Persepolis Marxism Analysis

People grow up in different way, affected by many different things as they grow and mature, during the process people change perspectives and ideals. In the book "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi, a middle eastern girl who is coming of age, finds that her environment changes her as the country that she is in goes through an unstable violent state. With the rise of multiple changes, Marji’s family must learn how to adjust to the changing times. While Marji becomes a bystander to the persecution, violence ,and revolution, the main theme of the book is stay true to one’s self and forming one’s true identity through their own will. Marjane Satrapi shows how the quirky, but simple and straightforward communist child in a changing world to a grown young adult who is confused about herself and the world around her.

Persepolis focuses on major themes like Feminism, Freedom, Religion, War, and Culture. Although this book is about Marjane Satrapi a young girl who lived her childhood in Iran from the 1980’s which was during the Iran revolution, where at a young age she’s already opened up to a warfare environment. This book can be interpreted differently based on the reader’s location, history background with Iran, and the differences in government. In this essay we would be comparing the readers from Iran vs. America.

In the novel, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, there are many different themes that you could look at and decide to analyze. I decided to look at four different themes that are brought up throughout the novel. In the novel there is a lot of talk about the contrasting regions of Iran and everywhere else in the world, politics and religion, and warfare.

The conflict in Persepolis is shown through the changes that are caused between families, women and children when fundamentalist Islamic state takes over Iran. The story progresses though the main character, Marjane’s point of view and experience.

The book, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, was written by Marjane Satrapi; it is the story of her life in Iran from birth to fourteen years old. The perspective of Marjane, in her novel, affects the overall presentation of revolution, religion, and social classes. Consequently, with no background knowledge, we only have her perspective which affects our own opinion about the events of the book.

Imagine a child growing up in a war-torn country, and imagine them having no idea where she or he fits in all this. This child at first holds onto their religion because it is safe and the only thing solid in their crumbling world. Yet, this too will be taken from the child. Now lost and confused the child must find their way in an unfriendly world. This is not a fictitious story. This is an actual event that happened to the author of The Complete Persepolis. Marjane Satrapi, the author of The Complete Persepolis, grew up during the 1979 Revolution. This event changed many people’s lives, either it was for the better or worse is hard to say. Nevertheless, it influenced Satrapi 's whole life. In the book, Satrapi expresses her childhood memories through her eyes as a child. Her experiences and ancestry can be clearly shown throughout the whole book. Satrapi’s family background/past, her parent’s perspective and her own life experiences in foreign countries have caused her to grow and evolved throughout the years.

The novel “Persepolis” shows many life changes during the Islamic Revolution told through the eyes of a young girl. “Persepolis” was based on Satrapi’s childhood experience in Iran. Throughout the span of the 1970’s to the early 1980’s, Satrapi experiences many changes in her life, not only with the government, or her education, but also with herself. Although she witnessed many violent acts right in front of her eyes, these experiences helped Marji (Satrapi) grow as a young child.

Amazing, intriguing, and unimaginable are just a few words to describe how I felt about Persepolis while I read this true life story of Marjane Satrapi. This book has helped me to see all the life struggles, good times, and adversities that Marji faced between the ages of nine to thirteen. The Islamic Revolution had such a daunting effect in the Middle East, especially in the county of Iran where Marji and her family resided.

Marjane Satrapi says in multiple interviews that she does not subscribe to feminism; instead, she describes herself as a humanist. However, her graphic novel memoir, Persepolis, has several themes at its core that convey feminist ideals. Throughout the novel, Marjane constantly expresses frustration with Iran’s strict regulations on women. She also grows up with strong female relationships in her family; these women help shape Marjane into the woman she is today, a woman who won’t stand for inequality.

