Rough Draft revision 2 (after peer review)

Hill, Amanda                                                                                                                                 Hill One

Ms. Knapp

October 20, 2011

English 1B

A Cause For Rebellion

            The graphic novel Persepolis is a story of extreme circumstances. The book’s main character, a young girl named Marji, grows up during a time of war and oppression. Marji went from believing in God and wanting to be a prophet, to rebelling against society and forming her own religious beliefs.  Through emotional graphics and short dialogue, the author, Marjane Satrapi tells the unique story of a young girl growing up in Iran and beautifully narrates incredible scenes.  I can relate to this young girl, Marji even though I grew up during a different time and place, through my own personal experiences.

            In the younger years of Marji’s life she seems to be unaware of the oppression that is surrounding her. At ten years of age, she is already being told she must wear a veil to school.  Marji, not truly realizing what is going on, thinks to herself, “We didn’t really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to” (3). Marji did not understand why she needed to wear the veil. She is however still questioning why, which shows the reader that even at a young age she has an opinion of her own. Not only did she have her own opinion, but she also admired her mother for protesting against the veil (5). In my family we had to sit at the table until all of our food was finished, even if it took an hour. I can vividly recall at time in which I had to eat a steak and it took me just about two hours! I couldn’t stand eating meat, it just seemed wrong to me. Why was I being  

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forced to eat this animal? I questioned why, but I still ate it because of my parents telling me to do so, just like Marji wore a veil because she was told to.

            In Marji’s society, social class separated people. For example, Marji’s maid, who was only a few years older than her, could not even eat with them at the table. Marji clearly states, “I wanted to be a prophet…because our maid could not eat with us” (6). She believed that becoming a prophet would make her maid able to eat with them, but as time went on she realized that was not the case. A prophet could not change the society she lived in.  Marji grew up in a family of a higher social class, and it bothered her. She realized this after educating herself by reading as many books on class separation as she could. Suddenly an epiphany came to her while in the car with her father, she thought to herself, “ I finally understand why I feel so ashamed to sit in my father’s Cadillac” (33).  This was a very important moment in her life. Satrapi shows the reader that Marji did not want to be treated better than someone else, and did not believe in social classes. I grew up around people that were in a higher social class than me, and I was almost embarrassed to have anyone see where or how I lived. I may not have been well off like Marji was, but I felt ashamed in the same sense. My surrounding did not represent who I was as a person, just as Marji’s surroundings did not represent her.

            Marji’s religious beliefs are first put to test when a fire breaks out at the cinema. Marji was deeply upset by her government not helping to save the people inside and decided she wanted to protest. Unfortunately for her, her parents would not allow her to do so. That same night Marji lays in bed and asks, “God, where are you”(17). This question informs the reader for the first time that Marji is questioning her God. Questioning her  

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religion. It isn’t until later Marji cuts off her religion, her God, and her entire faith. As a child I was forced to go to church three times a week with my grandma (who was an extreme Christian). At first I didn’t think for myself and just believed everything they were telling me. It was not until my pet dog died that I started to wonder if God really existed? I started to think, “If people go to heaven, do dogs go to heaven? And if dogs go to heaven, do cats go to heaven?” This was the first time I really questioned my own faith, so I can definitely relate to Marji’s questioning of hers.

            The most important, and ultimately life changing event for Marji, was meeting her Uncle Anoosh. Meeting him would change her religious beliefs forever and influence her on a path of rebellion.  Uncle Anoosh enters Marji’s life at a point where she was desperately seeking a rebel or a hero in the family. When Anoosh shows up for the first time, Marji is infatuated with him. Strapi gives the reader an image of Uncle Anoosh with a ‘sun-like’ glow around him, symbolizing that Marji saw him as a light in the dark so to speak (54).  Instantly Marji became close to Anoosh, listening to all his stories and admiring his every word. Every child, when growing up, has a role model. I was no different. Like Marji, I looked up to a family relative, my aunt Arlene. She owned her own business, had a nice car, let me work at her store, and took me places that my parents would not. She made me want to become an entrepreneur. She also made me proud of my family, which was very important for me considering the social class surrounding me.

            Having something happen that is totally out of your control can be one of the most frustrating an anger-filled moments in life. Uncle Anoosh was so important to Marji that he became the reason she stopped believing in God. She finally had someone in her life to look  

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up to. Finally had a family member she could be proud of and the government took him away from her, for good. There was nothing she or God could do about it.  He was blamed for being a Russian spy and was going to be executed. Marji goes to visit him in jail for the last time he would ever be alive. After the visit on the next page of the novel, Satrapi uses the page illustrations to mark a turning point in young Marji’s life; this is where Marji had last mentioned God. Marji is lying in her bed staring off into nothingness when God decides to show up. Marji madly looks at him and yells, “…Get out of my life!!! I never want to see you again” (70). In her eyes God was not there to help her uncle Anoosh, the most important person in her life, so what good was he for Marji after that? Having someone die in your family who you are really close to can quickly change your entire views on life. When my grandfather died it was something that I could do nothing about. Just like how Marji wanted to blame God for not saving her uncle, I wanted to blame the hospital for not doing a better job. Even to this day I refused to let anyone I know go into a Kaiser Hospital without knowing the way my grandfather was treated there.

One of the most similar situations to me, and the one I can relate to the most with was when Marji wanted to fit in with the older kids in school. When I was a freshman in high school I really looked up to the seniors at my school. They truly influenced me. Marji confesses to the reader, “I wanted to be friends with the fourteen year olds…” (111). She wanted to fit in; she didn’t want to be seen as the young twelve year old that she was. She wanted to be respected. Marji ended up ditching school with the fourteen-year-olds, making this her second mark of rebellion in the novel. When she came home her mother questioned her, “So how was school”, knowing that she missed class (113). Marji gets into  

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an argument with her mother over this and rasies her finger and says,” Dictator…” (113). Marji, although in the wrong in my opinion, stood up for herself. Later on in the same chapter she smokes a cigarette in spite of her mother’s scolding. Marji explains to the reader,” …I sealed my act of rebellion against my mother’s dictatorship by smoking…” (117). She directly relates the cigarette to rebelling against her mother. When I was rebelling against my father for being a “dictator” to me during high school, I would go out and drink beer with my friends. My father telling me not to do something made me want to do it more. I believe it was the same case for Marji’s situation with her mother. Marji was just like a lot of teenager I knew growing up, not taking advice from their parents and trying to fit in.

            With so many things going on around Marji I could see why she turned into a rebel. It is not everyday that we are faced with as much oppression and war that Marji endured. Regardless of my up bringing and time and place of it, I can relate to Marji’s rebellion through my own personal experiences. For me, it is hard to think that someone growing up in a entirely different society can still think the same way I do.  Marji’s situations are extreme and unimaginable to put myself in, but as a reader I could still analyze and relate to myself in some way. Whether it be religion, government or social class Marji rebelled for the better, making decisions based from her own experiences. The author Satrapi does an incredible job relating the text so that the reader will understand the true emotion of this incredible novel.