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I only got one person to read my essay because it was so long, but it gave me some insight in what I need to do. I need to add a couple more quotes and I need to add to add more similarities between Marjane's story and mine and I need to figure out a title. Hopefully the final draft will be what the teachers looking for.

Rough Draft

This still needs a lot of work with the grammar and adding in some of my opinions along with similarities to my life, but this is the basis of the paper. I think I'll be adding in some more quotes and references too, but here's the rough draft of my essay. Can't think of a title either.

In the graphic novel “Persepolis” the author Marjane Sterapi depicts her childhood through amazing drawings and dialog. Through her childhood Marjane changes significantly from a little girl who wants nothing more than to be a prophet into a rebel. At the very end of the novel Marjane’s parents decide that sending her off to Austria would probably be in Marjane’s interest. Though this may seem extremely drastic, Marjane’s parents had seen Marjane grow up and seen all the events in Marjane’s life change and form her. Looking closer into the novel there were many events that influenced Marjane to grow up this way, beginning with her childhood; her parents and family influence her, seeing what the government was like, and her experiences with the people around her definitely shaped her. When she is a bit older she sees more things that reinforces her dislike for the government but she also is a nationalist when it comes to the war, she now has more influence from her parents and friends, and it is during this time she begins to become a rebel. At the end of the story tension between her and government figures arise and she rebels more and more till her parents finally decide to send her off to Vienna, Austria.

            At a very young age Marjane knows that her parents are both against the government and put their extra time into protesting. Her father would photograph the riots, which was illegal and her mother would protest and join riots. Early on Marjane wants to jump onto the bandwagon and begin protesting, but her parents tell her she is too young. Marjane’s parents buy her many books so she is informed of what the government is like and of dictators around the world. When Marjane has ideas that are not what her parents agree with her father will correct her, Marjane believed that The Shah was chosen by God, but her father quickly tells her otherwise. He tells her how The Shah’s father overthrew her great-great-grandfather through politics and agreements with other countries.  Through this her parents shape her view towards the government.

            Society and the people around Marjane also help shape how she feels about the government. When she was very young, Marjane wanted to be a prophet. Her grandma plays along with it but her teachers find this very odd and call in her parents to discuss it. After the meeting her parents ask her what she really wants to be, getting the gist of things, Marjane lies and tells them she wants to be a doctor. She learns early on that society doesn’t accept everything. When Marjane gets a little older and has read a good number of books she realizes that her maid is not in the same social class as she is, at first she just ponders it but accepts it when her parents tell her that’s how things are. Then one day the maid asks for Marjane to write letters to the neighbor, whom she’s in love with. This goes on for a few months until her father finds out what is going on, he quickly brings a stop to their romance when he goes over to the neighbors and tells him how Mehri was not his daughter but his maid. When he gets back from doing this he scolds Marjane for writing the letters and that is when she really questions the class system, she believed everyone should be equal. When The Shah is finally steps down from king and the prisoners are released Marjane meets two family friends and her uncle; Siamak Jari, Mohsen Shakiba and her Uncle Anoosh. When they visit they tell their stories and her family treats them like heroes. She is especially fond of her uncle who had been in prison for nine years. Her family and family friends reinforce that it is heroic to rebel and be against the government.

            Marjane experiences a couple incidents that really get her questioning the government. Throughout her childhood Marjane hears many bad things about The Shah but when he is forced to leave, she is thrown into a very confusing situation. The teachers who once told her that God had chosen The Shah were now telling them otherwise, people who were once for The Shah pretended like they had always been against him and had been a part of the protest, and many of the prisoners were released. I believe this made Marjane question who and what was right because the teachers and neighbors could say that the government was great one day and the next day say it was evil. After The Shah leaves the Islamic Republic takes his place and start killing old reformist off. Eventually they catch Anoosh, Marjane gets to visit him one last time and then they kill him. This affects Marjane deeply because she was so close to him and deeply reinforces her dislike for the government. Another aspect The Republic changes are the schools, when Marjane first began school she had been in coed school, but when they take over they decided that bilingual and coed schools should be shut down, she is also forced the wear a veil, which all the kids really dislike to wear.

