Persepolis

1. What is the historical context for the story Persepolis? Discuss the entire history of Iran as told in Persepolis.
So basically, a quick overview of Persepolis is this little girl named Marjane Satrapi lives in Iran around the time of the Iranian revolution. Marji and her parents are protesters; this book is a graphic novel showing their struggles throughout life, and what they go through. The main historical event that affected her life was the Iranian revolution. There are many things that went along with the revolution. Some of which being, Ayatollah Khomeini returning from exile and enforcing the burqua, Iraq invading Iran, and finally the resolution of the fighting. The Iranian revolution really affected her life though; she was only a little girl when the revolution first started. They shut down all bilingual schools including the one that she went to, and enforced the veil. From that point there were demonstrations everyday against the veil and Ayatollah Khomeini/The Shah put into action by the proletariats of Iran. Marjane’s parents were highly active in these protests and when Marjane found out for her self that there were millions of people getting killed, she joined in on the demonstrations.

2. What are the experiences Marji endures in the text and how do those experiences shape her perceptions of her family, her country, and herself?
There are many things that happened to Marjane in her young life, including the demonstrations. The biggest thing that affected her life in my opinion was when Iraq started invading Iran. When this started, every time the sirens went off, everybody in their building had to run into the basement as an attempt to get away. Not only were there bombings everyday, but also all citizens were pretty much striped of their rights and not allowed to do anything. The most moving part of this book was when Marjane noticed that one of the bombs hit in the general area of their house. When she rushes home to see the damage, luckily she notices that it was their neighbors. But when she is walking by the house that was hit, she noticed that her neighbors were home when the bomb hit and Marji could see a bracelet that was given to one of their neighbors. After that, Marji’s parents are sent her to Austria because they didn’t want anything to happen to her. People were already getting arrested and killed for secular actions, and because Marji is becoming a teen her parents realize that she is only going to become more rebellious. Marji knows through that her parents aren’t going to make it through the war, the reason that they are leaving is they consider themselves martyrs are want to go down with their country, fighting the whole way. When she leaves Iran, she gives away all of her stuff including the posters that her dad had to sneak in. This action that was done by her dad was very clandestine and brave, he could have been taken captive and even killed. This sums up what Marji had to go through. The most important lesson that was acquired was she learned to just accept things; she pretty much has to considering that she is in a war. She also had to learn to now be less decadent, now that she has to take care of herself. The amazing part of all this is even though all this is happening Marjane keeps her reservoir of youth and ambition.

3. What do you think happens to Marji when she heads to Vienna? Write the remaining story of her life up unto the time she writes this text in 2002.
This book ends with Marji being sent off to Austria, by her parents at an attempt so save her from the fighting. I could easily read the second book, but that wouldn’t be fun. Its better to make predictions and so when we do read the second book, I can compare what I though was going to happen and what actually did.
My predictions for what is going to happen to Marjane and her family go as follows. I believe that Marji is going to go live with her dad’s best friend as planned, and she finishes college, as planned. While in college though, she meets a man that is going through the same thing as her, being sent to Vienna from Iran. The weird part is that they both grew up in the same neighborhood and saw each other from time-to-time they just never bothered to talk. They end up falling in love, they decide to move back to Iran together, but once they got there, they saw that everything was bombed down, and nothing was surviving from their hometowns, even their parents. It is veritably sad; that this happened because they had worked so hard just do get back to Iran the security guards didn’t want to let them go because they declared that it was unsafe. But in light of that they decide that they cannot stay there, it holds way to many memories from their past. Not only that but the economy is still in terrible shape because of the embargo put on all Iranian ports, in an attempt to stop the war between Iran and Iraq. Marjane then proposes that they move to the United States, seeing as how she always wanted to visit there and now she has to opportunity to live there. They end up getting married and starting a new life in the United States, and she is writing this book in 2002 as a married women with two kids.
Now mind you that this is only what my predictions are for this book, you will have to read the second book to find out what really happens. And between you and me, I cant wait to see what adventures Marji gets into.