Coco Chanel once said, “The most courageous act is to think for yourself, out loud! “. In the autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, Marji does exactly that. Persepolis depicts Marji’s life in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and how she finds herself and becomes more independent and rebellious by thinking for herself. Over several years, this novel follows Marji and the changes that she makes to gain her independence and how becoming independent means that she also becomes more rebellious.
Along her journey, there are many factors that influence Marji’s life. Because of how her friends and family act, war restrictions forced upon her and her family, and trauma that Marji experiences, she becomes more independent and rebellious. The first cause of Marji’s desire for independence is how her friends and family act. With many changes going on in Marji’s life, she wants to fit in, even if it might mean that she has to break the rules to do so. Fitting in is one way of Marji trying to find herself and becoming independent.
One way that Marji tries to fit in is by making friends. The girls that she wants to become friends with are older than her, and because of this, she has to change how she acts in order to fit in with them. Marji has generally always followed the rules until meeting these two older girls. Her new friends influence her greatly. When Marji is first becoming friends with them, they invite her to skip class to go get burgers and hotdogs at a local restaurant. In order to do this, they will have to climb a wall that they are not allowed to pass over to get to where the diner is.
Marji is tentative about breaking the rules at first, but in her heart she knows that she will have to do it in order for her to fit in. As her so called “friends” invite her to break the rules with them, Marji thinks to herself, “If I wanted to be friends with 14-year-olds, I had to do it. I wasn’t chicken, so I followed them” (Satrapi 111). Marji knows that there will be a cost of breaking the rules, but in her mind, it is more important to fit in and have friends. This shows how much influence her friends really have on her.
Also, along with her friends having an impact on Marji, her parents do too. Like stated before, Marji has always been a girl that has followed rules and does everything that her parents tell her to do, but now that she is maturing and becoming her own person, she is rebelling against what they are saying. Part of this is because of what she has learned from her parent’s actions and how they act. At one point during the novel, Marji decides to paint her nails. In her mind, this isn’t a problem, but her mother thinks differently.
Even though Marji’s mother tells her not to do it because of the trouble she might get in, she does it anyways and says that she’ll just keep her hands in her pockets so that no one will see them. In response to her doing this, Marji’s mother says to her father, “Pretty stubborn girl, huh” (Satrapi 119) and then Marji’s father says “Where do you suppose she gets that? ” (Satrapi 119). By saying this, Marji’s father was inferring that Marji got her stubbornness from her mother. This shows that her parents really do influence how Marji acts and even her parents realize this.
Another reason for Marji becoming more independent and rebellious is because of war restrictions. Many war restrictions have been set, causing changes in the lifestyle of Iranians. One of the new rules is that alcohol is not allowed and whoever is found obtaining alcohol shall be punished. Despite this rule, Marji’s family owns and drinks it anyways. During one point of the novel, Marji’s family is stopped by two Iranian soldiers. They then are required to let them into their home which contains alcohol. While driving to their house, Marji’s father says, “Grandma! Marji!
When we’re home, get out first. I’ll try to stall him [soldier]. Flush all the alcohol down the toilet” (Satrapi 109). This sneaking around is showing Marji that it is okay to break rules that are enforced by the government. Without the war restrictions, Marji wouldn’t be forced to rebel and sneak around because normal activities would not be a problem. Another rule now enforced by the government is that girls must wear veils to cover their hair. Marji highly dislikes this rule, so she opposes it. During the novel, Marji is shown wearing 1983 Nikes, a denim jacket, and a Michael Jackson button.
Even though she is still wearing her veil, she is still wearing clothing that isn’t necessarily accepted in her culture at the time. She has put on these clothes to go out into the town to do some shopping. (Satrapi, 131). Although Marji knows that there is a very good chance of her getting in trouble for her choice of clothing, she still wears it so she can make a point. She wants to prove that even if the government may enforce laws such as girls wearing veils, she can still create her own identity. By rebelling against this rule, Marji has also started to find her true independence.
The last reason for Marji becoming more independent and rebellious is because of the trauma that she has gone through. Everything in Marji’s life seems to be going alright until her Uncle Anoosh comes to visit. When he first arrives at her house everything is going well, and Marji instantly falls in love with him because in her mind, he is a hero. This being the first time Marji has ever met him, she is intrigued to hear his stories and he becomes one of her role models. At this time, little did Marji know that her honored Uncle Anoosh would be sent to prison and executed due to the deceitful claim that he was a Russian spy.
The abhorrent event of her uncle being executed greatly affected Marji. This traumatic event caused her to push God out of her life. Shortly after the death of Uncle Anoosh, she screams to God, “Shut up, you! Get out of my life!!! | never want to see you again! ” (Satrapi 70). This shows how much of an affect the death had on her. Even though God had always been a very large part of Marji’s life, this event affected her so much that she was forced to kick a very important piece of her life out. This is just another step of Marji becoming more rebellious and gaining independence. At the end of the novel, Iraq began to drop bombs in Iran.
Some of these bombs happened to land on Marji’s neighborhood, Tavanir. Hopeful that a bomb didn’t crash into her home, Marji rushed from the store to her house as quickly has she could. As she arrived to her neighborhood, it was quickly obvious to her that the bomb had not hit her house, but the Baba-Levy’s. This family happened to be a Jewish family and the bombing occurred on a Saturday, the day of the Jewish Sabbath, a day in which Jews are supposed to be at home. This meant that the Baba-Levy family was home when the bomb hit. The Baba-Levy’s were very close with Marji’s family, so this news was very heart-breaking for her.
As she walked by the ruins of their house, she noticed something. She noticed that there was a turquoise bracelet attached to something in the rubble of the destroyed ho home. This something was Neda, the Baba-Levy’s daughter. Because of this event, Marji decided to show up to school wearing a bracelet. This was yet another thing against the law. (Satrapi 142 and 143). This shows how much this event really affected her. Even though Marji knew that she would get into trouble for wearing the bracelet, she wanted to wear it as a sign of respect for Neda.
This shows that Marjj is willing to rebel to do what she thinks is right, which is all a part of her finding independence. Overall, Marji gains independence and rebelliousness because of her friends and family members, war restrictions, and trauma that she has gone through. All of the events that she experiences greatly impacts her. From making new friends, to trying to make a statement through fashion, to her Uncle Anoosh dying, each event gave her some form of independence. If Marji hadn’t spoken out loud and thought for herself in those events, she wouldn’t be the independent, outspoken, risk taker that she was at the end of the book.