PERSEPOLIS

The Story of a Childhood

and The Story of a Return
Themes and Titles
Themes that we have explored:

Religion, Repression, and Modernity

Nationalism, Heroism, and Martyrdom
Children, War, and Growing Up

Religion,Repression and Modernity: These are a few common social

concept that are talked about frequently in society. Religion and Modernity
almost juxtapose each other considering the fact that religion is more
conserved and rigid, whereas modernity is more malleable and open.

Nationalism, Heroism and Martyrdom: Nationalism is the feeling of

oneness and patriotism to one's society. A hero is who is ready to sacrifice
anything and everything for the sake of his country while a martyr who is
someone who has sacrificed himself for the country and its protection and
deserves paramount respect.

Children, War and Growing Up: The impact of war has a negative impact on
children's minds as they are easily influenced. This can severely deteriorate a
child's metal and physical health which will affect their behaviour during
adolescence.
 Setting and character development

Setting Character Development

During the first volume of Persepolis, we see Marjane in Marji is an exceptionally curious child and
Tehran and her experiences there. During the 1980s when she's not someone to conform to the
this book is set, Iran was having the largest revolution in demands of society. She becomes
acquainted with the political vernacular since
the country's history. Up until 1978, Iran had been run by
her parents and family are political activists.
a Shah, and they had been involved in political dealings
Marji also challenges the dress code
with other countries. However, in the 1970s, the Shah,
restrictions placed on women, wearing jeans,
Mohammed Pahlavi, in was unsuccessful in his diplomacy
tennis shoes, and jewelry as a sign of protest.
and had lost his followers. Marjane's parents had been
Marji is strong-willed and very well educated.
protesting his rule and following a radical movement to
Both of these attributes will serve her well at
try and get him out of power.
the end of the novel.
 IMPERIALISM AND
INVASION FROM THE
ARABS
Marjane Satrapi’s perspective in her novel, Persepolis, is justified through the
effects of the Iranian revolution, social classes, and imperialism and supports
a pessimistic view of the revolution in the early 1980s. These themes
constructed her opinions on the war and Iranian culture in itself. Imperialism
lead to the idea of western culture being a sign of betrayal, revolution
brought the harsh views of many people in Iran, and social classes plagued
Satrapi with guilt and lead to the separation of many people. One key point that
supports Satrapi’s negative perspective is imperialism, in the sense that
imperialism brought many sorrows to the Middle East and as a result,
Marjane’s views of the Middle East are, in fact, justified

After the Arabs completed the conquest of Egypt in 642, they started to
raid the Berber (Amazigh) territory to its west, which they called Bilād al-
Maghrib (“Lands of the West”) or simply the Maghrib. In 705 this region
became a province of the Muslim empire then ruled from Damascus by
the Umayyad caliphs (661–750).
 THE TEXT AND THE
VISUAL
in imperialism there are britshers and the nazis who are
marching towards the persepolis in the aim to make the place
mordanised and introduce new industries and jobs for the
labours the visual in the image are clear that in short
imperialism in persepolis is bad as there are people who are
dressed in black the nazis and the british marching towards it

the arabs are shown to riding horses in a way they are conquering
land and are ready to rule the whole of the west

the texts in both of the pictures are ery samll compsred to the
images
 What was interesting? and
what was politically
controversial?
In these chapters the most important thing A very politically controversial
to note is how Marjane's curiosity helps her topic has been explored in
in questioning things she does not
understand. Every piece of information
these texts. Shah wanted to
that she recieves about the revolution or create a republic but because
the history of her country and family makes of the offer from the
her think deep. Like when she finds out
Americans he got greedy and
that her grandfather was taken to prison
often and he was kept in a cell of water, she became the emperor. The
out of curiousness of how it felt sits in the present family was that of
bath for a really long time trying to imagine Marjane's grandfather. Shah
her grandfather's condition . Finding out
sold out the dream of making
that her grandfather was a prince was a
major turning point of her life because a republic for oil and that is
that's when she really found out about her how he became the emperor.
family's history.
How different would Marjane's life be
without some events
The author's life has been full of
unique events just because of the
fact that she was brought up
during a war. She has seen
death, destruction, religious
repression and politics to its
extreme. Marjane according to
me had been matured way
before it was time for her to
know things. Having been
through war she has a unique
point of view for everything.
04
Without certain events like her
uncle being in jail or getting to
know about her family history or
the revolution going on in her
country, I think she would have
grown up to not have the
understandings of certain things
which can only be experienced in
a war ridden household. She
would have no opinion about the
politics in Iran or feminism or
how much the people of Iran had
to suffer because of restrictions.
 “I finally understood what my
grandmother meant. If I wasn't
comfortable with myself, I would never
be comfortable.”
Marjane Satarapi

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