After reading the first 53 pages of Persepolis, The Letter, starting on page 33 stood out the most to me. In this section, Marjane goes into detail about the family maid. The maid is only ten years Marjane’s senior. The maids name is Mahri and when she was eight she was sent away from her family to work for Marjane’s parents. Naturally, the two girls took to each other and it was commonplace for Mahri to refer to Marjane as her own sister. What stood out about this was the difference in social class. Though Mahri thought of Marjane as a younger sibling, Marjane was still of a higher, or respectable class.
It was shocking to note that Mahri was illiterate despite being older. At the age of sixteen, she took a liking to a neighborhood boy. Due to her inability to write, she asked Marjane to read and write letters to the boy as a favor. Unfortunately news of her affection was passed along to Marjanes father. Because of the social situation he decided he must confront the boy about Mahri. He then revealed that she was a mere maid and not his daughter. The boy lost interest for her.
Now, when I think of social classes my mind wonders back to high school history lectures about ancient monarchies. These strict social classes divided the country into different worlds of people. Its not something I associate with modern day, especially because I grew up in America. In America one has the opportunity to rise above the class they were born into, at least in theory. Though I am aware that this is incredibly hard to do despite our “equal rights” I have seen it done. Reading about Mahri was just a reality check. Mahri’s situation is not something that would have happened in modern day America, and for that I am thankful.
“but is it her fault that she was born where she was born???” (37)
It was evident to young Marjane that social classes shouldn’t be a life sentence because one cannot control the conditions in which they were brought into this world.
I guess the reason why I was so interested in this particular issue was because it is hard for me to understand the mindset behind set social classes. it really only benefits the few set of families on top. It guarantees their own kin wealth. For the entire population, however, it’s only restricting. Like Mahir, the bottom classes would stay uneducated workers. That’s an entire set of people who cannot reach their intellectual potential, so they cant contribute to positive development. Its all very limiting.
I believe a person worth should not be defined by where they came from. I know its cliché but people should be measured by what they do with their lives.
Both Mahir and Marane decided to go protest. They were met with opposition by Marjanes mother. This illustrated how difficult change is to achieve. When your society supports the status quo, and when society is made up of your neighbors, leaders, and own family, the status quo will remain the same. It is an unfair cycle that is reality for many.
I completely agree with your post. I do not think a person should be defined by what kind of family they are born into or how wealthy they are, but they should be defined by what they do with their life. It is absolutely repulsive to see people getting mistreated because they are not from an upper class family. When I read that chapter, I was a bit shocked that the boy who claimed to love Mahir left her without even giving it a second thought just because she was a maid and poor. Unfortunately, this kind of scenario can still be seen in some countries today such as India who still practice the caste system. It is extremely unfortunate that many people are willing to accept people who have money and a big ego then people who have big and honest hearts. I also think that social classes "shouldn’t be a life sentence because one cannot control the conditions in which they were brought into this world." If only people accepted others for who they were rather than what they had and how much of it they had in their bank accounts.
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