Death Of Innocence In The Shabat By Marjane Satrapi

Death of Innocence “Coming of age” is a popular term for stories about children becoming adults. They illustrate to the children reading them that their life could be worse and imparts “worldy wisdom” and morals to them in order to inspire them to grow up. The Shabat by Marjane Satrapi is not one of these stories. This story, told as graphic fiction, reflects a naive girl’s exposure to war and the detrimental effect it has on her life. Eventually, this story becomes about the death of Marji’s innocence. Her life transforms from that of a typical teenage girl to a victim of war. When the story begins, Marji is sitting in the living room with her parents and their friends. She’s mostly a silent observer, speaking only to point out her parent’s tendency to gossip. The conversation is light-hearted, despite the heavy subject matter. Marji still believes-rather naively-that war is far off. She understands the abstract of it, but it still seems far off.
This idealistic view of war being distant comes crashing down when Iraq decided to drop missiles, called “scuds”, on Tehran, Iran.
During this event, Marji’s idea of combat becomes a little more concrete. Her family, despite the bombings, decide to stay in the city for Marji’s education. As the bombings calm down, Marji becomes more calm, even allowing herself to shop for clothes with her friend Shadi. This relaxation almost makes it seem like Marji is allowing herself to believe that it was all just a fluke. She even described it as “shopping euphoria”, which is very telling as euphoria is defined as the state of intense happiness; generally speaking, people usually don’t feel euphoric when their city is under
attack. This bubble of elation is quickly popped when another bomb explodes within the city. The shopkeep, armed with a tablet of some sort, informs her that it went off in the Tavinir neighborhood--where Marji lived. During this time, as Marji races to her home, she realises that it is all very real and very imminent. Her innocence, already slightly withered, starts to lose its petals as she races to find her family. Eventually, she finds her mother, who informs Marji that it was the Baba-levy’s (the neighbors) home that had been bombed. Since it is the sabbath for the Jewish, they had almost certainly been home. Marji hadn’t been particularly close with the family, but she knew their daughter Neda. At this point, Marji still had a slight shred of innocence. Their death was vague; it could be easy to pretend they weren’t dead. However, as they pass through the rubble, Marji noticed a specific bracelet that Neda always wore. It was attached to an indeterminable piece of something. At this moment, Marji’s innocence was lost. It was replaced by suffering and rage. War was no longer a foreign concept to her. It was very real and affected her in a very real way. She couldn’t put her head down and pretend it wasn’t happening anymore. She was forced to grow up before she was ready. This story has been described as a coming of age story, but it is more than that. There are ways to grow up while maintaining a sense of youth and purity. These coming of age stories are told about a child ready to become an adult, ready to grow up. Marji is not coming of age. She is having her innocence ripped away from her before she is ready. This story is not one that provides a moral lesson to children advising them to take on more responsibility. It shows how war tears people apart, and tears them open. It trickles down to the people that should not ever have to bear that load.