Religion In Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

Draft of Journal 2 In the graphic novel, Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, Marji is very religious, since she is “born with religion.” (Satrapi 6). She later reads dialectic materialism and she depicts God as being similar in appearance to Karl Marx. It is interesting that she compares God, the icon of religion, to Marx, the socialist founder of marxism. Religion is mind over matter. Through religion, people refer to God, a nonphysical entity that is the root of all things. Most religious people believe that God created the material world. The actions of religious people translates into the physical world and the faith of people in God determines these actions, thus making mind over matter, which is opposite of Marxism. On the other hand, dialectic

Marxism was materialistic, which means that unless things produce actual results, it is not worth considering. Dialectic materialism are different. In Persepolis, God pesters Marji about being a prophet and he promptly disappears whenever Marji thinks about anything political, like when she talks about Fidel Castro, a communist. His interactions with Marji fades as she indulges in marxism and throughout the novel, his presence fades and disappears all together. This suggests that religion and politics can’t coexist; however, “Dialectic” refers to paradoxes, things that seemingly can’t coexist, yet Marji compares the 2 as similar. A key feature in dialectic materialism is that opposites can have a middle ground, meaning religion and dialectic materialism could be similar in some ways. To support this, as a child, Marji wants to be a prophet because her family’s maid “did not eat with [them]”, “because [her] father [has] a cadillac”, and because “[her] grandmother’s knees always ached.” (6). 2 of these reasons can be seen as socialist ideas. Her maid not being able to dine with her family is because of the difference in social class, which Marji wants to change when she becomes a prophet. To continue, her father’s cadillac is

Marji abandons her romantic idea of religion and its possible coexistence with her political view. At the beginning of the novel, she wants to be a prophet and she is very religious, but as she grows and learns about the revolution, communism, marxism, and fundamentalism, her relationship with religion fades. When Marji compares God to Marx, God asks if she really does think so, which she doesn’t reply to and asks God to drop the topic (13). God pesters her about being a prophet and he seems worried that she does not want to be one anymore, meaning that she is rejecting religion. God disappears for a long time when Marji talks about Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. This suggests that religion and Marji’s political view can not exist together. To add on, before learning about the Shah, Marji expresses that she “love[s] the king, he was chosen by God.” (19). But her father informs her that the king has nothing to do with religion. She loses faith. Religion and marxism are very contrasting, with few similarities. Marji tries to find a connection between the two, but they’re too different. Fundamentalism upholds the literal interpretation of religion. Fundamentalism takes over Iran and Marji witnesses Fundamentalists weeding out communists and executing them. When her communist uncle Anoosh, whom she loves, is executed for being a communist, Marji tells God to “get out”