Persepolis
56 pages of notes. There are 340 pages. It’s a page of notes per 6 book pages with the fact that it’s a comic strip. I will never do it again in my life.
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56 pages of notes. There are 340 pages. It’s a page of notes per 6 book pages with the fact that it’s a comic strip. I will never do it again in my life.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
memoir in graphic novel form
purpose: dispel stereotypes about Iran
audience: French readers
illustrations: stark black+white, very simplified, often symbolic or iconic
captions: adult perspective, sometimes exploited for humour
“We didn’t like really to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to” (p. 3). Because anybody did not explain the children did not understand anything and did not even bother to think because they were too small.
The old way of the education system included mixed classes at school. However, after the revolution, all the bilingual schools were shut down because they seemed to be “symbols of capitalism”, so everyone was separated into boys-only and girls-only classes.
No, everyone was separated into two groups: for and against the rule (p. 5)
Because their maid did not have a meal with them. Because her father had a Cadillac. Because her grandma's knees always ached. (p. 6)
Zarathustra was the first prophet, and his rules were behaving well, speaking well, act well (p. 7)
All of them were revolutionists that overthrew the government (Cuban or Russian). However, unlike the books, these political characters were successful (p. 10)
Due to their young age, they did not realise all the horrific outcomes of the revolution. For them, it was just a game that they played followed by the obvious rules that they got from what they could see (p.10)
All the worldwide empires of history: the emperors, the Arab invasion, the Mongolians and westernisation (p. 11)
Fatemeh Rezai was a woman who was executed in Iran for defending her rights.
Hossein Fatemi was a politician in Iran. He was tortured, arrested and then executed because of "treason against the Shah."
Hamid Ashraf was one of the original members and later the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG) leader that waged guerrilla warfare against the former Pahlavi regime in Iran.
Karl Marx was a communist, and Rene Descartes was a French mathematician and scientist. The view of both is illustrated in the situation (p. 13) where Descartes tells Marx that the material world only exists in the imagination. Marx takes a stone, asks Descartes if it only exists in his imagination, and then hits Him over the head to prove it is real. The author notes that, in the book and her visions, God and Marx look very similar since they both have long white beards. God still comes to visit her sometimes. He asks her if she still wants to be a prophet, and she tells God to discuss something else. He changes the subject and tells her the weather will be nice the next day.
The imagery illustrates how people were trying to escape. Everything is drawn using fat outlined lines that look like a fire. People are outlined with a zigzag line to show their fear. Those who did not escape are illustrated as half ghosts burning and flying away.
She is fed up with all the crises, so she wants to help her parents to finish it. Because she played war games in her garden, she thinks of revolution as some party games without undergoing any difficulties (p. 17).
A monopoly is also an institute that has full control over certain something. Despite being an economic term, it can be used to describe totalitarian societies. That’s why “playing Monopoly” is a metaphor for the government having full control.
Besides, it's a game based on capital, while her parents support Marxist ideas. (p. 19).
Marji is very young, but the adult Marji tells the story. It was funny for a child: she did not understand communism and revolution because she was just a kid. Her understanding of the ideology is too shallow. However, as an adult, she understands everything.
“I love the king, he was chosen by the god”. As proof, she uses the teacher’s words and the first page of the schoolbook. However, her father explains to her the real situation of a soldier helping to organise the army and overthrow the Emperor of Persia (p. 19-21)
Her father is surprised and probably shocked, but he calms down quickly. She does understand certain concepts of things like inequality, yet she sees everything from a child’s perspective, like believing the teacher without questioning. And no matter what Marji throws in, her parents always react rationally without making any trouble. Even when she is sent to Europe is to avoid her.
Marji wants to play the capitalist game, while her parents support Marxist views.
P.20 - different perspectives on republican ideas. Gandhi wanted to overthrow Great Britain. Ataturk had a nationalist point of view based on his appearance.
Unlike the great people whose examples Reza was trying to follow, he was just a soldier, but a lawyer or a great leader (p. 20)
That’s why he was easily manipulated. He was uneducated.
His original political motive was to create a republic (p. 20).
The previous emperor of Persia was Marji’s grandpa’s father. And now, she has a personal stake in the conflict, and the Iranian revolution opposes her family.
The preparation for Reza’s overthrow. He is hiding in the form of a line while the sun is spying on him. Also, the wobbly lines might entail the disturbance or the strives.
Her grandpa’s illustration is a jack opposition because it contradicts her understanding of what the prince should look like (pursuant to royalty). To highlight the panel, the elephant is black, so the background can be white.
Firstly, he became a prime minister. Afterwards, he was educating himself, and because of the Bolsheviks, he became a communist (p.23)
She is trying to recreate her grandfather’s situation. Then god comes and does not show any degree of injustice (p. 25)
She doesn’t want to talk, so she is trying to change the subject (p. 26)
It is painful to talk about this past, and she doesn’t want to repeat the events.
The king is saying that he is a “light” even though everyone hates him. Also, the tower makes him above everyone highlighting his power.
He says “I am the light” and he is standing in darkness. The reason for stars is to make the completeness darkness.
The old man was not a martyr, he just died from cancer. However, the crowd did not bother and continued to call him a martyr (p. 31-32)
The girl is surprised that her family laugh about the situation with an old man. Marji is also trying to laugh but she does not understand the reason why is it funny. Afterwards, she is trying to understand why is it so.
Because Marji and Mehri were demonstrating, the girl's parents got furious, and slapped both of them, so the girl felt ashamed. It helps her to understand that the revolution is different from the garden war games (p. 38-39)
The Iranian revolution was not initially a religious revolution, it was a social or political revolution. Young Marji does not understand the privilege of her class.
Mehri falls in love with a neighbour boy, so Marji helps her with writing letters because Mehri does not know how to read and write (p. 35)
The bottom panel illustrates how close they were: Marji looks at her as equal without any thought of the difference in the class.
Mehri’s parents were too poor, so they “sell” her to Marji’s family so that they can feed her and work in exchange. It looks like a form of slavery.
A similar situation in Frederick Douglass with human attitude towards him from the Baltimore lady and the slavery
Rumours were spreading quite quickly from person to person. When it came to the girl’s father he met the son and told him that Mehri is his maid. The reason was “because in this country you must stay within your own social class” (p. 36-37)
They do not tell Mehri that she does not allow her to have a boyfriend and do not dictate what to do, but they force the neighbour to lose interest in Mehri.
There were a lot of deaths during Black Friday, and their own countries' armies were killing people. So she learns that “it was our own who attacked us” (p. 39)
The people in the protest look the same as if they are sheep who do not think about what are they doing and what are the consequences.
The first panel shows the people who died on Black Friday. The other one shows how the entire country is celebrating and having a party because of the emperor's departure
They are drawn in a way to imply movement. The party panel has people with slightly different faces and clothes, while the dead people are the same and aligned in a grid.
“As long as there is oil in the Middle East, we will never have peace” (p. 43)
The underline message is that the region is not because of people but because of geographical location.
The teacher tells the students to tear out Shah’s picture. Marji is pointing out that the same teacher was saying that Shah was chosen by the good. Instead of an explanation, she is sent to stand in the corner (p. 44)
People have to do what authorities are saying, questioning is demonstrated to be prohibited. Similar to Fahrenheit 451 where the neighbours were snitching for thought crimes. After the government was overthrown, everyone acts in a way as if they were revolutionists from the day they were born.
