Week four - #4 Blog entry

Marjane Satrapi as a young girl

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi who was obviously born and raised as a strong girl genuinely believed in fighting for what she believes in. Sometimes her actions seem disobedient, and they get her into trouble somewhat frequently.

Towards the end of the book Marjane experiences once again rebellion. After a bomb hits the street where Marjane lives, she finds out from her mother, who is safe, that her friends home had been struck by the bomb in her neighborhood. The bomb had actually hit the home of her friend Neda Baba-Levy. When walking past the damage of her friends house, she notices a bracelet, and what was attached to the bracelet which made Marjane gasp. Her friend was dead.

This caused Marjane's life to take a new turn. She was now fourteen and became more of a rebel and nothing scared her, even her teacher and principal could not control her. One day at school Marjane was confronted by the principal if I recall correctly about wearing jewelry, she rebelled, which caused her anger to hit the principal. Then once again Marjane rebels her religion teacher who is telling the class how the Islamic regime no longer has political prisoners. Marjane quickly argues with the religion teacher that her uncle had been executed by the regime and that the number of prisoners has increased from three thousand to three hundred thousand under the regime. She is quickly backed up by her fellow students who applaud her, which in return angers her religion teacher. Of course her father is proud for what his daughter Marjane had done though it did in the end cause her to get expelled. Her mother on the other hand says “You know what they do to the young girls they arrest? ...You know that it’s against the law to kill a virgin...so a Guardian of the Revolution marries her... and takes her virginity before executing her.” (145).

I do not know exactly what I feel might happen, but I do have some concerns about her actions and how she goes about being rebellious in a country that takes drastic measures in punishment. I have a feeling that there might be some good in Marjane’s reactions, but with good comes bad and negative after maths. I think for the safety of Marjane, her family might actually pick up and move all their things to another country by getting a fake passport or get a visa for them to leave for the safety of their daughter and family. A bomb just went of right next to their home, so things are hitting closer to home the more in depth in the book we get, and now Marjane is having a harder time in school which might cause her to face some difficult consequences which can hurt the family badly. I think as Marjane grows and enters adult hood she will be a strong woman with strong goals in life. She has had a rough, yet rich childhood, but with the war and seeing family die or move away has affected how Marjane is growing into a young woman.