Persepolis: Childhood Perspective

Prophet

At the beginning of the story, we see Marjane dreaming of being the last prophet in the world. She puts herself with the likes of Jesus and Muhammad. She wanted to become a prophet because she was surrounded by inequality. Her maid did not eat with her family. Her father drove a cadillac while others starved. Her grandmother suffered from pain brought on by old age. Marjane saw these inequalities and wanted to do something, but she hadn't thought of how. The prophets mentioned before mainly worked through teachings, not through simply forbidding things.

Revolutionary

It is no surprise that young Marjane, growing up in revolution, would become greatly affected by it. Marjane imagines herself as Che Guevara, and her friends, Fidel Castro and Leon Trotsky as they protest in her front yard. She talks about the revolution like a unified movement, with its parts all working towards one goal. In reality, the revolution is a complete mess, with people fighting for the revolution for different reasons, with different purposes and ideals. This is shown in the panel right after, using Marjane's metaphor of the revolution being a bike, and putting a realistic portrayal of the revolution as a giant mess of limbs and heads riding that bike.

Revolutionary

Later in the book, her approach to being a revolutionary becomes more hand on, as she begins to express her desire to be in a real demonstration. This is right after the Shah had locked all the people in the burning cinema. Marjane knows this, and the fact that people at demonstrations get shot. This lack of understanding of what goes on is further shown in her asking her parents to play monopoly with her. (Monopoly is ironic because her parents are fighting to dismantle the monopoly of power that Shah has) They are evidently tired, but she does not seem to be able to conclude that protesting is not as easy as she may have believed.

Marie Curie

As Marjane becomes older, she starts developing a will to be like Marie Curie. While this is more reasonable than her other aspirations, Marie Curie still had to face hardships, such as discrimination based on sex, money problems, and health issues.

Heroism

Often, Marjane compares her family members to the family members of her friends. All she can see is heroics and martyrdom, without considering the other half, which are the consequences, such as imprisonment, torture, or death. When she first meets uncle Anoosh, she feels nothing but excitement that there is a "hero" in the family, when in reality, he's more of a victim. When uncle Anoosh talks about his 9 year prison sentence, Marjane is shown thinking "Nine years! Better than Laly's father!"

Games

Shortly after meeting Siamak and Mohsen and learning about the hardships and torture they had to endure in prison, Marjane goes and makes torture games with her friends outside. These games include burning facial hair, twisting limbs, and force feeding each other garbage. Marjane doesn't understand the severity of the torture she is playing with, as is evident with their optimism towards the game. People who fully understand the pain and suffering would never trivialize events like their jailing.

Revenge

Upon discovering that the father of a kid named Ramin served with the Savak (the Shah's secret police) and is responsible for the deaths of many, Marjane and her friends decide to beat up Ramin with improvised brass knuckles, to avenge those his father killed. This shows her lack of understanding that the son should not be punished for the sins of his father. She also has not stopped to consider that she is justifying murder with murder.

Cadaver,cancer,death,murderer

Another place where Marjane does not receive full understanding is when her father returns home from photographing. He tells a funny story, but all Marjane hears is "Cadaver, Cancer, Death, Murderer? - Laughter?". Marjane doesn't realize that her parents are laughing at the story itself, not the specific words Cadaver, Cancer, Death, Murderer.

State propaganda

Shortly after the revolution, the Islamic republic showed results of 99.99% voting for them. Marjane sees these results on the TV and believed those figures right away, showing her naivete. She doesn't understand the full picture, that the results have been tampered with. As uncle Anoosh said, "She's just a child who repeats what she hears."

School

After the revolution, Marjane's education took a drastic shift. Before, her education was secular, but now her education is heavily controlled by the state. In response, Marjane makes a mockery of the daily rituals that are dedicated to those who have died in the war. All Marjane sees is the state run aspects, and disregards the imposed meaning of the activities.