Because Ramin is a son of a murderer, the friends were trying to punish him and exact justice themselves (p. 44-45)
Ramin is judged for his parent’s actions. If everyone acted in this way, there would be a never-ending cycle of murders and violence.
She tells Marji that she should not blame others for the crimes that they did not do and that she should be able to forgive people (p. 45-46)
She always pictures the violence to visualise how dramatic it is. Marji’s mother is saying that they are not the police or any other special authority, so they are not allowed to commit justice.
“He killed communists and communists are evil” which shocked everyone (p. 46)
He just copied what his father said without any questioning.
The image is illustrating different forms of torture in the prison. Marji was shocked because of violence and how household items can be used for torture
The panel is Marji’s imagery in the grandfather’s story. And after the story, she is scared by the iron. Also, the story is quite dramatic. When these things happen, you can not separate children from this. Children will see it anyhow, and you will get the generation that is dramatised.
Her mother taught her that she should forgive people, however, she is also saying that forgiving bad people is equally dangerous as their actions. So, she got confused and did not know what is justice any more (p. 53)
She is confused about traumatic events. The dilemma is in the mother's contradictory words: whether we should forgive people or not and who we should forgive.
She is explaining what happens to people psychologically when they have power over others.
She wishes that her father was a hero, so she tells stories about him. (p. 54)
She wanted to make up the story about her father to be a hero to look cool among her classmates. The political events are changing children's behaviour: the schoolyard stories are about the teachers instead of who plays football better.
Anoosh is her uncle, and she is fascinated by him because he is “a hero in my family” (p. 54)
Marji’s obsession with her uncle is because she badly wanted to have a hero in her family.
He is sleeping and dreaming. In these dreams, all his friends and family appear, which symbolises his loneliness and that he can only see them in his head.
The squiggles represent the motion.
It symbolises the people of Iran being fearful like sheep. Also, sheep are always together and making all decisions together, yet the animals are not very smart and in some cultures they represent stupidity.
We tend to associate sheep with not thinking and going with a crowd.
People are driven by ignorance instead of intellect. (p.62)
They think of people as one united society that has to fight for freedom and other rights. Also, it is not the government fearing the nation, but the nation fearing the government. (p. 64)
His body language is different: instead of standing still and confident, he is hunched over. Also, the panel contain more dark colour relative to the previous panels. Finally, the tone of the words must be different: he should have pronounced it slow and sad (p. 65)
On p. 65 he looks worried and confused. However, later on, he is changing to sadder and terrified as if he is losing optimism and hope.
The Islamic republic would force an end to all education for teenagers, implementation of full body cover (veil and similar clothes) and end travelling, which restricts people. In particular, travel restrictions ruin Marji’s dream to go to the US. (p. 73)
The aim of closing the school is just to make sure that only one ideology in the country, so there is only one “way of thinking”.
Islamic revolutionists always look the same or at least similar. Beard, monobrow and so on
It is going to mean that the girls are not going to be educated and will become housewives and have 10 kids.
Marji is talking about her trip to Europe. On the sides of the panel, she illustrates well-recognisable attractions that are associated with certain countries with Italy and Spain. Wavy lines fulfilling whitespace are demonstrating motion and movement from one place to another. However, the background is dark that symbolises the upcoming war and other horrific events.
The family is looking at each other while flying because it is the last time that they can calmly spend with each other.
1400 years before the narration time was the previous invasion of Iran. The reason for the second Arab invasion is the conflict with Iraq because fundamentalists attempted to stir up Iraq alleles. (p. 79)
Sadan Husain just wanted an excuse to invade Iran, his real reasoning for the invasion was most likely to get access to the oil.
Marji thinks that everyone has to directly participate in war. She remembers her childhood memories of war games in the garden and does not realise the cost of death. That’s why her father had to cut through her radical thinking by saying that Iraqis are driving like maniacs. (p. 81)
The panel symbolises that war is never expected, and it always suddenly interrupt our daily life.
They are so in hurry to hug each other and make sure that everyone is fine that they don’t care about the fact that mom just came from the shower.
The anthem was banned by the Islamic government. However, the anthem always makes people feel more patriotic and encourage man to fight for their own country. (p. 83)
It was forbidden and replaced with a new one by the new government. It also reminds people like Marji’s family of revolution times and how the times were better back then (grass was greener and so on). However, the government’s reasoning for putting this song on the radio is just to force people to go to war.
Pardisse’s paper was a letter to her dead father. It had an emotionally strong effect on the girls, they felt really sad. So Marji decided to console her friend by saying that her father is a hero. Of course, Pardisse does not care whether her father is a hero or not, when he is dead. After her words, Marji starts to understand the value of life. (p. 86)
Marji starts to think about the impact of loss. She starts to get the idea that a hero is most likely a dead person.
She is calling the woman “uncivilized” because they are fighting over the last box of supplies. Marji’s mother says that if people won’t buy everything they see, there will be enough for everyone. However, she overbuys rice “just in case” (p. 87)
It symbolises how people were trying to escape from the war. The cars are coming from all sides, which shows that the war affected everyone. The fire symbolises danger coming, and is drawn using squiggly lines that represent movement as if it is chasing people.
Because people had to move, they lost respect. No one can recognise them anymore (p. 92), and they have to adapt to new life conditions like dealing with other people, sharing rooms, inability to afford whatever they want and many other things (p. 90-91)
Iraq was better armed and had “quality”, while the Iranian army had “quantity” because of large manpower. The concept of “martyrs” is used to show that winning for Iran would force to put under danger a lot of lives which will cause a huge amount of deaths. (p. 94)
Iranians were publishing the dead people's photos in the newspapers to motivate the population to go to war because they will become a hero. This way they have stimulated military recruiting. It is the only way to effectively motivate young people to join the war.
Similar strategies are used in any totalitarian societies
I don’t get the meaning of “nuptial chamber”
Having carnival knowledge means that they are not virgins anymore because the major part of dead people is teenagers or young people.
No one gave any reasons why torture ceremonies were important. As teenagers, they would not do anything just because someone told them to: they need to hear the reasoning. The teacher blames family and parents for this behaviour.
Teenagers were trying to find some other reasoning and trying to think for themselves. The teacher was supposed to teach them only one way of looking at everything, so she is frustrated to see that the children are not acting accordingly.
The home’s interior had to change because of the war and the neighbours. Masking tape is supposed to protect from broken glass, and black curtains will make it impossible to see what is happening inside the flat. So neighbours that are devoted to the new regime can not spy on them. (p. 105)
So, they are hiding, both from the bombing and the neighbours spying on them.
“Guardians of revolution” are government secret police
Whipping is the punishment for having a chess set
She is showing how politics affect everyone’s private life. Also, there are 2 threads at the same time: outside like war and inside like political regime, its rules and spies. Usually, politics does not directly affect them in western countries, which is different from what young Marji was facing.
“Without them, it wouldn’t be psychologically bearable”. Because humans are not machines, they can not work every day without resting. Moreover, if everything they did would be aimed at work or survival, life would be meaningless (p. 106)
If all you do is try to survive, you don’t get to do anything you want to do, you don’t get satisfaction, and hence everything you are doing is delaying your death and probably supporting others like politicians. Therefore, they have to take risks and throw parties just to make sure that there is a sort of meaning to their life.
