Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis Essay

1008 Words5 Pages

People are like cameras and their personal experiences can be their lenses that change and modify the actual picture. This evident in Marjane Satrapi’s book Persepolis because the whole book is about a girl growing up, and forming her own opinions. Furthermore, Marjane has to mature in the turmoil of an Iranian-Iraqi war, she also has to survive the brutal Islamic regime governing her. This creates a very particular point of view considering that the parents raising Marjane are against the new form of government, and actively protest, risking their lives. As a result, this rubs off on her creating a very rebellious and dauntless little girl, who isn’t afraid of the new oppressors. Marjane´s unique perspective heavily influences her demonstration …show more content…

In the beginning of the book she isn’t involved much at all, but as time goes on she gets sucked in gradually, like a tornado. Marjane’s first experience with the revolution was when she was 10 years old and “-It became obligatory to wear the veil at school (Satrapi 3).” The older she got the more defiant she got towards the new fundamentalist regime, she also was more willing to get involved for example after her Uncle Anoosh was executed because he used to be a spy (Satrapi 69-70), from that point on her rebellious side took hold. Marjane gets more involved in the revolution when she goes out with her parents to protest for the first time, she sees some extremely grotesque things such as people being beaten and even a woman getting stabbed. This is evident when she says, “ So I went with them to pass out flyers.. When suddenly things got nasty. For the first time in my life, I saw violence with my own eyes.” Even though she sees a brutal retaliation, this doesn’t stop her from being disobedient to the government, towards the end of the story she wears a jean jacket and Nike sneakers, both of which are Western products. Marjane describes her apparel when she says, “ I put my 1983 Nikes on...And my denim jacket with the Michael Jackson button, and of course my headscarf.” This is something incredibly defiant, due to the fact that the new Iranian government only permitted the more traditional dress and loathed Western clothes and