Marjane\'s Family Reactions to Revolutions

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis is a book that tells the story of Marjane Satrapi and is entitled as the story of a childhood. The author of the book was born on the edge of the Caspian Sea in Iran and grew up in Tehran. During her stay in Tehran, Satrapi studied at the Lycee Francais and left for Vienna and later Strasbourg for studies in decorative arts. The book tells the story of her youth in Iran in the 1970s and 80s, especially with regards to life through the Islamic Revolution and the Iraqi war. In telling the story about Satrapi's childhood, the book explains the author's once outrageous and ordinary childhood, which is also characterized with extraordinary, unimaginable, and loving family. Notably, the story of Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis contains two major revolutions with different reactions. The first revolution is regarding the overthrows of the Shah while the second is the establishment of a radical Islamic regime. These revolutions provoked different reactions from Marjane's family based on their impact.

Revolutions in Persepolis:

As previously mentioned, Persepolis is the story of Marjane Satrapi's childhood or a memoir of her experiences when growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The author basically tells the story of life when she was living in Tehran between ages six to fourteen. This period witnessed the overthrow of Shah's regime, the victory of the Islamic Revolution, and the distressing impacts of war with Iraq (Satrapi, n.d.). The author has presented her life's experiences through powerful black-and-white comic strip images in the book. The impacts of cultural change through a child's eyes are clearly presented by the author in the description of her personal experiences of Iran's Islamic Revolution during her childhood. This description also incorporates the various revolutions that took place during her childhood and their effects on her growth and development. The descriptions of these revolutions are the main reasons for the consideration of the book as a historical, political, and personal explanation of the growth of a child into maturity.

One of the major revolutions in the book is the overthrow of Shah's regime, which took place during tumultuous years of Islamic Revolution in Iran. Since she believed she will be the last prophet of God, Satrapi has conversations with God where she imagines that there will be social and cultural equality to the extent that old people will not suffer from pain (Satrapi, n.d.). On one occasion when she was having a conversation with God, she overheard her parents talking about a fire that was ordered by Shah at a local theatre resulting in the death of 400 people. Generally, Shah is a very harsh leader who considers himself in the same status as Cyrus the Great and other great rulers in Persia. As many people continue to die in the revolution that followed the fire incident, Shah leaves for the United States as his rule becomes impossible.

The second revolution is the establishment of a radical regime given that the leaders of the republic are religious fundamentalists though the revolution that ousted Shah was leftist. The new fundamentalist regime begins to kill former revolutionaries who are regarded as enemies of the republic. The establishment of this radical regime is characterized by various events including seizure of the American embassy, forceful eviction of Americans in Iran, closure of all universities in order to change the curriculum, violence, Iraq-Iran war, and increased tensions across the country.

Marjane's Family Reaction to the Changes:

These two major revolutions in Satrapi's childhood provoke different reactions from the family because of the changes they brought. Marjane's family reacted happily to the overthrow of Shah's regime and constantly urged Marjane to forgive those that torture. The constant urge for forgiveness is fueled by the fact that the end of Shah's regime signals release of political prisoners including two family friends. These reactions by the family were also fueled by the release of Marjane's uncle, Anoosh, from prison. However, this family had a different reaction to the second revolution that focused on instituting a radical Islamic regime. The living conditions in the country became harsh and unbearable to an extent that some people were forced to flee the country while others are murdered for false allegations. Actually, Uncle Anoosh was arrested and executed by the ruling religious fundamentalists based on false accusations of being a Russian spy. The parents reacted angrily to this revolution as they sought for attempts to leave the country, which they eventually did when they were allowed to leave for Turkey for vacation. Unlike the first revolution, they did not accept the establishment of the radical Islamic regime since they were rebels (Satrapi, n.d.).