She pretends to have diabetes to have some time to pure all the alcohol in the toilet and spray deodorant all around the room. This would save her family from the arrest. (p. 110)
It is very often that women stall the police, therefore, it shows how dumb the police is.
The war had been going on for 2 years. Local news was saying that the military crashed 13 planes, but the BBC also mentioned that Iraqis also shot 2 of theirs. So, local news is different from the actual news, because they are showing only what the population wants to hear. (p. 111)
The Iranian news is clearly lying because destroying 13 planes per day for 2 years is unrealistic.
2 years of war seems like forever, because she is young, and it seems like the war was going on for her entire life.
It was a temple for teenagers, so the kids were hanging out there. And the only reason why it survived is that the regime did not know that you can have fun there (p. 112)
Most likely, “Kansas” did not seem like an American state, so they did not know what was American.
Karbala was a holy city, so they wanted to overtake control. (p. 114). However, even Marji admits that there was no point to fight so hard over the city: it would save thousands of lives (p. 116)
The Iranian government internally always present the conflict is that they are just defending. In fact, Karbala was attacked by Iran.
P. 115. It is presented that Iranian people are oppressed in Karbala.
“We plunged deeper into war” while Marji is going down, so the visual presentation is quite literal
“To die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society” - she also presents it quite visually. She also admits that she presents it quite visually.
A common device in Persepolis is that she demonstrates some metaphors literally and visually. She draws it quite simply because she never actually saw it, she just images the situations.
“Internal war became a bigger issue than the war against Iraq” The slightest opposition to the regime was persecuted. (p. 118)
The Totalitarian regime was killing more people than the actual war. Therefore, it was easy to justify the crimes (label people as enemies of the state)
Satrapi is just telling the story of her past, while Ray Bradbury is intentionally drawing the world with certain flaws
Marji’s uncle had a heart attack twice, so he was not allowed to smoke. However, he smokes because the gunshots on the street make him feel even worse, and he thinks that the cigarette is not that unhealthy after hearing gunshots.
Taher smokes even though he had 2 strokes already, does not compensate for the stress that he gets from the gunshots, it makes it even worse.
Taher’s only wish is to see his son again, so he tries to get the passport (p. 119). Ironically, he gets the passport 3 weeks later on the day of his death.
The families are not really poor, so their aims are not about surviving, but sometimes they want something really simple and grounded, like seeing a son.
Western items were strongly prohibited, and Marji wanted to get posters that are relatively big. So the mother decides to hide the posters inside the father’s jacket (p. 127-128).
The gifts are the most peaceful gifts that we can think of, but these harmless presents are yet considered to be dangerous, and therefore they are banned
Western items were prohibited, so the regime guardians can easily arrest the entire family. However, Marji thought that the poster of American rocker was “far out” (p. 131)
P. 131, panel 2, she is imitating Kim Wilde (a western music celebrity), wearing tight clothes. This is illegal because it is the absolute opposite of what is accepted in the regime (women is not allowed to show off their body).
The guardians of the revolution were supposed to track and arrest people that are not following the regime. They were supposed to “make people straight again” (451 and the police with exactly the same wording). When the guardians saw Marji, they wanted to go to the committee with her, but Marji started to lie, and she was freed from the punishment. (p. 133-134)
It was clear that she was crying before, so she tries to hide it by squinting. And as a relief, she is dancing and plays American music to relax, because she loves it (p. 134)
That they were bombed with missiles, which they get from the sirens. At that moment, Marji truly understood the degree of danger in which she was. She is actually scared because she can die (p. 136)
It is important that she admits the danger of war for the first time. Up until now, the war was just a joke or a game (going to the protest with Mary, and the same day the government slots people. Even when her mother tells her off, she doesn’t get the moral of her words)
Levy’s family has been living in Iran for 3 thousand years. They are loyal to the country and the place, so they don’t want to leave. Moreover, Baba-Levy is one of few Jewish families in Iran (p. 137). Ironically, they got killed in their house (p. 141-142).
Neda dreams that she wants to be rescued by the prince with blue eyes.
The street Marji is walking in 137 is empty. She is walking a completely deserted street because everyone who might leave has already left the country.
Before the revolution, it was common for Jews to leave Iran, but after the revolution, it has changed, because Muslim is one of the most “unfriendly” religions and cultures toward the Jewish.
451: the idea of blond blue-eyes are genetically better, and we have to make sure that they don’t die out is written by an American writer.
She tries to convince Marji that they weren’t really Jewish and they did not follow the rules, so there is a chance that they were not at home. Also, she tried to change the topic, but Marji saw the hand with the bracelet buried under the house wreckage (p. 141-142)
She is trying to hide the truth by answering questions about the topic.
It was the first time Marji saw death. She did not know how to react to it, she felt so empty, which is demonstrated through the void-dark panel with nothing inside. The only feelings that she could differentiate were anger and deep suffering.
The panel symbolises death. Marji did not even scream because she would not scream enough to explain her pain. Unlike the violent scenes, she doesn’t show the actual situation, while she draws general imagery of the torturers and other forms of violence. The older readers might have been affected more because they are most likely to be more familiar with a loss of a close person.
She gets the fact that her school is tied in with the government because the religion teacher is showing not only one side of the regime, but she clearly lies to the students. Because Marji’s family history showed her the truth, she repels and does not follow the regime’s rules. (p. 143-144)
When the teacher says about no political prisoners and Marji’s response about
Clarisse is like Marji. Both of them are spilling the truth while everyone else is brainwashed and blindly follows the authorities.
Her father is proud of Marji because she is standing up and trying to protect the truth. Her mother is scared because the other girl, Nilourfar, was forced to get married, then raped and then got killed. Marji’s mother does not want her daughter to have the same destiny as this girl or Anush. Marji is shocked by the mother’s story. (p. 145-146)
This shows the difference between the parents. Both of them are caring and Marji is showing this, but the dad is more supportive, while her mom is more caring and trying to protect the daughter from all the possible threats.
“In life, you’ll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it’s because they’re stupid. That will help keep you from reacting to their cruelty because there is nothing worse than bitterness and vengeance… Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself.”
She is clearly mentally preparing herself for independent and adult life. It also seems like she will never see Marji again in her life, so she wants to say something wise and helpful to her (p. 150).
She sees her mom has fainted, and her father is carrying her out of the airport. She has already been stressed and sad, but this has made it even worse (“It would have been better to just go”) (p. 153)
Marji was pissed by the fact that Shirin is talking about “trivial things” while there are people dying in Iran. Shirin just did not know about the real situation of the war, so she is acting like a normal girl does: she talks about some girl stuff like lipsticks, fashion and pens with a friend. (p. 158)
Shirin sees everything differently from Marji because she did not leave in Iran for a long time, while Marji just came back from Iran, hence, she has a different perception of the situation and the topics that she used to discuss.
Shirin’s parents were arguing about the money. Because the mother is earning all the money, and her husband does not even work, she is frustrated. They make these arguments so loud that Marji can hear them, and she is embarrassed because she has never experienced anything similar with her own parents (p. 159)
Zozo was a CEO in Iran, but he was nothing. The same problem scared Marji’s father, and he would not be able to have the same job as before. So, in Iran, Zozo was the “wallet” of the family and the head of the family, but in Austria he was nothing, so he gets depressed.
