Xavier Borbor
May 3, 2012
CORC 3101
The Harsh Realities of Life In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi explores the realities of her native land. She begins the story as a intelligent young pre-teen with a promising future. As she grows older she sees how cold the world is outside of her homeland as she lives through a near self-destructing phase of her life. She is capable of catching herself in this free fall with the help and guidance of her family a little while after returning home. In the story, her country continuously is fighting from freedom all the while she’s searching for her own identity. Throughout the book there are various things going on that can alter an individual’s point of view in search of their identity. To understand clearly, I break down my research on topics concerning the government, religion, social classes, the history concerning the country and the educational requirements that need to be met in the Iranian society. My research consist of material from Marjane Satrapi’s book, Persepolis.
“2500 years of tyranny and submission” as my father said. First our own emperors. Then the Arab invasion from the west. Followed by the Mongolian invasion from the east. And finally modern imperialism (Satrapi 11). In the views of her father, their country has always been fighting for freedom. Trying to escape oppression there is always a revolution on the rise as the position of power changes hands. Never the less written in a passage titled The Bicycle, Marjane Satrapi said “The revolution is like a bicycle. When the wheels don’t turn, it falls” (Satrapi 10). As I thought about the passage and what her father said I realized this country is similar to the bicycle because Iran is always fighting a never ending war that continues to go in circles with oppressors fighting for freedom. This country is always in the midst of a revolution and in this part of