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Persepolis By Marjane Satrapi

Decent Essays

The novel Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis) by Marjane Satrapi is the account of Marjane Satrapi’s life growing up in Tehran, Iran. Satrapi opens readers’ eyes to a childhood that has been warped by war and devastation. Young Satrapi experiences many unpleasant things as a child during the Revolution. She hears stories about how children were recruited to be in the front line during battles and how her friends’ fathers were captured and tortured to death. To experience all of this chaos in one’s childhood is mentally exhausting and draining. In the book, it is evident that there are some aspects of the revolution that don’t make sense to Satrapi. She is born into a world where she is not quite sure what is happening around her, …show more content…

Throughout the story, she does things the same as people all over the world do. She goes to school, hangs with her friends, and even smokes her first cigarette. The reader sees how Satrapi’s family feels about the regime and when multiple families and friends come to either seek protection or condolences, the reader is enlightened to the effects the war is having on other ordinary citizens. On pages 52 and 53 of Persepolis, Marjane becomes sad and embarrassed that her father is not a war hero. She uses this to stimulate new ideas for games. As she proceeds, she begins to understand the intense and diabolical feeling of power, but it doesn’t last long. The fact that young Satrapi feels so overwhelmed shows the reader the emotional effect that these experiences have on the children. She has trouble understanding why people do what they do and how a moral person should go about treating these people. When her mother consoles her and tells her that the bad people will pay for what they’ve done, Satrapi expresses her understanding that one should forgive people for the things they do. Her mother responds with “Bad people are dangerous but forgiving them is too. Don’t worry, there is justice on earth” (Satrapi, …show more content…

Young Satrapi finds comfort in her friend, God. In the beginning of the novel, Satrapi insists that she is undoubtedly religious and that she is going to be a Prophet. Her own ideas about herself confuse her though, because her parents are Western and modern. When destruction and conflict pollute her childhood and she is struggling to understand what is happening in her world, she goes to God to find the answers. This choice to integrate God into the book allows readers to empathize with the victims of the violence during the revolution because often times when people go through horrific tragedies, they turn to their faith to help them cope. According to an associate professor at the Graduate School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, Alexis D. Abernathy, “those who rely on religion in an excessive way might become more vulnerable to higher levels of depression because they might neglect other coping strategies or might already be dealing with depression.” (Dittmann). In Persepolis, young Satrapi insists on participating in a demonstration, but when her parents shut down her absurd idea, she reaches out to God who does not come to her. The visual depicting this moment is Satrapi lying in her bed with tears streaming down her

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