Rough draft

Butron, Mariah

English 1B

Ms. Knapp

October 16, 2011

A tarnished innocents

            War, death, divided social classes, and social injustice. This kind of environment is not suitable for raising a child. Exposure to these adult issues at an early age can highly influence a young mind and cause them to stray from their once innocent existence. This was the case for young Marjane Satrapi. From the ages of six until fourteen years old, Marjane undergoes many adult situations that morph her self-image from an innocent child, who believed in her king and her God, to a rebellious young woman who must leave her home country to escape the dangers of being a rebel. In her graphic novel, Persepolis, Marjane depicts her childhood through vivid illustrations and meaningful dialog. It is in these childlike depictions that her audience learns of her past, and how her experiences dramatically changed her identity.

            Knowing who Marjane is now, it is hard to believe she once wanted to be a prophet for God. At age six she established this to be her position. Marjane explains, “I was born with religion… I was already sure I was the last prophet” (6).  Despite her youth, she has formed a deep connection with God. She illustrates scenes in which her and God are having intimate conversations in her bedroom. She discusses with him her desires, such as wanting to be “justice, love and the wrath of God all in one” (9). It is evident that she feels deeply for her religion, and because of this, she proves to be an innocent child. When I was a young girl, I too had a strong sense of faith. My family raised me under the practice of Wicca. This earth based practice predates Christianity by hundreds of years. Under its influence, I believed that every living creature was a part of the goddess, and that each person had total control over their lives. Putting positive energies out into the world was essential to receive positive energies in return. But like young Marjane, my faith had the potential to falter.

            Marjane’s faith was first shaken during the Islamic revolution. Her parents had exposed her to many books in order to educate their daughter on the rising tensions between the people and their government. Marjane found that she was particularly fond of a comic book called Dialectic Materialism. To her young mind, Karl Marx was in close resemblance to God. She expresses this by comparing the two in an illustration and stating, “It was funny to see how much Marx and God looked like each other. Though Marx’s hair was a bit curlier” (13). In comparing Marx to God, she provides evidence to suggest that she holds Marx to be a very important figure. His influence contributed to her rebellious transition.

            In addition to the books she read, her faith was called into question after the massacre, which occurred in the Rex cinema. Previously, she believed that the Shah was chosen by God to rule the country. She comes to this belief because of the teachings at her school. Her parents have to explain to her how the Shah really came to power. Her father explains, “He [the Shah] was an illerate, low ranking officer… God has nothing whatsoever to do with this story” (20-21). The massacre brought on by the Shah resulted in 400 theatergoer’s deaths . Tragedy is often the precursor to losing faith. For me, tragedy began when my mother was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration. This malformation of the eye causes the retina to detach and causes the eyeball to elongate. Mom had to undergo a painful surgery that drove the family into dept, despair, and depression. What of these positive energies the goddess was supposed to return? It seemed the harder my family tried to capture the light, the dimmer our situation got. My faith was questioned daily after this event. And like me, Marjane’s faith was in question as well. This is shown when Marjane is lying in bed after asking her parents if she could go demonstrate against the Shah. She questions, “God, where are you?”, and answers her question by stating, “That night He didn’t come.” (17). Now that her faith is shaken, and God is a less dependable figure in her life, she abandons the idea of being a prophet.

            Marjane’s view about religion and God were not the only ideas she began to question. Her stance on social classes became developed due to how their housemaid was treated by her parents. Early in the book, Marjane points out that their maid was not allowed to dine with the family. From the start, she determined this to be wrong when she explained, “I wanted to be a prophet because our maid did not eat with us” (6). Later, she becomes more involved on the matter when Marjane’s father disowned Mehri, the maid. He had outed Mehri’s social status to the upper class boy she was infatuated with. For Marjane, it was unfair that Mehri’s love for this boy was impossible simply because of her class. Marjane questions in frustration, “but is it her fault she was born where she was born???” (37). This understanding of social justice is rare to find in a child, yet Marjane understood the matter so well she decided to demonstrate against social classes with Mehri. Unfortunately for the pair, Marjane's mother horded a distaste for their actions. As a result, the two were punished with a slap to the face.

            So far we’ve seen only slight changes in young Marjane. The major turning point from religious child to rebellious teen begins with the death of her beloved uncle, Anoosh. Marjane regarded her uncle as a hero because of the sacrifices he made during the revolution. To instill a sense of how close Marjane and Uncle Anoosh were, Marjane tells her readers that she was the one person Anoosh wanted to see after his arrest. When my grandfather was weathering away on his lonely hospital bed, he often requested visits from his grandchildren. My brother and I, young as we were, did not understand why Grandpa was so sick or why the beds at the hospital were any different from the beds at home. I remember smiling and being cheerful despite the situation because I still believed that these positive energies would find their way into my grandfather’s body and fight against the sickness. Again I was disappointed. The cancer took his life and my faith. My reaction to my grandfather’s death was the same reaction that Marjane had with Uncle Anoosh’s execution. When God presented himself to Marjane after Anoosh’s demise, Marjane stood up on her bed in defiance and screamed, “Shut up you! Get out of my life!!! I never want to see you again! Get out!” (70). No longer was God her salvation. No longer was she His profit. And no longer was she the innocent child who demonstrated faith in the authority around her.