These situations highlight Satrapi’s knack of choosing incidents telling of the regime, while leavening a sometimes grim story. However this brings its own problems, and Marji is reprimanded for “looking at” the man she is drawing.
They turn to drawing men, as at least their more relaxed dress codes lets them see and draw limbs. Life drawing, meant to help budding artists understand and draw the human form, involves a model in a burqa – a garment designed to hide the wearer’s figure. Male and female students share corridors, but must use different staircases, as the movements involved are thought to inflame passions. In most stories, starting art college would represent liberation, but not in 1980s Iran. Liberal gains in Iran are measured by fractions of an inch reductions in acceptable head covering lengths, and so increases in the amount of provocative hair that can be shown. The second half of this volume then, has Marjane back in Iran.Īs she catches up with events and former friends, Europe starts to look better. This autobiographical coming of age story follows the typical arc of fictional ones as it brings the protagonist and their hard-won experience back home. This edition comprises the original French volumes 3 and 4, which makes sense as two books, with her life in Europe hitting rock bottom by the end of 3. Avoiding spoilers, things go from bad to worse. She continues her political journey, discovers “mood enhancers”, and attempts to enjoy the sexual freedoms of the West. She finds herself an outsider drawn to kindred spirits, “an eccentric, a punk, and two orphans”. She’s sent to a French school, then to live with catholic nuns, ironically seeing in them the worst of Iran. However when her old friend shows her the fashionable accessories of girls in Europe, Marjane condemns her as trivial and a traitor! Marjane is effectively still beating herself for the martyrs.Īway from her family and their money, Marjane’s a problem teenager, and a burden to be passed on. Their daughter’s an old schoolfriend and Marji confides that she’s looking forward to going to school without a veil, and not having to beat herself every day for the martyrs. ‘Marji’, now Marjane, is taken in by family friends settled in Austria. Persepolis 2 is both a coming of age story, and a refugee story of a person fleeing trauma, who ultimately carries part of it with them. If Persepolis, (named after an ancient city in present day Iran), was about Iran, is Persepolis 2 just a happy ever after or mere epilogue? Hardly. This second English language volume, begins with Marji ‘safe’ in Europe. A bestseller internationally, it was adapted into a similarly successful animated feature. Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, a memoir of growing up through Iran’s turbulent 1970s and 1980s, was a critical and commercial success.
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