So, what happened to this family, might have happened to Marji’s family if they had moved to Austria.
She got unfamiliar with the fact that she could find any product she wanted. Because of the war, there were shortages in Iran, but in the grocery, there was almost everything she could even think of. That’s why she gets excited and buys half of the shop. (p. 162)
It displays the side of Marji hidden by the pillow. She could not see anything, so the main colour is black, but the squiggly line showed irritation and frustration. It is also shown through the facial expression that is similar to the guardian of the revolution (p. 166)
The dotted line shows the outline of the pillow, which demonstrates that the pillow is presented to be transparent to see what is happening under the pillow.
Supposing, even when grown up, Satrapi recalls this situation, she feels embarrassed by how “stupid” or “uncomfortable” it is for her. That’s why she picks the phrase as if the worst has already happened, and there is nothing worse that might happen.
Despite trying to fit into the community, she fails. And to show it, Satrapi shows it using the most common joke
She just got an average first impression of something particularly new to her. She didn’t know how to react, what to say or how to act. Furthermore, she was amazed by any single detail that was unfamiliar to her
He liked holidays, doing nothing and relaxing. Marji was not used to that because she had only 2 holidays per year, and holidays made her alone without any school friends. Hence, Marji had the opposite view about vacation (p. 175)
When she is smiling at Momo, her smile is super fake, and it is shown through the exaggerated smile that shows almost her teeth.
It is said in the book that to feel more like a woman, you have to pee standing. However, everything ran down her leg, so it was particularly successful. (p. 177)
The whole book is a criticism of the young feminist movement. So, she gets the idea that before doing something “symbolic” of patriarchy, she has to realise what it means to be a woman.
Firstly, Marji breaks the rules by eating from the pod outside the kitchen. It was unacceptable due to manners, which Marji could do at home. But then, she responds to the stereotypical claim about Iranians with a stereotype about nuns and horses. Hence, it was the reason why she got expelled. Despite not doing something extremely illegal, she got heavily punished for saying anything on her mind without filtering information and thinking of the outcomes. In this sense, she still acts like a child. (p. 179-180)
The first panels are meant to be commercial. Marji ignores the none because she wants to watch TV, which is extremely rude.
Also, when the mother's superior talks to Marji afterwards, she ignores that she said a few unacceptable things. Hence, all these people were prejudiced towards her, but at the same time, Marji was not a very peaceful girl.
All the racism in Europe came from immigrants. Europeans did not understand that people had different cultures, so they generalised almost everyone no matter what.
It seems like she doesn’t recognise herself as a person she should be guided by. She doesn’t bother to answer her questions and acts with her mother like she is just some annoying teacher that you can ignore and nothing would happen. (p. 182)
Their parents have sent her to Austria, but she does not fit into society because Austria is a relatively conservative country.
Almost everything because they were significantly different from each other. In Vienna, there were no adults; everyone just lay around and smoked. No dancing or eating. The entire party seemed strange to her because the teenagers were doing almost everything considered unethical by her family rules. (p.186-187)
On p. 187, she is drawn the same colour as the background, so it is hard to visually find her as if she wants to disappear because she doesn’t understand why the party is so different from what she is used to.
She compares her childhood memories of what her father said and what she saw. She compares what she imagined and what it was in real life, so she laughs. It shows that she was following all the family’s ethics and that she was unspoiled. (p. 190)
The “school’s lackeys” had a different point of view on life. They did not brainlessly worship death, as Momo did. Also, it is just a common teenager action to show aggression when your friend is giving too much attention to others. (p. 193)
Her friends are reading socialist philosophers. They use “pions” to insult everyone.
This behaviour is common for teenagers because they insult someone they don’t like, and no one can be a part of several friendships. They hate each other without any serious reason.
She strongly believes that her uncle died for a purpose: he was fighting for liberty, and death was one of the unfortunate costs of his fights. She gives the logical and emotionally strong example that death is not just a distraction, it has deep meaning, and its cost is extremely high. (p. 193)
Momo does not understand the real value of life because he was raised in Austria and has never faced anything like a war or a revolution. While for Marji, life means a lot because she faced both a revolution, a war, and the death of her relatives and friends.
She was participating in smoking just because of solidarity. Another reason might be just the sense of “everyone does it; I also have to do it to look cool”. However, she has never actually smoked: she never inhaled the smoke because of her parents' story about the vegetable. She even stuck her fingers in the eyes to make them red. (p. 194)
The reason why it is important is that her drug abuse escalates later on. But it starts with trying to fit in the community, so she doesn’t want to be kicked out of the friend group, so she pretends to smoke with everyone.
Her face is drawn way bigger, which makes her stand out and contributes towards showing aggression. The caption does not have a word balloon; the letter is bigger and louder to make it more serious. Marji is talking because she screams as if her phrase takes the entire space, as if everyone heard it, even outside the bar. Another thing that stands out is that everyone treats her like a foreigner, but she wants to fit in society and can’t. So, she must admit that she is Iranian. This situation can be described as a second-generation identity.
The panel shows that 2 Marji's are going in different directions and are disorderly waving hands. It shows that Marji was both surprised and panicked when she heard about her parents coming. She was so shocked that in her mind, she was running around the room, not knowing what to do.
Marji is in a panic because she has to order her life so her mother is not disappointed in her life.
She noticed that her mother gained a lot of grey hair (because of the political situation and ageing). Still, she also noticed that she had grown up herself, so even her mother did not manage to recognise her from the first attempt. (p. 202)
Her mother is used to Marji being a small girl, but when she comes to Austria, Marji hugs her as if she is a small girl.
As a grown-up, she understands that she was sent to Austria to have a better life than the consistent bombing in Iran. Her parents did a lot for her, and thank them for this opportunity; she must behave better than they think. Hence, she doesn’t want to talk about her issues and difficulties in life to show the situation one-sided, which will make her mom happy. (p. 205)
For me, her attitude to this situation is the only right way to deal with it. Her parents are trying their best, and she wants to treat them accordingly to make them happy. She wants to show that she behaves well, is safe and has a great life without difficulties.
It is the first time Marji thinks of what she owes her parents.
The captions are usually there, commenting on her past when she was younger. In this situation, she makes it emotionally complicated and personal. This adult relationship is important in showing but not explaining, hence, she doesn’t use a lot of captions to explain this situation.
Marji was not talking to anyone; she was reading books. Hence, no one knew much about her, and people wanted to talk to her to get at least something about her interests, personal life or something else.
She thinks that she is ugly and that Enrique does not want to have sex with her. Hence, when she sees Ingrid and Enrique chatting, the first thought that comes to her mind is that Enrique loves Ingrid and wants to marry her. (p. 215)
From her old culture, she thinks that if someone wants to have sex with someone, he or she must marry this person. In her mind, if they are sleeping, they want to marry.
Her boyfriend wanted her to buy cheap hash. She agrees to go to the cafe and buys some, but she becomes the dealer (p. 225)
Her boyfriend was using her as a dealer.
