Ivanna Hidalgo - Literary Analysis

Ivanna Hidalgo
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Week 4 - Pages 1 - 62
Literary Analysis

The Evolvement and Changes of Marji

"Iranian Women during the Iranian Revolution." Iranian Women during the Iranian Revolution. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://ejyrejuto.prv.pl/iranian-women-during-the-iranian-revolution.php>.

            Firstly, Persepolis is a book that our group just started reading, therefore our knowledge lacks a bit. Until now, Persepolis is a book based on a real story about a girl named Marji. Marji is the author of the book and tells the readers her experiences starting on the year 1980 being about the Islamic Revolution. This is a series of stages where the setting of the society/environment changed as this revolution evolved. For example, how women obligatorily had to wear veils in the start of 1980. And so on, this weeks reading stops on page 62.

Dealer, Bill Meyer The Plain. "Will Clerical Islamic Republic Survive? Iran Regime Faces Public Anger like '79: Analysis."Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2009/06/will_clerical_islamic_republic.html>

Initially, there are many characters that have transformed even in this little period of time, yet the protagonist brought a lot of attention because it shows how events like this revolution can change you, scar you. From one perspective, Marji’s character changed the way she believes and takes decisions. It is almost as if Marji was brainwashed by the many horrific events there has been. As a matter of fact, this is justifiable because she was a person who never had an opinion, and agreed with whatever they are told. For instance, Marji commented "and that was that" when she found out that the Cultural Revolution prevented her from seeing most of her friends at school (Satrapi, 4). As common sense, one would be not necessarily distraught, but truly confused. From what is seen in Marji, she doesn't care about this conflict. Now, Marji seemed to be very intrigued and talk about what was right or wrong (Satrapi, 61). To illustrate, the fact that Marji and Mehri, one of the secondary characters, went to the demonstration showed a substantial component of Marji's opinion about social class. As a personal opinion, Marji hasn't learned anything about herself yet, since she is just a kid, but there is something that is influencing her to change and that is the Iranian Cultural Revolution. In fact, the Cultural Revolution in Iran was a period where there were strict laws about how women and men should live, such as separating the boys and girls in school, or putting the veils on. This may be influencing Marji's opinion about the world because she is being surrounded by violence and injustice, even if this violence is created by society. One time the book, there is the scene where Marji with a couple of her friends wanted to torture Ramin by placing nails beside their knuckles (Satrapi, 45). Even if they would back off after all, Marji was considering it. This shows that Marji would hurt a person for something they did, without even justifying. After Marji's mother found out about their plan, Marji found out that Ramin's father only killed communists. This didn't make the torturing part better, on the other side it did change Marji's mind about some things. Overall, this means that Marji was thinking of injuring a kid without knowing if this was fair or unfair. As a result, this shows the readers that Marji has been scarred, whether its cut was for something good or bad.