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Persepolis 2:

Some folks had told me that Persepolis 2 isn’t nearly as good as the first one, but I loved it. It really felt like a natural extension of Persepolis 1, with the same graphic and narration styles and the same, strong, author’s voice.

I was drawn into the early chapters of Marji growing into her womanhood, which start around p35 where the panels show the changes in her body. This reminds me of when I worked with middle school students because their bodies really do grow at random proportions like that lol. I also loved her exploration of “sexual liberation” in an Austrian context. I think, being from an Indian family, in many ways I could relate to her explorations and confusions around this. Its interesting. Marji’s character is always strong and bold, the only time she appears confused, of low esteem and loses her boldness is when she first moves to Austria (finding friends) and when she is confronted with trying find her place in the dating scene.

I noticed some changes in the drawing style in Persepolis 2. As the narrator explores her later years, growing into adulthood, her drawing style is less creative. I think the part of her artwork that I enjoyed most in Persepolis 1 was the way that her drawings invoked memories of my own childhood imagination (ie – her drawing’s of God hugging her, laying out in the middle of the black universe etc.) I didn’t find the same imaginative drawings in Persepolis 2. I wonder if it was intentional, or if this just naturally changed as her memories of her adulthood are probably much less imaginative. On p40 is one of the most imaginative drawings in Persepolis 2 (where she shows us her memories), but she doesn’t explore those memories, or play with them, or enlarge them the way she did in her childhood. In this text, we explore Marji’s internal world more through what she tells us in narration than images. The only images that stand out as access points to her imaginary are p 64 when she is tripping and p84 when she visually shows us the feel of her daily bus rides in Austria. 

I’m happy that in this text, Marji reconnects with her faith. Her relationship to God isn’t as casual as it was in her childhood, it seems its taken a sort of adulthood formality (prayer, instead of having tea with God), but she reclaims a strong faith (starting on p129).

The book explores the idea of having a split identity (Iranian in Austria and European in Iran) in a way that I didn’t expect. She only spent a few years in Austria and I didn’t realize it would change her sense of identity so much. I think because she spent such crucial years (teenage, transformation years) and tried to grow into her womanhood abroad that it really changed her sense of self. I liked the ending of this story. I like that she finds a way to be a woman in her country (physically enjoys her body), reconnects with her grandmother and even becomes social again. I think I just let out big sighs when I saw her get healthy again. The author stays true to herself after a divorce, the book ends with Marji’s at her best and strongest. Loved it. With there was a Persepolis 3