But the entire point started earlier. She had no family and had to split between friends, school and Frau doctor Heller’s house. It starts to escalate because of communal life. (p. 217)
She has faced similar issues with the guardians of the revolutions in the past. For her, it is just another person that is strongly “addicted” and blindly follows their thoughts and beliefs. She understands that there is no point in arguing with them, so she tries to avoid any contact with such people. (p. 229)
The Nazi skinheads and guardians of the revolutions are similar to each other ideology-wise. At that time, it was common to face Nazi skinheads every day, especially in rural parts of Austria and Germany. It was a real issue, and there was a logical reason for Marji to escape them: it was dangerous for her.
He thinks that by using cultural works like theatre plays, literature and so on, he can change people’s attitudes towards what is happening and for who they should vote. He wants to educate people, so they understand all the events' pros, cons, reasons and consequences. On the other side, Marji is heavily influenced by her past; her only approach is to bust and protest. In this sense, she acts like a crowd and blindly follows everyone. Hence, in my opinion, Markus better understands how to influence people and the government.
The purpose of the protest is not to change someone’s mind but to publicly show how many people are behind certain viewpoints.
It is harder to control intellectuals and artists. Markus’s idea is that the mindset can be changed by educating people.
These are 2 opposing views contradict each other but aim to effect social change. It partly narrows down to the following: is the violence required to have a change?
In Vienna, she was almost alone. She didn’t have family next to her or any close friends. Hence, losing Markus for losing all the emotional support. Because she faced many problems, it was extremely hard not to have someone to help her after long 2 years of a relationship. (p. 235)
At the same time, the horse lady accuses her of theft. On the other hand, this woman should have been Marji’s emotional support.
Everything in her room reminded her of Markus, so she wanted to forget about him and decided to leave the flat and became homeless. Yet, she doesn’t do it fully emotionally because she is not a small girl anymore, and she realises that she needs a passport and some money to survive. (p. 236)
Being homeless is the worst crisis of her life.
She has changed significantly throughout 4 years, and so did her friends. She didn’t want to disappoint someone or to have a similar situation when she just came to Vienna, when she had nothing to talk about with her friends. (p. 252)
On the splash panel, because of the angle, it looks giant and intimidating. She just got overwhelmed when she got back. When she comes to Iran, she is familiar with the culture and doesn’t identify with this religion. She doesn’t belong anywhere anymore.
He thinks that the only purpose of the war was to demilitarise both Iran and Iraq. Western cultures benefited from it because they sold the weapons, and Iraq and Iran were too powerful in the middle-East. Many people died in the war, and to flatter the victims' families, the government called almost every street after Martyrs. Because the south of Tehran is a poor part of the city, more people died during the war, so every street was renamed there to have a stronger effect. (p.255)
The poorer regions always have more victims than the richer regions. By the end, the war resulted in thousands of deaths, while western cultures benefited from it.
When she asked her father about the war, she realised that her problems in Austria were nothing compared to what her family and country, in general, have faced. I think she didn’t want to bother her parents with additional issues that she faced to make them as happy as possible. (p. 255-259)
She realises all the crises in Iran only when she comes back.
Her friends expected her to be as rebellious as she was before. However, Marji changed greatly during her years in Austria, and her friends did not get it when they saw her. It seemed to be stupid for Marji, but her mother explained to her that they don’t have to be as smart as Satrapi (p. 262)
Usually, the character does not have lips or eyelashes, but she highlights lipsticks and eyes on the top panel to show how beautiful the friends are. Moreover, her mother tells Marji they are at the age when they are supposed to get married, so they need to look attractive.
I think the story was told to Kia to give him hope. He lost his arm and legs, which meant losing almost all the opportunities in his life. This story contains a person in an even worse situation than Kia, and still managed to marry a nice woman. Moreover, it ends with a silly joke that makes Kia laugh. In my opinion, this story gives him hope that everything will be fine with his life also (p. 265-268)
It shows how Kia tries to cope with his situation. So he tries to joke about his life. Humour is essential here because it is the way to wind out for him and think everything will be fine.
The girl in the TV show was originally a geisha, which didn’t fit Islamic morals. Hence, the producer decided to change her job to a hairdresser. (p. 270)
The story doesn’t make sense if her job is as a hairdresser.
The drug pills made Marji high, which eroded reality. It can be seen on the first panel through blurry outlines of the people, and slanted text, which is hard to read, which means that Marji did not understand what was happening around her after the effect. When the pill's effect was over, she became the same Marji as before, but with greater depression. She says that she is nothing, which is presented through just a general outline of a woman.
Marji feels drugged, but she doesn’t feel herself anymore. So it doesn’t solve her problem of being depressed and suicidal. She also draws herself vaguely because she does not know who she is.
She tried hard to kill herself, but she didn’t manage to succeed. The doctor said that the dose was enough for an elephant, making her think she was not meant to die yet. (p. 275)
She tries to kill herself, but she fails 3 times.
She was on the front and directly participated in the war. At that time, Marji was in Austria and never faced all the difficulties of the war. She could listen to him talking about Iran, which she knows from the side she had never thought about.
She was in Austria for 4 years, so she missed the war experience. Hence, if she talks with someone in the front, she covers what she had missed.
She did not write or read Persian since she was 14. It was hard for her to write in Persian and study in general because she wasn’t used to that. (p. 282)
It was hard for her to write an essay because she had almost never used it since she was 14. She partly forgot how to write in Persian.
She was honestly answering questions on the test, and her answers were relatively unusual to the examiner. She had a different ideology but still managed to pass the test (p. 286)
Iranian people that everyone is expected to pray in a language that she doesn’t know, but Marji gives a logical response to this.
She was scared of the guardians of the revolution's raid. Because she was wearing lipstick she might have had some troubles, so she decided to accuse a stranger to guide the guardians’ attention (p. 287-288)
The lipstick does not represent how it looks. It is more symbolic than realistic to show the reader that she is wearing lipstick.
She gets furious when she hears Marji. Satrapi’s grandad protected the innocents, her uncle protected his ideas, and Marji, without hesitation, made someone arrested for no reason. As if she didn’t learn anything from her family history. (p, 293)
While Marji is telling the story, she is still wearing lipstick.
The panel shows how women hide their hair behind the veil. It also gave away some information about political opinions, because the more hair you showed, the more progressive you were.
Conservative women wore the veil to their foreheads. As rebellious women, they pushed the veil up, to show more hair and forehead. Also, wearing a veil made all women look the same or extremely similar. It makes them lose their identity and individuality to a certain extent.
In the lecture about moral and religious conduct, Marji stood up and complained that clothes restrictions would make her life way harder as an artist. It was relatively rebellious, so the Islamic commission decided to let her design a new uniform, instead of expelling her. It was her last chance to stay at school. (p.298-300)
It is one of the two instances when she stands up and gets away with it (the second is the exam and question about prays). Moreover, the man talking to Marji about the uniform is depicted with only dark colours, and he seems to be in a dark situation.
Marji is religious, however, her way is different from anyone's. She is not a religious fanatic, she clearly understands how she interprets religion and how she prays. And unlike all the Iranian people, she prays in the language she can speak.
Because of the regime, they weren’t allowed to look at the fully covered veiled woman. It was supposed to keep everyone on the right track, but it was just an obstacle to learning. (p. 301)
“The problem with anatomy class is that they are not allowed to see their anatomy”
The woman looked exactly the same from every side. Moreover, because it is an art university there must be an anatomy drawing, but looking at naked people is illegal.
