Marjane Satrapi Identity

“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.” (Palahniuk) In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s identity is formed by her childhood in Iran and solidified by her path to maturity through Austria and a return to Iran that are intertwined with her country’s tumultuous narrative. The forces that drive Satrapi to become a graphic novel author living in France are, most prominently, her relatives actions and stories, her experiences in Vienna as a teenager, and the geopolitical atmosphere of her homeland. Satrapi’s family plays a very important role in the formation of her familial and moral values. Her parents set an example for her, teaching her to stand up for what they think is right and protest the false divinity
of the shah, prompting her to do her own protesting, first in her garden, and then on the streets with her maid chanting “down with the king!”.(P.1-10) Eventually, they even bring her to a protest to teach her “to defend her rights as a woman”.(P.1-76) This, and events like, it instilled in Satrapi confidence in herself and her moral values. Throughout the narrative, she exhibits this confidence by standing up to lying teachers, strict nuns, a seemingly crazy owner of a house she lived at in Vienna, and even a Kuwaiti refugee that thought her a prostitute. Her mother also instills in her a value of education when, after skipping class, she tells Marji that “you have to know everything better than anyone else if you’re going to survive”.(P.1-113) Furthermore, her uncle Anoosh, a revolutionary himself, told Marji stories about his life and taught her the importance of storytelling, that their “family memory must not be lost”.(P.1-60) She seems to have kept her family memory alive for the whole world with her novels.
Perhaps most importantly, Marji’s grandmother was a very strong influence on her in her formative years and beyond.
Her grandmother is the one that introduced her to reading in the book and sparked her thirst for knowledge. She brings her books so that Marji will understand “why the people are revolting” against the government.(P.1-28) After this Marji reads all kinds of things, she “read all the books [she] could”(P.1-32). Later, while in Vienna when she has little to do she reads because she felt as though she “had to understand everything” to educate herself.(P.2-21) Her grandmother also acts as a moral compass, telling her to “always keep [her] dignity and be true to [herself]” before she leaves for Vienna.(P.1-150) Marji remembers her grandmother’s words when she lies about her nationality to a boy, showing how they have a profound effect on Satrapi. Additionally, when Marjane lies about a man disrespecting her to avoid being arrested for wearing makeup, her grandmother yells at her for the first time in her life. Marjane “decided that it would also be the last”, and vows to live by her grandmother’s
wisdom.(P.2-137)
Before going to Austria, Marjane feels like a westerner in anti-western Iran, illustrated by the cover of the book, with Marji in a small region of blue surrounded by red. The blue represents westernism and the red represents the Islamic culture of Iran. Her westernism is further represented by a fascination with the western music of Kim Wilde, Iron Maiden, and Michael Jackson to name a few. Marjane even expresses her disregard for Islamic laws by wearing western apparel in public, almost getting apprehended by the Guardians of the Revolution in the process for wearing “symbols of decadence”.(P.1-133) Once in Vienna Satrapi starts to feel like an outsider to western culture, This outsider status is again illustrated by the cover of the second book, Satrapi is in a small region of red surrounded by blue, an obvious converse of the first book’s cover. While she is in Austria “Iran was the epitome of evil and to be Iranian was a heavy burden to bear”, making her feel alienated in the culture she used to self identify as part of.(P.2-41) This experience of cultural reversal, and the animosity that came with it, made her desire and value her home and her family more. This is evident when Marjane’s mom visits her in Vienna and she refers to Iranian cuisine as “the heavenly food of my country”, and when it was relaxing to talk to someone and “not have to explain [her] culture”.(P.2-52) Her time in Vienna had made her more amicable to her Iranian culture.
The nearly continuous fighting that took place involving Iran as Satrapi was growing up was integral in the development of her identity.
Despite growing up in a theocratic, conservative country, Satrapi is astonishingly open minded, at least to a western audience. As a whole, western media regards the people of Iran as extremely conservative and intolerant based on misconceptions about Islam and Iran itself. For example, in December, 2015 Defence News published an article referring to the Iran as “the chief instigator of terror and instability in the Middle East”.(DefenceNews). This skewed view of Iran is something that Satrapi became painfully aware of when she traveled to Austria and learned that “Iran was the epitome of evil” in westernized countries.(P.2-41) In an interview with Pantheon, Satrapi recalled seeing pieces about Iran on television, remarking that “they didn't represent [her] experience at all”.(Satrapi) Persepolis gives a very different view of life in Iran. Marji goes to school, has various childhood friendships, and even has a rebellious punk phase when she “cut class” and smoked her “first cigarette.(P.1-113-7) It was growing up in Iran during some of the the country’s violent history that gave Satrapi the motivation to create Persepolis. She wanted people in other countries to “to see that [she] grew up just like other children” in other countries
did.(Satrapi) Undoubtedly, Satrapi has succeeded in demystifying Iran, at least to the readers of Persepolis, and hopefully to media and society as a whole. Her masterful incorporation of a powerful narrative about the strength of family, the process of adolescence, and a revolutionary period of Iran’s history, that have all had profound effects on the course of her life, into the graphic novel format is tremendously gripping and powerful.