Persepolis.

Persepolis Blog

Previously in Humanities, we have been reading the book Persepolis which is about a veritable girl named Marji going through a great depression due to the economic and religious issues going on in Iran. She grew up in the 1980s which was when the Islamic Revolution took place. As she grows up, she hears and sees a lot of situations that goes on throughout the whole book. Her parents and she were liberal and decadent, but the country was turning fundamental and based itself on religion, which was hard for most of the citizens to handle because they were secular families. Marji was a blunt type of a girl, she wasn’t scared to fight for her beliefs; she resembled her mother. As the years went on, she turned into a brave teenager, and helped her family get through rough times.

It all began in 700 B.C when Cyrus the great was the emperor. In 1953 the Reza Shah returned and hell broke loose. The American’ and Britain’s used the Shah as a puppet to westernize and modernize Iran. In 1979, the shah was overthrown because he was trying to start the Islamic Revolution. Also in that same year, Marji applied a secular school where boys and girls were together, but then a year later, they were separated and the whole veil law was enforced. In 1980, Suddam Hussien invaded Iran and the war began. Marji wanted to engage in the demonstrations that were held, but it was forbidden. Marjane, Marji, was considered a martyr because she had strong beliefs and didn’t want anyone to get in the way of that. She considered people who went to jail, as “heroes”. Her family kept that her uncle was in jail for a period of time, a clandenstine; they didn’t want her knowing that part of his life. Later on, during the most significant time of her life, the war began to climax and her parents sent her off to Austria, to live a better life and to get away from the war.

I think that once Marji goes to Austria, she’s going to have a reservoir of problems getting used to a new place. She left her family, and doesn’t know anyone, so of course she’s going to have issues to deal with and try to find out who she is as a person. She lived a hard life in Iran for the past years and I know it’s going to be difficult for her to get settled; she’s going to feel out of place. I think she’s going to get into some type of trouble on purpose to have a reason to go back to her family in Iran. Once she returns to Iran, I think she’s going to have a hard time getting used to the change that she and Iran has overcome.