All the regulations are put in to distract people from analysing and thinking about their surroundings. The more rules and restrictions and the harder people are punished for them, then the less time they have to think because they have to care about these rules (p. 304)
A person who always thinks and asks himself about how he looks and that he can get punished for wrong dressing does not think about the real issues. Making people worrying
about tiny details and dress code makes women forget about the reasons for this rules.
It is harder to oppress people physically than mentally. Hence, in 451, Frederick Douglass, and Persepolis have this.
In the centre, there is a picture of stereotypical Iranian people. They stand out and clearly noticeable. However, around them, there are people who do not look like guardians of the revolution. And they are doing what normal people do all around the world, despite all restrictions.
The real society is in the shadow. People still hung out, dated and partied.
Marji must have a right to divorce, she must have a sense of freedom, and they must only live together while they are happy together. It shows how Satrapi’s father cares about her daughter, but at the same time, does not restrict her in anything. He just wants to make sure that her daughter will be fine. (p. 315)
She was too different to her husband. They had different interests, views and friends. This led to daily arguments between them. (p. 321)
Kuwait's person is so used to the fact that in his country a woman drinking coke and going alone on the street, and he thinks that Marji is a prostitute. This, of course makes Marji furious.
It was interesting for people to watch European TV, because of new perceptions, new information and new shows. So, everyone got an antenna. And even though it was illegal, people managed to hide them.
Persian mythology contains women that are unveiled, and when the teacher checks the project, she asks to change it. At the same time, he admits that these women are riding fantasy animals, which is perfectly fine for him. Another example of how a regime changes history. (p. 333)
Since she is divorced, there aren’t any religious restrictions between her and literary any man. Hence, because of the regime, all the men would become unstoppable and make her life even worse. (p. 334)
There is a symbolic conflict represented in the left picture on the top of page 6. The image is divided into two halves within the panel. On the left, Marji’s unveiled upper body is portrayed free of a hijab and shows her hair and her unveiled upper body. The background shows gears, wheels, a hammer and a ruler which symbolise the words “modern and avant-garde” in the voiceover. On the right, veiled side she is appropriately dressed in a chador, while the background is in contrast to the other side is white and decorated in a pattern of leaves and vines like a Persian design. The left side, therefore, symbolises modernism and material objects, while the right indicates fundamentalism. The left versus the right represents her dilemmas, the contrast in her head is visualised in this panel between tradition on the right and science and technology on the left.
In terms of colour, on the left-hand side she is wearing a white shirt and the background is black, while on the other side the background on the right, the veil is black. The left side is symbolising progress, while the right side symbolises religion.
Shows how Marji is facing in and out from 2 different perspectives on her life
The metaphor used on page 11, “After a long sleep of 2500 years, the revolution has finally awakened the people”, shows the Persian people during the 2500 years of tyranny and submission, in the second panel portrays the events that happened in Iran’s history. Satrapi divides it into four parts “first our own emperors, then the Arab invasion from the west, followed by the Mongolian invasion from the east, and finally modern imperialism” from the oppressive rule to conquest to imperialism.
Marji literary took the metaphor of 2500 of sleep literally.
“Down with the king!” is the top centre of the first panel and shows the slogan of the revolution under which everyone is acting. All people are drawn similarly and with a low number of details which conveyed that almost everyone was following the demonstrations. Moreover, the first panel is framed with the factories’ smoke showing that demonstrations were followed by destruction. People’s faces are drawn to make them look screaming at the top of their voices (⅀ looks like an opened curved mouth) and blindly following the others (>< looks like people are squinting their eyes, which makes them harder to see). The second and third panels are drawn opposing each other and showing 2 warring sides. Both sides are drawn without any details, but have different colour schemes: the army has a more black tone, and the opposition contains a more white colour. Also, some people are shown partly to look that people are countless and their rows are never-ending.
No background makes the characters stand out. Both soldiers and protesters are looking identical, which symbolises that they are losing their identity as soon as violence starts.
In the panel on page 38, the irony comes from all the people carrying the same expressions in the sixth panel, and then Marji follows to join them with the same expression and movement. This symbolises how people really just join in and lots of them can be seen as "sheep", being part of the herd. This shows that she, as well as many others involved in the demonstration, simply followed without fully understanding what is truly going on. In the panel where Marji joins, those demonstrating develop more individuality which could be attributed to the fact that the angle is closer to the demonstrators but also because as soon as Marji joins them she becomes biased and believes that she knows what she is doing and that she has a good insight on the situation.
The key point is that when people become a part of a crowd they lose their identity and they stop thinking for themselves.
In the topmost panel, all the identical faces represent all the people who died as a result of the Revolution. They are identical because as more and more of them are killed, they just become a statistic and are lumped together as a single mass of people who died. Basically, they become a number, and they all lost their identity and individuality.
In the middle panel, identical people are lined up behind one another as they push the Shah, towards his death. The identical people may represent the previous rulers of Iran all being pushed to their death or loss of power. Or it may be representative of the fate of the previous rulers; as in what happened to them is also what happened or is happening to the current Shah.
Also, if the men in the second panel are considered corpses, it could be seen as the weight of all the blood the Shah has shed supporting him, but weakly, and soon to crumble.
The reason why Shah was revealed is that he killed too many people, so too many people were protesting, so he has to go.
In order to maintain full control over the country, you have to brainwash people because using power and the military can not hold people forever.
Mental enslavement (Frederick Douglass) vs Totalitarianism (451) vs different regimes in Persia (Persepolis)
After the revolution, Marji learns that sometimes when telling the "truth" you could be mistaken. As Marji thinks that Laly's father being "on a trip" means he is dead, she proceeds to tell Laly what she thinks is the truth which is that her father died like Marji's grandfather did. When Marji's mom told her after the revolution that Laly's father was coming to dinner, Marji was very surprised (p 49).
Marji learns that people lie because the truth is hard to swallow. Although being taught that telling the truth is a good policy, she learns that it is not always the case. She learns that sometimes the truth is not accepted or not believed, in addition to it bringing the pain on occasion. She learns about the power of lies and how people use them.
Simple rules do not always work for everyone in every case (always tell the truth).
Marji pretends her father is a war hero. She makes up stories about his severed arms and legs. Uncle Anoosh tells her the real heartbreak of being a war “hero.” Marji now has a more accurate idea of what life is like being a war hero.
What does it mean to be a “hero” in these circumstances?
Being a hero actually means that you have experienced something horrific
The fundamentalist woman is completely covered from head to toe whilst the fundamentalist man simply has a longer beard and a shirt hanging out. Satrapi wants to show the extent of sexism present at that time, as women have to cover themselves much more than men. Furthermore, the wording of the two is different; the second image of the women is described as modern, meaning that they are pertaining to the current style, while the second image comparing the two types of men, describes men as progressive, meaning that they are striving to move forward and change the previous/current standards. This is ironic because there isn’t much of a change between the two pictures. Satrapi purposefully placed the women in the first panel, to show that there is a greater change in their standards, and placed the men second to add contrast to the degrees of change (less change between a progressive man than a modern woman).
Look below for the extension of this topic
On page 75 the third panel shows a speech bubble where Marji says " But let's be fair. If women faced prison when they refused to wear the veil, it was also forbidden for men to wear neckties (that dreaded symbol of the west). And if women's hair got men excited, the same thing could be said of men's bare arms. And so, wearing short-sleeved shirts was also forbidden" making a comparison on the rights that women and men had, that is why she states "there was a kind of justice, after all".
