Parallelism in Persepolis

Satrapi’s story embodies parallelism in how it juxtaposes a coming of age tale and a rough political situation. Being a thirteen-year-old girl is hard enough, and there are many narratives that depict solely that dynamic as a main source of action. In Saratapi’s tale the protagonist’s family is surrounded by a turmoil that terrorizes them every day of their lives. They are soaking in a culture that regresses and decides to become fundamentalist, is war torn and favors ruthless violence. As Marjane and her family and friends try to deal with the imposition of ridiculous laws, Marjane is coming of age and becoming the outspoken woman that she is, fantasizing about being a prophet and dressing against the regime.

There is something to be said about the context of this tale; it is a narrative that would not have fascinated (or been made into a movie) if it had been set in a peaceful context. Marjane’s teenage rebellion is not the standard teenage rebellion of illicit piercings and underage drinking, people in her family are being executed for their political beliefs and her home city is being bombed by Iraq.

To parallel Marjane’s home situation with that of us in the states is to see drastic differences. Saratapi uses vignettes from her childhood to piece together a behind the scenes look at a family that is well aware what is going on around them is madness. In the states, the ideas we are fed about Iran often revolve around its fundamentalist proclivities, news often involving bombs and violence or talking about anti American sentiments. In our day to day life it is easy to take that news as truth and forget to look beyond; it is easy to reduce one’s viewpoint of Iran to just the extremes and not take into account how varied the population is, and the fact that many do not agree with the country’s politics. Persepolis in its entirety felt like the kind of story that never gets told.

What struck me the most was the parallel between all the upsetting and tragic political situations going on and Marjane’s burgeoning outspokenness. The book starts with Marjane being a little kid who has nontraditional fantasies about being a prophet and finishes with her being an assertive adolescent who talks back to her teachers and talks openly about her government’s lies. Marjane’s openness is effective in how it causes tension between Marjane, her parents, and the outside world. This tension facilitates communication of situations that are tense to begin with. For example, when the regime takes over and Marjane’s school makes her wear a headscarf, participate in pro war political assemblies, and spouts propaganda, the tension is created in how Marjane’s entire world shifts and regresses. Marjane was not born into a world that was the way it is when the book ends; in the beginning Marjane is in a secular school. I will say that using a brave little girl as a storyteller for such a tense and awkwardly shifting political situation is effective, if only for that fact that I want to listen to little girl Marjane. Reading the black and white panels, you get angry with her. This is the first of the graphic novels we’ve read that I’ve forgotten I was reading a graphic novel, or looking at pictures at all. The complex nature of the narrative, and its parallels between growing up angst and political turmoil keep you enthralled enough in the storyline that you forget the aesthetics.