Favorite Chapters

My favorite chapters from the book Persepolis would have to be Moscow and The Sheep. These chapters went in-depth on the difficulties of how the Islamic people were forced to not speak out their truths nor personal opinions on the Islamic revolution. Throughout these chapters, we meet the narrator’s uncle from her fathers’ side and how he was the first hero she had met within her own family. Marjane saw her uncle as a hero at the time mainly because he went to prison (signified that he was a part of the revolution); he was the secretary for his uncle Fereydoon, who proclaimed the independence of the Iranian province– not so long after Marjane’s uncle is working for Fereydoon he is soon arrested from the Iranian police which sadly leads to Marjane’s Uncle having to escape Iran and become a refugee on the run. Marjane’s uncle moves to Moscow to escape his awaiting prison time and tries to live out a normal life, he even marries and has two children– not so long after he divorces his ex-wife and is suddenly feeling homesick he, therefore, tries to go back to Iran and sadly gets recognized and arrested right away. As a reader, after hearing his story and knowing that Marjane’s uncle has finally been released from prison which is why he is even able to talk about this to his niece made me feel some kind of relief for him– at least he is still alive– but I was very mistaken to have quickly assumed that. Transitioning to the next chapter, The Sheep; this chapter was my favorite because it talked about the saddening realization of what would soon become apparent to me; not every story has a happy ending. With the continuation of the Iranian government wanting to silence any views that differed from their rules– we start seeing many people within Marjane’s life trying to flee from Iran. Not only do we see people trying to flee but we also are quickly informed that Marjane’s Uncle has been arrested and has been put up for execution. We are even given a saddening moment where he asked for Marjane to be his last visitor; it’s a very emotional encounter where they embrace each other. Her uncle tells her that she’s the daughter that he wished he had and that he still has hopes for a better future despite the conditions he’s under. Not only was this chapter very disappointing and saddening for me since we see someone who truly did no harm nor was a threat to society get executed for having differing opinions from higher authorities, but it also went to show how truly devastating of a time it was to be a citizen in Iran: losing loved ones and being forced to follow certain ideologies that some people might just not agree with. It was very much an eye-opener especially since we live in America, a country that is very open with freedom of speech and expression.