through a tough time and is handling it by becoming a rebel, but can we really blame her?  After all, aren’t her parents setting the examples for her as they demonstrate against the government.  So why can’t she do the same?  One possibility could be the government playing a huge role in her changes.

            A revolution can cause many problems for any country, but it does more damage to the people who are directly affected and live through it everyday.  Not only does it cause chaos and destruction but it also separates a community into two and divides family and friends based on their outlook towards the government.  All of this has been influenced by western civilization and has caused a war within its own people and stirred up different social classes. Marjanes family would actually

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fall under the upper middle class.  Her father was the only man in the neighborhood that drove a Cadillac.  They also had a made named Mehri who did not eat at the dinner table with them.  This showed Marjane that her family in essence also had power just like the government since they are well off and are calling the shots in their household such as the Emperor Shah.  If her parents showed that it was okay to rebel against the government, why wouldn’t it be okay for her to do the same thing and join her family with them?  We can see that Marjane has been susceptible to being easily influenced when all else goes wrong, she ultimately changed her whole life around because it all revolves around the government.  Not only does it set the tone for its “people” but they also leave the “people” with no other choice but to rebel against them because of their dictatorship and unfairness.  This was never what life was about in Marjane’s eyes.  It was to follow three simple rules from god which are to “behave well, speak well, act well” in order to live a happy and prosperous life.  Unfortunately the government wasn’t religious and did not believe in that which caused so much confusion for Marjane as she had to accept the fact that her emperor was not chosen by god but a fraud.

            Persepolis interprets a story of a young girls journey through changes in all aspects of her life. It’s not easy being able to live a normal life when a revolution is destroying a country.  Yet we can see Marjane is not like everybody else.  She handles different scenarios unlike any other child.  She adapts to situations as if she were an adult and handles it in a rebellious way instead of steering away in fear. 

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Marjane Satrapi develops into a strong and fearless girl because of all the different changes she faces from her religion, government and authority.