Social Classes In Persepolis

Young children usually don’t comprehend the flawed world they live in for various reasons. Marjane experiences a numerous amount of events that shape and develop her perspective throughout the novel. Her perspective influences her presentation of loss of innocence, social classes, and gender roles. These things all alter the way she acts towards her family, friends, and God.

The image to the left portrays a young girl smoking a cigarette. The girl in the photograph is demonstrating the loss of innocence in the sense that smoking a cigarette, if done at all, should be done by an adult, not a child. Not only is the theme of loss of innocence portrayed in this image, it is also portrayed in Marjane’s story in the graphic novel Persepolis. At

This is demonstrating the theme of social classes. The theme of social classes is not only demonstrated in this image but also in the graphic novel Persepolis. Marjane begins to notice the difference and hard truth about social classes when she realizes the real reason she feels shame about the car she drives and the reason behind the revolution. Marjane says, “The reason for my shame and for the revolution is the same: The difference between social classes.” (Satrapi 33). Marjane also comes to a realization about the difference in social classes for her maid, Mehri. She thinks about a time when Mehri had fallen in love, but because their social classes were very different, Marjane’s father steps in the way and stops the romance between the two. Marjane gets frustrated at her father's decisions and ask him why their love was impossible, her father replies, “ Because in this country you must stay within your own social class.” (Satrapi 37). Marjane's perspective on social classes affects her perspective of the revolution. She believes that social classes was simply the reason for the revolution in the beginning. We also see a difference in social classes when poor children were asked to fight in the war and promised a better life if they did. Shahab, one of Marjane’s cousins says,”They came from the poor areas, you can tell… first they convince them that the afterlife is even better than Disneyland, then they put them in a trance with all their songs.” (Satrapi 101). They lied to and manipulated poor kids who had less education than a middle or upper class kid and used them as soldiers for the war. Marjane was no longer confused and very aware of the social classes in Iran. This affects her perspective of the revolution in the sense that social classes was one of the main reasons for the revolution in Marjane’s