Essay: Persepolis 2 – Coming of Age

Written Assignment: Coming of Age
After that one smoke Childhood was executed and never seen again. Many people have different meanings of how one reaches adulthood. Some believe adulthood comes when they reach puberty, graduate high school, turn twenty-one, start to live alone, start to pay taxes, or when they marry. These are all examples that show their own meaning of adulthood today in the 21 first century. As for Marjane smoking a cigarette is one way of reaching adulthood. “With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye.”: In Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, Marjane experienced multiple events where she had to mature mentally, despite her young age, because of the conflict happening her hometown of Tehran.
First of all, Marjane was forced to mature much too quickly because of the war and conflict happening in her hometown of Tehran, the capital of Iran where most of the conflict was. Not only that, even before her teenage years, she lost her childhood innocence as she watched the war around her. This includes Marjane attending demonstrations at a young age with her maid.in the chapter The Letter, Marjane exclaims,”Tomorrow we are going to demonstrate.” This shows how the setting around her influenced her to attend dangerous events for a young child. I believe that children should not be exposed to the dangers of wars, that can severely traumatize them in the future. On the other hand, I believe that the demonstrations did not mentally damaged Marjane but only made her stronger to fight for what she believes in. However, I believe that Marjane’s parents should have kept Marjane aware of what is happening around them ,but should console her that the issues going on would eventually go away. In addition, this shows that children during that time had to go through such lengths as to loose their childhood and fight in the war, just like it is shown the chapter The Key where young boys were told they would receive a paradise if they fight in the war. For example, Marjane’s maid said,“They gave this to my son at school. They were told that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this ket would get them into heaven.” This shows the readers that children were influenced by their teachers to help overthrow the government by attending demonstrations and participate in the war. This affects the story giving Marjane a reason to grow up faster than she is supposed to and to start defending herself for her interests.
To further add, Marjane had to mentally mature in order to understand the difference between the social economic classes around her. From the beginning of the graphic novel, Marjane had small understanding of the differences between poor and rich. For example, in the novel’s chapter The Veil, Marjane states, “I wanted to be a prophet.. Because my father has a Cadillac.” and she also states,”Rule number six:everyone should have a car”. These quotes show how Marjane would identify the poor by looking for a car or a Cadillac and she made her prophet rules as a way to equally stabilise the economy.. However, Marjane did not fully understand the economic classes as she used cars to know the difference between rich and poor. In addition, Marjane then finds out why the revolution after she puts the pieces together. Like how Marjane mentioned before in the chapter The Letter, Marjane said,”I finally understood why I felt ashamed to sit in my to sit in my father’s cadillac. The reason for my shame and for the revolution is the same: the difference between classes.” This shows how Marjane realized that she was surrounded by social classes. I believe that Marjane should have been taught about the differences in social classes so that she would be able to understand the society around her and to be able to empathize with the people around her. To further add, Marjane’s misunderstandment on the social classes shows the reader how Marjane was able to learn from her mistakes. Marjane’s will to learn more from the things around her makes her mature mentally than physically. For example, in the chapter The Letter, Marjane’s father states,” Because in this country you must stay within your own social class.” to which Marjane responds with,” But is it her fault that she was born where she was born!? Dad are you for or against social classes? When I went back to her room she [Mehri] was crying. We were not in the same social class but at least we were in the same bed.”In this section of the text Marjane has understood the difference between social classes after her father has explained to her that people with the same social class should stick together, something that Marjane strongly disagreed. This has given the graphic novel a stronger and more mature personality to Marjane, as she goes against peoples norms or ideology from the 1980’s.
In addition, Marjane not only matured by learning about social classes and attending demonstrations. She also matured by watching the killings that went on in the streets of Tehran. As Marjane grew up the people in Tehran also grew more hostile. They caused riots that endangered the people within those riots. For example, in the novel chapter The Trip, Marjane attends another demonstration with her mothers permission to “start learning to defend her rights as a women.” With this Marjane went to help her parents only to be attacked by a group of fundamentalists men. The fundamentalists men beat and stabbed the women who were not wearing their scarves. During this even, Marjane stated,”For the first time in my life, I saw violence with my own eyes.” to show how violent Tehran is. I believe that attending demonstrations to support one’s belief is important to understand the society around. Marjane’s experience in the demonstration has taught her to defend her right as a women. This has made her grow more independent and strong enough to fight for her beliefs. For example, in the chapter The Wine, Marjane’s mother covers the windows with,”The masking tape is to protect against flying glass during a bombing and the black curtains are to protect us from our neighbors.” This shows the reader that Marjane’s mother is aware of the violence outside. Now that Tehran has grown more violent Marjane’s family has been getting ready for any kind of obstacle that may come to them. In addition, Marjane has also experienced a near death experience and the loss of her friends. For example, the chapter The Shabbat, Marjane went home to a bomb exploding near her neighborhood of Tavanir. In the chapter Marjane says,”I didn’t want to look up I looked at my trembling legs. I couldn’t forward, like in a nightmare.” This shows the reader that Marjane was scared of losing her family. Despite Marjane growing up and maturing she is still has child thoughts like missing her family and being relieved ,enough to cry, that her mom is alright. As Marjane kept walking through her neighborhood, she stated, “When I walked by the Baba-levy’s house.Something told me that the Baba-levy’s had been at home. Something caught my attention…I saw a turquoise bracelet. It was Neda’s.” This is how Marjane was severely traumatized, after experiencing multiple events full of gore. Events like these are considered to be too dangerous for kids to be in, but now that Marjane has mentally matured she was ready for things like that. To further add, Marjane’s loss of childhood was not when she saw blood, but when she smoked her childhood away. For example, like how I previously mentioned, Marjane’s way of entering adulthood was by smoking a cigarette. In the chapter The Cigarette Marjane prepares a cigarette while imagining men lining up to be executed. Satrapi does this to show that Childhood is lining up to get executed by the cigarette. To further add, Marjane states, “As for me, I sealed my act of rebellion against my mother’s dictatorship by smoking the cigarette I’d stolen from my uncle two weeks earlier.” This shows us that Marjane is going through rebellion meaning she is growing up to defend herself. However, why did Marjane believe that smoking a cigarette will turn her into an adult. Marjane probably smoked a cigarette because it is a common act between her family, like it is shown in the beginning of the chapter The Passport.
To sum up everything, everyone has a different meaning of what grown it takes to grow up or to mature. Whether it is to attend riots, understand the difference between social classes, or to experience violence every one matures to survival be in the growing environment. Similar to Marjane’s way of maturing which was to smoke a cigarette in order to survive during a war in the Middle East.
Works Cited
https://www.shmoop.com/persepolis/coming-of-age-theme.html
2019-1-9-1547001364