Holy Shift: Persepolis II

I feel like a lot has changed from Persepolis I in regards to Marjane’s life. As the backdrop of imminent war begins to dissipate from her immediate daily life, her priorities and life begins to shift. Though I don’t think believe her worries about the war and the safety of her family members ever leaver her heart and mind, her problems begin to resemble those dubbed, “first world problems”. The first half of this memoir seems to be much more preoccupied with the very things that seemed to distance her from her friends in Iran upon her return.  These “things” consist of sex, men’s bodies, drugs and boyfriends, dating and heartbreak. Her journey while in Vienna seems to be much more preoccupied with what Marjane mentions on page 21, “… As an Iranian woman, before learning to urinate like a man, I needed to learn to become a liberated and emancipated woman.” I have been unable to conclude if her “liberation” was accomplished. In some sense I believe it was, in the other sense, I feel like her stint with homelessness, severe bronchitis and her return home to her parents, made me feel like perhaps it was a bit unsuccessful. I do however feel that in many ways she grew from these experiences and definitely returned to Iran a different person (in age, familiarity, through experience and culturally).

Her arrival home was a sigh of relief. I felt a warm familiarity while also a mitigating sense of worry. How would Marjane be able to adapt? What kind of life and circumstances would surround her? We immediately see how her experience in Vienna has in some ways made her “different” from her peers and thus unable to relate to them. I felt mixed about that and her old friends contradicting messages struck me with a bit of uneasy feeling (perhaps feeling their actions and words were a bit hypocritical… not sure).

Marjane’s “near death” experience hit me like a ton of bricks… I think my exact reaction was, “What the hell?” It seemed so damn random, as if it came out of nowhere. Furthermore, her “transformation” seemed even more out of nowhere. Whatever her epiphany was through this failed suicide attempt, I was happy to see her able to come to terms with who, where at what she is. For me this was her turning point and this is the moment for me where she became a woman, truly comfortable with her self.

Her confidence and self-awareness developed through her relationships with her boyfriend and family members, school and solid friendships. She seemed to me, to be a typical 20 something young woman, coming of age. During this time she learns to cope with and thrive in her surroundings. In contrast to the “class photograph” on the first pages of Persepolis I, in the class photo on page 151 in Persepolis II, the mole on her face distinctly defines Marjane. She seems to have reached that “liberation” and “emancipation” she spoke about earlier.

Her marriage to Reza was a circumstance that I felt could have found its way into anyone’s home. The thing that made her decision distinctly different were the nations influences that disabled her from say, walking in the park with Reza as her boyfriend. I wondered without these influences would she have made the same decision to marry him? Perhaps, perhaps not.

Ultimately, Persepolis II was more of simply a “coming of age” story. The focus moved away from the historical aspect of Iran. I think it is important to note that she also did not include an “introduction” in the beginning of Persepolis II, which makes me wonder about the purpose of II. Do other people feel like the intro in I is applicable to II as well? Or are these two different memoirs because, although they deal with the same lifeline, have two distinct purposes? Many of the problems and circumstances Marjane seemed to find herself in, many of us have probably experienced ourselves: homelessness, drug use, partying against the will of others (perhaps parents) and wrongful marriages (youthful but ultimately ending in divorce)… That is of course not to say that the time and place does not have any bearing on her life. Of course her decision to ultimately leave, or even to marry as I said was perhaps influenced by the rules and regulations of her nation. I just wonder to what extent? Regardless, Persepolis II shifted, in comparison to Persepolis I, from being a story of Iran and Marjane (and her family) and more about Marjane becoming a woman of her own. Good for you Marjane… you are definitely a “success” in my book, some might even say a prophet in her own right ;-)