Persepolis and Persepolis 2

Books 31 and 32 were Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return graphic novels written by Marjane Satrapi (were originally published in French). Satrapi was born in Iran in 1969. Persepolis is her account of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution which saw the overthrow of the Shah, the victory of the Islamic Revolution, and the war between Iran and Iraq. Satrapi stayed in Iran until she was 14 when her parents sent her to Europe. Persepolis 2 is the story of Satrapi's life in Austria and her return to Iran. In Austria she faces growing up and the trials and tribulations of adolescence without her parents. When she returns to Iran, she feels that her time in Austria was a failure. She attends university in Iran for graphic arts, but questions whether she can remain in Iran and have a future under the state-sanctioned repression.

It was interesting how young Marjane and her friends made sense of the cultural, social, and political changes taking place around them. For example, she and her friends pretend to be revolutionary figures: Fidel, Trotsky, and Che Guevara, and hold demonstrations in the garden. Marjane's conversations with God, about her becoming a prophet, were also entertaining.

In Persepolis 2 there were a couple of panels that I found note-worthy for their message. Marjane reconnects with a childhood friend Kia who served in the army and is not handicapped. After visiting Kia, Marjane says, "That day, I learned something essential: we can only feel sorry for ourselves when our misfortunes are still supportable...once this limit is crossed the only way to bear the unbearable is to laugh at it" (page 112). Laughter it seems is the best medicine.

Marjane also describes the small struggles and small acts of resistance that she and her classmates, especially her female friends, engage in. Their confrontations with the Regime were discreet. Small things, an uncovered wrist, a loud laugh, having a walk-man, were all pretexts to arrest them. In regards to women, she writes, "The regime understood that one person leaving her house while asking herself: are my trousers long enough? is my veil in place? Can my make-up be seen? or Are they going to whip me?, this person is no longer going to ask herself, "Where is my freedom of thought? Where is my freedom of speech?, My life, is it valuable?, or What's going on in the political prisons?" Fear was instilled in citizens to paralyze them, to cease their questioning. But, Marjane and her friends chose to show their hair or put on make-up as small acts of rebellion.