Marjane Satrapi's Coming Of Age

Growing up will forever be a difficult topic to discuss. Changing, growing, and developing into your own person can be frightening, and Marjane shows this clearly throughout the novel. Coming of age happens as one grows and matures. As we grow up, we begin to think for ourselves and question things around us. Some people may not agree with the rudimentary idea of challenges in growing up, but those people are the ones who have had an easy childhood and have not experienced the hardships others may have faced. Marjane Satrapi effectively uses time, characterization, and perspective to create a wistful mood which creates a thematic discussion about the coming of age. In the chapter The Trip, Satrapi uses facial expressions and style of the

The importance of this panel is shown by the size of it. It is the biggest panel on the page. The panel is also very contrasted which also makes it stand out more. Before this panel, Marjane had begun rebelling in school while the war was getting worse, which wasn't a good mix. Her parents decided to send her off to Austria, where they hoped that she would be safer. Before she left, she gave all her poster to her friend and spent the night with her grandma to say goodbye. In this panel they are on their way to the airport to send Marjane off. Their facial expressions really show how they feel about sending Marjane away on her own. The father is crying and her mother looks close, Marjane is in the back with a worried face. Satrapi also added to the panel the windshield wipers that appear to be on, showing that it could possibly be raining, which helps add to the sad mood of it all. This panel relates to coming of age by showing that, after all this time, the parents have decided to send Marjane off. They had a good opportunity to more toward the beginning of the graphic novel, but they chose now because she had some time to grow up and understand fully what was really happening in their country. She also did things that she would never had done when she was little, like give her friends her