Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Marjane's Essay

Marjane looks over at the iron on the ironing board and is forced to recognize the horror of war through a simple everyday object. (Satrapi, 54). She begins to imagine the many ways to torture people (Satrapi, 53) and eventually allows her religion to help her feel safe. Marjane's experience with traumatic events alters her identity with her society and with her God. Religion is what is familiar to Marjane, as she states that she was born with her religion (Satrapi, 6) and children desire that which is familiar to them. In the face of trauma, children seek out that which is familiar to them. In this case, the trauma strengthened Marjane's bond with her God. Through Persepolis, one can recognize that in many situations the religious bond with God is directly related to a loss of innocence.

Satrapi's story of a child caught in the middle of the Iranian revolution is a subjective portrayal of this real life event. Marjane's idolization of her uncle and her family's hatred of the Shah and later the Mullahs influences her perspective of the Iranian Revolution. The story repeatedly separates those on different sides of the battlefront by using terminology such as 'us' in stating that the Arabs continue to attack 'us'. (Satrapi 74-75).

Marjane is an innocent victim of war, as are most children, so when they adopt perspectives about the different players in a battle the reader is more accepting of such perspectives than of an adult who likely committed some of the atrocities involved in the war. A soldier in war must believe that the ideologies he is fighting and killing for are better than those of the people he is killing.However, here Marjane does not have her conscience to deal with the same way a soldier would, so her perspectives come across as truer and less coerced. This in turn creates a biased description of the revolution.

Persepolis leaves a lasting impression on the viewer of political strife and social discontent. Unfortunately, the Iranian Revolution was not the answer to Iran's discontent, which has continued into the present. Last year, thousands of Iranians demonstrated against the election in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took an improbably lopsided victory. The mass protests were publicized to the entire world in real time through social networks such as Twitter and through online video. Tehran's authoritarian regime took down the phone system that opposition supporters used for texting but hackers kept channels open as the regime blocked them. They even took down the President's Web site. Citizens used the new media to spread the word and create open defiance of the election by circulating gruesome pictures of opposition leaders being shot by police snipers. Unfortunately, even in this more recent event, children were exposed to the atrocities of social oppression and revolt, many of who may….....