Thomas Needham Coffeehouse 2

Thomas Needham

October 7, 2022

ENG 2300

Persepolis Analysis

Persepolis shows us that Marjane was learning something new everytime we turn to a new chapter. It showed what was forced up on her and her family.  We were able to see how a revolution begins. The chapters I really enjoyed was chapter 5 and 6. Marjane’s conversation with her Grandmother, in particular about knowing that her grandfather spent time in prison. I thought it was clever that the conversation with her grandmother kind of meshed with her waiting for her father to come home for dinner and him being late kind of brought up a worry amongst the family considering what was going on around them at the time. When we go in to chapter 6, Marjane also focuses on social classes. Marjane starts to notice the differences of how her life is in the home and outside the house with the rest of the world. Marjane also tells how she wrote letters  for Merra for six months. How close Merra is to the family, more as a daughter than a maid. How Merra is more like a sister to Marjane than someone who is not in Marjanes “Social Class.” We already know that Marjanes grandfather was a prince who was brutalized and jailed by The Shah of I ran and how her grandmother insist that his son is worse.

This opens the door  more about the revolution occurring in Iran and how both women and men are forced to dress,behave and conduct themselves under the communist rule. Chapter 6 explains how Marjane and her family treat people around them more like family than people who might be treated   poorly during this revolution would be treated by persons of authority. As we move on in the book we see how the dictatorial forces change everything around Marjane. Chapter 6 to me deals with a relationship with Merra and Marjanes family which is shown when  the neighbor meets with Marjanes father about Merra. Marjanes father  acted more like Merras father and also during the letter writing marjane finds out about Merra including how she truly values Marjanes family when Marjane assumes Merra has a sister but than is told that Merras sister is Marjane. I believe chapter 6 shows us how relationships are defined during the height of a revolution which wants to treat people according to the social order. The other chapters focus on relationships but I believe this chapter, “The Letter” gives an emotion anchor to Merra and her feelings about Marjane and her family by the letters she writes. I like this chapter because it seems  to give a little more depth to the story. If I were to use  lehman terminology it feels that  the Iranian rule are more bullies than anything else. The reasoning for why this revolution is obviously political but in the end it just feels to me that  this is  more about someone confronting a bully, fighting back, saying “Enough is enough!” It just seems   more like  a political ideology to it rather than   something more personal. Maybe that is what Marjane is trying to do when writing about the revolution. There seems to be a clear definition within Marjanes family and  dictaters. Everybody in Marjanes family including relatives who have died seem to me, to be protagonists of what is right while the people in authority are often portrayed, with good reason as brutal antagonists. It appears to me that Marjanes family are protectors.