Coming Of Age In Marjane's Persepolis

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Have you ever had an argument with your family on where to go to dinner or who gets the tv for the night? From fighting with your parents or younger siblings, you will have different opinions. Different interest, opinions, beliefs. This is likewise, to Marjane’s coming of age story. Marjane Satrapi’s perspective as a child is different from when she gets older because of her loss of innocence, her political and social awareness, and her views on religion. At the beginning of Persepolis, Marjane is only ten years old. She gains age as the Iran-Iraq War is taking place. By the end of the story, she is fourteen years of age. Throughout the horrific chain of events that take place over Marjane’s story, her perspective changes drastically. This …show more content…

This picture demonstrates those ideas by representing a baby opening their eyes for the first time. When a baby first opens their eyes, they can observe their surroundings for themselves and create their own opinions. Simultaneously, Marjane’s political and social awareness is an essential idea throughout her story because as a child; only 10 years old, Marjane didn’t fully understand what was going on during the Islamic Revolution and the war that later came from it. Also, the baby in the pictures expression describes confusion. This describes how Marjane was feeling during this time. Again, considering her age, Marjane didn’t understand the concept of war; bombings, explosions, and fatalities. As she grew older, she started to research more to understand exactly what was going on around her. “I read all the books I could” (Satrapi 32). As she does more research and grows older, she grasps more of an understanding and becomes more politically and socially aware. Her perspective then begins to change more and more as she understands the difficult surroundings she 's living in. Finally, she was able to establish her own opinion; not one of her parents, friends, or