Marjane Satrapi From 'Persepolis'

Marjane Satrapi is a strong, brave character in Persepolis, a graphic novel written by Marjane herself. As the story of the childhood of Marjane plays out, there is a great impact on her as she begins to experience things that she probably never realized she would. The changes she goes through warp her perspective on not only her political views but also her religious ideas and conspiracies. “They say faith is unbreakable but what if by losing your faith, you find the key to inner strength?” This is a question someone could ask himself or herself after reading this graphic novel. Marjane grew up believing in her religious ideas, but this changed as she gained new knowledge and began to find other ways to cope with her uncertainties and issues.

These new ideas and concepts she began to learn throughout the novel did not become a problem for her, but rather a solution. Her strength had always been through her faith in God but when that changed, it did not negatively affect her, but rather allowed her to find her key to the inner strength she withheld. Marji’s faith had begun strong, being a major part of her everyday life, but as time passed and war had begun, her faith deteriorated and God’s presence soon was lost. The first introduction to the theme of religion starts early in the novel when Marji is speaking about what she would like to be when she grows up. She explains to the reader how she was “born with religion” and how she was already certain she was the last prophet at age 6.

As a young child and going into her teenage years, she speaks to God as if he is her imaginary friend. The conversations taking place are always away from Marji’s family, which is never an issue, but might cause a reader to question this. It is a private, personal religion to Marji, which is very influential and important to her, and therefore does not require anyone else to believe in it. If anything, her parents do not seem to be religiously involved with anything in their lives. They are portrayed as people who do not seek religion and instead intake political beliefs and care about what is going on in the world. Starting her faith at a young age, Marji talks to God every night about what is going on in her life and how she feels. She speaks to God most when her life is not quite going the way she planned or when something bad takes place. Marji soon realizes that being a prophet is not a “normal” dream to have at her age when she decides to share her beliefs and feelings at school. After her teacher informs her parents about the things Marji shares, she tells her parents that she wants to be a doctor instead. This lie that she creates causes her to feel guilty when God comes to visit her that same night. When God questions Marji about being a doctor, rather than a prophet, she tells him that she still wants to continue the path to being a prophet, but it must be secret. Having said that, one would think that she is ashamed of her feelings and beliefs.

The shimmer of hope she has seems to fade a little because she does not seem as confident in her faith like before. Marji feels as if she was born with her faith and that her dreams of being close to God and fulfilling a prophecy of divinity are her purpose for being alive. It is obvious from her age and attitude that God plays a very important role in her everyday life, giving her comfort and security. This security, sadly enough, did not last as the political violence had begun to grow in Iran. It is seen in The Bicycle (chapter two) that Marji is beginning to move away from God. She begins the chapter by stating, “My faith was not unshakable.” This being said foreshadows her abandonment of faith. As she begins to read and learn about her country’s past and political ideas such as Marxism, her increasing interest in these types of ideas begin to cause more of a disinterest in God. On page 13, Marji tells God that she does not want to be a prophet anymore. The ideas Marji is taking in are beginning to change her views and feelings on her faith. As she is growing and heading towards the political and social realities of the world she lives in, she starts to distance herself from God. As Marji begins to read more about Karl Marx and political theory, her relationship with God weakens even more. While Marjane is continuing to still learn about her country’s past. Along with the social and political realities of the world, she is still naïve enough to where she believes that God chose the King. She chooses to believe this also because it is comforting to her, as well as reassuring whenever things seem to go wrong. When God shows up once again on page 25, it is when Marjane finds out about her grandfather being tortured in a cell full of water and therefore decides to take a long bath. She sits in the bathtub for hours to experience what her grandfather went through. God only asks what she is doing and there is no other conversation apparent between God and Marji. God is where Marji finds her comfort and this is not necessarily a good thing, because this means she is, in a way, using God.

Even though she is still pretty young and vulnerable, she is at the age to where she has a choice in what she believes. Marji seems to feel especially vulnerable when she hears the stories about people such as Mohsen and Siamak being tortured in prison. This is when she states on page 53, “The only place I felt safe was in the arms of my friend.” She is referring to God in this statement. Again, this shows her tendency to run back to God whenever she feels scared or vulnerable. Directly after this scene, Marji is shown focusing on how wrinkled her skin is, which could signify how her passion lies elsewhere rather than with God. Most of Marji’s energy was put into God before she was overtaken by her family history and surrounding political warfare. When God eventually reappears to Marji once again, it is during the time that Marji’s father is late coming home one night. Marji can only seem to think about her father being dead, as she imagines his head floating next to God’s. There is no interaction with God, as once before, but only an image present. As time continues to pass by without the presence or even the slightest image of God, he surprisingly reappears to comfort Marji after her friend Laly’s father is released from prison. As Siamak fills in Marji’s family with stories of the torture that he and his friends had to endure, Marji is traumatized at the thought of physical torture. This, in turn, causes her to leave her political and philosophical readings and return to God for his comfort and solstice. This is another way of seeing the way Marji would once again seem to have no room for God or faith when she is ready to protest and focus on her deteriorating country. This experience of hers only reinforces the fact that God is Marji’s comfort and safe place in times of fear. As Marji gets to know her Uncle Anoosh in the chapter titled “Moscow”, she feels super close to him almost immediately and calls him her ‘hero’. When Islamic Fundamentalists execute her Uncle Anoosh, she is very hurt; leading up to this point, Marji loses her faith entirely in “The Sheep” chapter. She bluntly tells God to get out of her life and never come back. She is officially done with God in her life and this is probably because, in her eyes, she sees it as “betrayal.” Marji might say that he abandoned her and allowed bad things to happen to good people.

She realizes that the world is a very unfair place and is hurt because the “Almighty, fair God” did not save her uncle. When the theme of religion is used in a novel, religion is usually portrayed as good or bad. Marjane is able to portray religion as both good and bad, depending on the situation in which she is going through in Persepolis. Marji is deeply religious as a child, even though her parents are not and the theme of religion is very important to Marji’s understanding of herself. As the Islamic Revolution comes to Iran, her hometown, the religious reform forces many rules and lifestyle changes on Marji. These changes are also typical of her family, and everyone else living in the country of Iran. It seems as if there is a tension in the novel Persepolis, as the Revolution separates a “good” and “bad” religion. This tension that takes place is seen when it is shown how dangerous and cult-like organized religion can become. This takes place while showing the way in which Marji keeps her religious beliefs private, along with the way these beliefs strengthen her through hard times. This could be separated as private religion, as in the way it is portrayed through Marji, and organized religion, as is portrayed by the Islamic Revolution. It is so ironic how the closer society and religion tries to bring us to God, the further it takes us away from him.