Persepolis War Essay

War can turn horrific events into people's everyday lives, after time they can no longer remember a life without death and destruction. Persepolis is a book about the Iranian Revolution and how war shapes the lives of the people in them, especially children who grow up in it. Marji Satrapi is a young girl whose life is shaped by war. She is in her formative years when the war begins and her whole life is changed, they are forced to wear veils and change the way they live. The war shapes the lives of the young girls in that they do not know life outside of it, the fighting and death becomes normal for them. At the beginning of Persepolis, Marji is impressionable, but since the war and change in normal lives, she becomes much more independent.

As many other kids did, Marji felt that in order to be free they needed to give up their childhood early in rebelling. She felt she needed to grow up in order to be free from her mother by extreme measures; “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. It was awful, but this was not the moment to give in. With this cigarette, I kissed my childhood goodbye. Now I was a grown-up.” (Satrapi 117). In this quote Marji felt the need to grow up in order to be free of, in this case, her mother’s dictatorship. Marji had to “fight” for her freedom as many people were during the Iranian Revolution, although everyone's fight was for different reasons they all wanted freedom and happiness. War times are stressful and dangerous, especially for children. In order to survive war, children feel the need to grow up fast in order to be responsible and safe. Sometimes even parents end up forcing their kids to be independent and responsible, Marji’s parents knew that she was growing up and becoming independent and responsible which is why they sent her to Austria later in the book to keep her safe. This showed how Marji has truly grown; she became independent and said goodbye to her childhood. She grew up with the war and it

Because of the war and all the changes around her, Marji has to grow up sooner and become a responsible and independent young girl. Any event will shape someone's life, so many children grow up in environments that cause them to take responsibility and forget their childhood too young. Wars shape many people's lives but it does not need to be a war for children to experience the changes Marji went through. Many children in America are in situations where they must grow up for their own protection and survival, they could be in a situation at home where they have to completely take care of themselves or their siblings which would put a lot of responsibility on someone at a very young age. Being forced to grow up too fast is a problem across the world that is not being addressed, so many people are in these situations and we never get to hear their