Persepolis: Rebelling Against It All

In Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis, several themes are presented to the reader from both the pictures and the next. I love the illustrations and how well they work with the short text and found myself very surprised with how entertaining this book ended up being. In the book, many stories and struggles are presented, such as the Islamic revolution, issues with school, the war between Iran and Iraq, and Satrapi’s struggle with growing up and bumping heads with her parents. In my opinion, the strongest and most evident theme that arises from all of these situations in the novel is that of rebellion. Rebellion is constantly seen, in many different shapes and forms, all throughout this book.

One example of this comes from the very beginning of the novel (page 3) when Satrapi discusses how as a result of the Islamic Revolution, in 1980, the females became obligated to wear veils in school. The illustration at the bottom of the page paints a perfect picture of rebellion where you can see the children using their veils as reins and jump ropes, and basically making a mockery of the entire situation. This rebellion against the rules and the veil repeats several times throughout the novel when it mentions and illustrates the women wearing veils with some of their hair showing, which is not how it is supposed to be worn.

Another example of rebellion comes later in the novel (page 128) when Satrapi’s parents are trying to bring her something special back into Iran from their trip to Turkey. Before their trip, Satrapi asked for some posters and her parents made sure that they could meet her desires by doing whatever they had to. The series of 4 pictures shows Satrapi’s mother tearing out the lining of her husband’s coat, placing the posters inside, and then sewing the lining back in. It then shows Satrapi’s father standing there with wide, pointy shoulders because of the poster, which is one of the most hilarious illustrations in the book. Going through customs, her parents are faced with the accusation that they are smugglers, to which they eventually talk themselves out of and board the plane. They did whatever they had to do to make their daughter happy and excited in the hard times that she was going through. Satrapi’s parents rebelled against the rules and lied to the man and customs and it was actually a very touching moment in the novel to me.

These two aforementioned examples were only a very small portion of the many instances where rebellion was illustrated throughout Persepolis. I noticed in this story that a lot of what was going on in this novel could have, and probably did, happen in the United States in the 1980s and moving forward. The youth in this book embrace pop culture and style and try to attain approval and social status from their peers, which reminds me very much of how I have grown up. Other relatable examples are Satrapi arguing with her parents, the characters having extreme patriotism for their country during the war, and instances where Satrapi got in trouble at school. All of these remind me of personal experiences in my own life and I think that gave me an odd new acceptance for the people or Iran. I have found that although the details of their issues may differ from ours, overall, they are normal people—a lot like Americans, in fact.