There are different standards. It shows that man was more privileged because of religion, which led to political changes.
Satrapi is not pointing at the double standard, the pictures are self-explanatory. The man looked the same, while the woman's outfit has changed drastically. However, Marji is pointing out that in the end man’s outfit also changed.
Marji really just falls for the national propaganda when the war with Iraq starts, because Iran views the, as her enemies and that they all deserve a lesson according to Marji. Marji acts like a true patriot towards Iran. Her father reminds her the real Islam invasion has come from their own government. Marji mostly reflects her dad’s behaviour towards the Iraqi but to a greater extreme.
She has the tendency to repeat what she heard last without going in-depth on reasons. It also ties in with her attitude towards heroism: she first hears that there are people saving the country and being heroes then she is disappointed in her father because he is not going to the war, and then she gets the explanation of why her father does not go to the war because of the classmate’s answer.
Before this conversation, there is this hypocrisy with Marji’s mom. She first says that if everyone grabbed only what they needed, there would be enough for everyone to have enough. However, when she got there, she completely prioritizes herself and goes and checks another store for more rice, already showing expressions and anxiety. And on the top of page 88, Marji's father is very aggressive due to the shortages of fuel. He's very stressed about the situation and ends up yelling at Marji and her mother. But the good thing is that they make up. This shows how war affects the availability of material needs and how shortages can often impact consumers emotionally.
This conversation is unusual because Marji’s father gets emotional and starts to scream at her. It sounds like Mr Meier complaining about homework: easy to follow the flow of thought full of sarcasm.
At school, all the girls line up twice a day and mourn the war dead. They stand in single-file lines and beat their breasts. Marji reflects that self-flagellation is a national ritual. The pictures on page 95 are disturbing. Some girls are brainwashed, and some girls, like Marji, are forced to go through the motions. The picture looks like there is a mob mentality
They are just going through the motion just because they are told to. They have blank expressions because they do not understand what is happening. Hence, they are not brainwashed. Not only that, but all the girls are looking almost identical to show that almost every girl was affected by this.
Uniforms are to either associate people of certain professions or classes, and to erase their individuality.
This symbolizes the Iranian Revolution because they are stomping on the people. The people are also being made to do things that go against their personal beliefs as Mrs Nassrin has to do. She is asking for forgiveness because she’s crushing the grapes to make wine, which is illegal.
Everyone has an internal conflict because on one side they are trying to have fun, but on the other side, they are trying to follow the laws.
The Coca-cola sign and the Nike sneakers that the boys are wearing are symbolic, as they show that not only is this place ‘Americanized,’ but that the people who frequent it are more inclined to Western culture. Marji here is twelve years old and is hanging out with fourteen-year-old girls, that now have a greater interest in boys. This panel also depicts a moment in which Marji is discovering that there are things other than war, such as having fun and feeling more grown-up. This panel is a moment in which she is at ‘peace’ and is able to act like a normal teenager (even though she is twelve), which contrasts with the next three panels, in which a siren for a bombing goes off, interrupting her fun and freedom. Later in the chapter, Marji is seen trying a cigarette, and even says, “With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye.” This shows that the third panel on page 3 could have been where Marji first started to let go of her childhood/innocence.
Squiggly lines coming from the children’s eyes are symbolic. It shows how teenagers are trying to attract attention from others, or making with each other. Also, it is an example of emanating. Because the lines
Also, the sneakers are drawn using black strokes without black fill. It makes the sneakers stand out.
The Mom she is not happy with Marji’s defiance and she is scared for Marji due to her breaking the rules all the time skipping school the cigarette and in her passport, she wants to paint her nails which is also not allowed. She understands Marji due to them being liberal but it still scares the mom, while the Dad is supporting such behaviour and wants her to do so and also says that she has that from her uncle who is dead. Which scares the mom even more and makes her angry.
Both parents understand that this characteristic comes from them. However, because the regime is more “picky” in terms of rules, the mother is more careful and tries to protect her from dangers, while her father is not that carrying because she did not experience all the difficulties because of gender. Hence, everything was more dangerous and worse for any woman than for any man. Also, her mother did not care about the daughter just because she was a mother but because she actually had logical reasoning behind it.
The scene on page 129 shows that the parents came back from holidays and brought gifts for Marji along with them. Since a lot of things from the west have been banned in Iran because of the Islamic regime, Marji’s parents needed to hide the presents and Kim Wilde poster from security at the airport when they came back from holidays. It's funny to see how Marji’s mother finds a way to hide a Kim Wilde poster by sewing it into Marji’s father’s jacket and transporting it into the country. With the poster sewn to the jacket, Marji’s father looks unnaturally wide, and he even admits that he is “walking like Frankenstein”. At the same time, the man on the security control does not even look at the parents, and just starts his regular brainless operation to make sure that Iran is not “spoiled” or westernised. He checks all the bags, trying to find illegal items, but he does not even notice the obvious extremely wide shoulders. Moreover, the customs man has such a big beard that the reader can not see his facial expression or libs movement, as if he is just a robot.
Turkey was a way more liberal county at that time, so it was easier to find American things.
The mother intervenes in the conversation to protect the husband. It is always the woman that intervenes to change something. In this case, she just (I have no clue how to translate it but it’s берёт на понт) and the man can not stand it, so he allows the parents to leave.
The way the guardians are illustrated really gives the reader a perspective of them being evil. Very tall compared to Marji, covered in black, with angry evil faces. Every single panel shows them with an evil face that contrasts with Marji and her scared and nervous look at what is going on.
The guardians use harsh language when they see Marji. They call Marji’s sneakers “punk”, say her pants are tight, and that she can’t wear her Michael Jackson pin. This shows their devotion to the Islamic republic and rejection of modern western culture. They also call Marji a “whore” for not properly wearing her veil, which shows the extent to which the conflict has divided Iran.
Marji decides to lie and exaggerate in order to get out of the situation. It was risky to lie as the guardians did not know about the tapes she bought. The way she confronted them also shows Marji’s behaviour when she is confronted by supporters of the republic, instead of openly disagreeing, she makes it seem as though she sides with them and made excuses for her clothing.
The woman is shown as a walking cone with a face. They look both angry, scary and ridiculous.
Also, Marji does not stand up to them because she realises the danger. It might be the case of her wising up.
She adds the sarcasm in the author’s notes about “punk”. Despite
The guardians of revolutions are always touching her. It makes the scene invasive.
Marji’s neighbour’s house got bombed. The pictures on page 142 illustrate the ruins of the house. Initially, it was a terrible sight, but there was some hope that Marji’s friend was fine until she saw the blue pearl necklace she received from her aunt. Then Marji became so angry and hurt that a scream couldn’t even explain her emotion, illustrated in a blacked-out picture on page 142. As Marji puts her hands off her eyes, we see in the next part of the sequence of the pictures from her point of view, pitch-black as her eyes are covered. It's as if she's gone into this dark black sunken place of anger and sadness. Like she's in a huge room screaming, and no one can hear her. So much emotion is expressed in the illustration of a black box.