Another historical event that we see is the rise and effects of the Islamic regime in Marjane’s life. This event is arguably the central issue that affects Marjane during her upbringing in Iran. Marjane shows how the regime begins to control schools, and how this affects her life by separating her from her friends (4, 3-4). We also see how the regime decides to close universities as they “educate future imperialists.” (73, 1-3) This demonstrates the negative effects that the regime has on society, as they prioritize Islamic values over education. The Islamic leaders portrayal shows them as upset and bored, and are given much different facial expressions than those that Marjane sees as intellectual (such as Uncle Anoosh (54/3) or Marjane’s grandfather (23/8)). This imagery communicates the backwards-thinking of these leaders, and as such, also effectively communicate Marjane’s opinion of the leaders without needing to discuss it with text. Additionally, we see both of Marjane’s views: Marjane not understanding the veiling and separation (3/5) as well as Marjane’s depression over the closing of the universities (73/7). The text here illustrates her opinions on the situations that she experiences, and the imagery allows us to see a visual representation of her basic thoughts and emotions, which are well communicated. A final example of the regime’s changes is the difference between the fundamentalist and modern women

Persepolis is an autobiography by Marjane Satrapi that pushes the reader to visualize Marjane’s life from childhood to growing and becoming an adult. This story takes place in Iran and it’s during the Islamic Revolution. The name Persepolis itself comes from the capital of an ancient Persian empire. The most prominent motifs for this novel is smoking, and the major reason for it is repetition, Marji spontaneously changes her lifestyle, habits, and attitude after she begins smoking, and that holds hands with another major motif which is coming of age. This writing will prove to you how Marji’s start of smoking and coming of age will bring changes to her lifestyle, attitude, and habits.

Persepolis is a coming of age story for Marji living in the middle of the Iranian war and adapting to the changes to both her culture and her personal life. Inequality between genders is heavily discussed within the story, as well as the struggles between the fundamentalist ideas and customs compared to the less extreme morals of some families: it is shown through the simplistic, but effective images by Satrapi.

Taking place in the late 1970’s, Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” exemplifies a profound illustration of the county of Iran, including aspects of its people and political structure. Unlike a conventional composed novel, the story of Persepolis is expressed through both textual and visual representation; otherwise known as a graphic novel. Through the experiences of the ten-year old character Marjane, the reader is exposed to historical events, movements, crises, and motives that occurred within Iran. Furthermore, the novel has gained much praise in its portrayal of emotions that occurred through the people of Iran. Although there has been tremendous support of the account of Marjane, there have been a few critics of the novel, attacking its overall literary value. For instance, New York’s Ithaca College student paper called The Ithacan, slammed the role Persepolis had on the literary society. In fact, they went as far to say that the novel “...is worth broaching but its literary value, in terms of building vocabulary and furthering comprehension, falls short.” An absurd statement, to say the least. Not only is Persepolis of literary value, it is a glimpse into the past. It allows the reader to understand the various conflicts that the people of Iran were facing. Through the account of Marjane, the audience is exposed to elements of Iranian history, gender roles, religion, and political fluctuation.

In Persepolis 2, Marjane is set on a journey of self discovery while living away from her home in Iran to escape the war. She experiences many obstacles varying from finding her self identity heartbreak and isolation. All of these obstacles would eventually lead to a very confident Marjane. MArjane lives in Vienna for most of her adolescence and so it is at this time that she is truly on a journey of finding who she is as a person and developing herself. Upon living in Vienna, Marjane discovered that Vienna is very different from her home of Iran and because of this, she assimilated herself into this new society while distancing herself from her Iranian culture. In her final days of living in Vienna she becomes homeless and it wasn't until this moment that she is notified that she is welcome to come back home to Iran. When she returns home to Iran she discovers that not only has she herself changed, but also how much her home of Iran has changed as well. Modern Iran is similar to Marjane, regarding their similar journey of self discovery and the many challenges that they have both faced.

All women in their lifetime go through an experience that makes them feel proud and dignified to be a woman. Marjane Satrapi strives to find this feeling of self-worth and the satisfaction of being a woman in Iran as she grows up during her war torn childhood in her bildungsroman, Persepolis. Marjane experiences both positive and negative moments throughout the memoir such as growing up alone in Austria, speaking against women's dress codes, and her constant struggle to make her grandma proud, all which help her learn independence and help form her into a strong feminist woman.