The top of the page shows Marji standing next to the destroyed building in a state of shock and curiosity, although we can still see that Marji is still curious as to what has happened because she is looking back. She eventually sees a bracelet and returns to the wreckage. The page expresses Marji’s feelings through images and uses little text, this allows for a deeper impact on the reader, this is as the reader is forced to interpret and empathize with Marji. The black square followed by the text “no scream in the world could have relieved my suffering, and my anger” is there with the full intent to show that Marji feels isolated, alone and, in a sense, lost
It is the only time when she uses grey colours. It helps her to show the rouble of the building, which makes it look more photorealistic.
The bracelet was attached to the girl’s hand, but it is not the focus of the narration. She admits that it must be her friend’s hand, and she does not want to. So, Satrapi does not show the dead girl, she just states the fact, gives a hint by drawing the bracelet, and lets the reader finish the thought by imagery. It works better than showing the exact violence.
The chapter is titled the dowry because of the horrifying story that Marji’s dad tells her about Niloufar, who was rebellious and was arrested and how they punished her as well as her family both physically and emotionally. By sending them back the dowry, they were torturing her parents with the thought of what had happened to her. It is titled that because of the fear that Marji’s parents have that they might receive such Dowry due to her rebellious actions.
She was executed, but you can not execute a virgin, but to lose her virginity, she has to be married. So, they married her, then rapidly, then executed her, and then they have sent the money to the family. This was made only because of religion.
She was looking at her mother fainting and being carried away by her dad while all she could do was watch from behind the glass. Her last look back towards her family represents the difficulty of grasping the past and one's home while being forced to leave. It highlights her inability to fight or take action; she can only observe now. The imagery of the barrier between her past and present, the past now being something she can only observe but not affect in any way. It also gives us the feeling that she feels regret or guilt simply because she looks back. Then again, the context can be taken from her actions in which she "looks back" could mean she reflects on her past.
Father is fully shadowed. It is unusual to the book, making it look extremely sad, as if she is demonstrating death.
Also, the panel symbolises that the guardians of the revolutions force the entire situation with Marji going to Europe.
Her first experience in Austria was confusing and caused her a lot of discomfort. She didn’t understand a lot of things. Hence, she was confused and wasn’t sure how to act or what to say.
She didn’t understand how a girl of her age could talk about “trivial things” like a raspberry-scented pen or lipstick because in Iran, she was either not allowed to talk about it or didn’t have it, or they had more important topics to talk about like war (p. 158). Likewise, she was confused by Shirin’s parent's argument. She has never heard of arguing, and the topic of money was also almost never touched (p. 159). Afterwards, when she goes boarding, her roommate, Lucia, speaks only German, which would make an awkward situation for her when she probably, for the first time, does not know how to communicate with a peer. This is even illustrated on the last splash panel on page 163, where the girls are just smiling and staring at each other. The same language issue she faces when she goes to watch a popular TV show. She used to watch TV a lot in Iran, but these movies in Austria were in German, so she didn’t understand a single word (p. 165).
The issue for Marji is that there are more important things happening in the world than a lipstick when she is talking to the girl after the airport. “What a traitor” is the author's caption, which shows that Satrapi as an author, still thinks that it was unacceptable.
The splash panel on 163 shows that they are distanced and how time slowly passed by, causing discomfort.
Her mother expects to take care of her daughter. Just because Zozo is a friend but not a relative, he was able to send her to the boarding house but not care about her and let her live in his house no matter what.
She is staying with an Iranian family for several days, but even in this family, she feels alienated because this family is really European.
Initially, she has no friends and feels very uncomfortable around people. She is not fitting in, so any attention that she gets, she is happy to get, even though it may be negative. This is shown when she asks some guys in her class how to say ‘ruler’ in German, and they lie and say that it is ‘dick,’ so she embarrasses herself when saying it. She then states in the caption: “Well, at least I existed.”(Even though the attention she has gotten isn’t necessarily good, she doesn’t care because she wants to make friends or at least be noticed). Later in the chapter, Marji meets Lucia’s family and, for the first time, fits in. She feels a little out of place at first – Lucia’s mother’s moustache and the midnight mass they attended are a bit alien to Marji. However, she likes the fact that the conversations they had with Lucia’s family “never touched on war or death.”
It is awkward for her to fit into the friend groups that are already formed.
Marji continues to feel alienated because she never belongs anywhere, and it does not matter where she is no one understands her. An example is when she is left alone in her room during the holidays while the rest of her "friends" are travelling. Another example of this is when the mother's superior makes a racist comment to her " It's true what they about Iranians. They have no education." Just because she is eating pasta from the pot.
Marji feels alienated because she’s just starting to adapt to the new society and friend group she has. The western culture is very different to her own, she still has a lot of learning to do so she can fit in. She also finds herself spending her holiday alone all by herself with the nuns, who she can’t relate to and generally is not a very big fan of. She’s so bored that all she can do is read and go to the store countless times, buying one product at a time to waste time. She’s all alone and has no one but the nuns. She feels even more alienated after the comments she receives from the racist nun, who makes her feel not accepted in society. After she insults them, she gets kicked out of the boarding house and has to find a new place to stay. This leaves her all alone, and she cannot stand to stay with them, so she leaves, not knowing what to do.
During the holiday, she is isolated from society and her friends because everyone goes home. That’s why she likes school more than a vacation.
Marji comes from a very conservative country, and religion influenced a lot of social norms in Iran, including the idea that only married couples can have sex. The culture she grew up in and her understanding of pre-marital sex is very different to that of Julie. Living in Vienna was very different to living in Iran, people were less conservative and less religious. When she realizes the situation at hand, Marji freaks out and does not know what to do, and then goes to try to distract herself only to keep hearing the sound in the background, which she finds disturbing. She also expresses on the last panel that she had never seen anything like that while staring at the man's boxers.
Back in Iran, she was the least conservative, but in Vienna, she was actually the most conservative person.
As a European, she is in a conservative place, yet as a very liberal Iranian, she finds herself conservative.
She is not ready to talk to them because of her sinful lifestyle in Austria. She was partying and drinking alcohol etc, compared to conservative Iran. Marji’s relationship with her parents is caring and compassionate yet full of stress and tension. The author uses this relationship between Marji and her parents to portray the impact that a parent or guardian has on a young child.
She tries to fit into Austrian society, but at the same time, she thinks she is betraying her Iranian origins.
On the one hand, she is concerned that she is doing the wrong things. On the other hand, Iran is at war simultaneously, and it is important to her that her parents are suffering in Iran. So, she thinks that her parents are trying hard to make her a better life, but she just spoils this opportunity.
The title of this chapter is based on the joke that Satrapi and her mother have, which is calling her landlady a horse. The reason why they call the woman a horse is that she looks just like one, and she is very fat. The immature joke still means so much to them because it is something they bonded and had a laugh about after not seeing each other for such a long time.
In the caption, Satrapi states that even when she is grown up, they still remember this joke, which is important to her. This is one of the ways they bonded with each other.
This splash panel shows Marji's imagination of what the "revolutionist anarchist party" will look like. The battles she imagined that would occur at the "revolutionist anarchist part" reminded her of the battles in Iran during her childhood. She was extremely excited about the party as it would allow her to relive the childhood battles she dreamed of going to as a child.
The expression on Marji’s face clearly shows that she is excited to go.
In Vienna, these so-called anarchists were never punished. For them, it’s just a game. Marji, who faced social arrest, was expecting something more radical.