            As Marjane gets older the government has changed, she views events with more awareness and knowledge, and has also reached the age where she begins to rebel. The government has become stricter under The Republic of Islam. It started off with changing the lower leveled schools and forcing women to wear veils, soon after Marjane was forced to tell people she prayed during her free time and her parents had to put curtains up so the neighbors couldn’t see what they were doing. Marjane is annoyed with this but plays along. As time goes on they close down the colleges crushing Marjane’s dream to be a Chemist. People who were for The Republic also rose up in status; they took the higher leveled jobs that belonged to people who had worked hard to get degrees and work up into them. This is seen in the chapter “The Passport”, Marjane’s uncle has a heart attack and needs heart surgery, unfortunately the countries hospitals were not equipped to do this kind of surgery. His wife went to ask the hospital director to grant him a permit to go to England, so he could get surgery, only to find her former window washer. In the end the permit had taken too long to come in and Marjane’s uncle passed away.

            Marjane’s parents also see that Marjane is growing older and finally decide to take her protesting. Her mother believes she should start to defend her rights and so they take her to a dangerous rally. This is one of many ways Marjane’s parents show her that being against the government is okay. When The Republic took over they banned the drinking of alcohol, partying, and pretty much anything fun. Though many families changed their ways, Marjane’s family felt it would be unbearable to live without these things. They often held parties where they’d drink, dance, and play cards one of her uncles even had a winemaking lab. Not only do her parents tell her this is all okay, but so does the rest of her family. When Marjane’s uncle is dying her parents take her to one of their friends who is illegally making passports. They had planned to make her uncle a passport to get him to a hospital in England, but the passport maker, Khosro, was caught before finishing it. Marjane’s parents make it hard for her to be anything other than a rebellious citizen; they take her to rallies, bring her around family who also have no respect for authority, and friends who have illegal projects.

            Marjane has grown so much from the beginning of the novel and is finally starting to rebel against the country and her parents. She has also lost people important to her, such as her friend who moves to America to get away from the government and her dear Anoosh. When she loses Anoosh is when she makes her first step to rebelling; she throws out God. She had loved God immensely, but when Anoosh dies she tells God to leave and from then on God never comes back. The one thing that may have kept her from rebelling in the future is now completely gone. When Iran goes to war with Iraq the schools forced the children to mourn the dead twice a day and hit their breast. At first Marjane and her classmates take this seriously, but they soon start making fun of it (especially Marjane) and disobeying the teachers. Their parents are called in after they are all suspended, but they disregard what the teacher has to say and tell her that the schools shouldn’t be forcing the children to hit themselves. A while after this incident Marjane begins to hang out with older girls and decides to skips school with them. Marjane even states “I had already broken the rules once by going to the demonstration in ‘79” (111), which was when her parents took her to the rally; this made it seem okay to skip school too. When Marjane gets home her mom tells her off. Later she decides to rebel against her mom and smokes a cigarette, taking her first step into adulthood.

            By the end of Marjane’s time in Iran the government has become even more controlling and Marjane has come to an age where she won’t stand for it. There were organizations like the Guardians of the Revolution who enforced rules, they were pretty much cops. The war between Iraq and Iran had also gotten worse, they were throwing down more bombs than ever. Eventually Iraq bombs the district Marjane lived at, fortunately she had been out that day. When she hears that a bomb had landed near her home she rushes home, her mother is okay but when she realizes this she worries about her neighbor, Neda. When they pass by Neda’s house Marjane’s mom tries to distract her but Marjane notices a bracelet in the rubble that Neda always wore. She knows that Neda is dead. A while after the Neda incident Marjane gets into trouble and learns something horrible about the government. When the government wanted to kill a virgin girl (which was against their beliefs) they’d marry her off to a religious man, he’d rape her, and then they’d execute her that way they weren’t committing a sin. This shocked and disgusted Marjane when her parents warned her about her behavior, even though they’d been the ones who had raised her to be against the government.

            At the end of the graphic novel Marjane is rebelling more and more. Marjane wears what she wants when she wants. She is into punk rock so she is wearing fashioned clothes, one day she decides to go to a street where people sell illegal tapes of music. When she goes out she is dressed up in things that the government has banned. The Guardians of the Revolution catch her and are ready to take her to one of their headquarters but she is able to talk her way out of it. Another incident where Marjane rebels quickly snowballs out of control. Marjane’s school had a rule of no jewelry, but Marjane having no respect for authority wears it anyways. The teacher tells her to not wear her bracelet again or she’ll confiscate it, Marjane waves her off and the next day wears it again. The teacher sees that Marjane is still wearing the bracelet and asks for Marjane to hand it over, but Marjane talks back and won’t give it to her. The teacher becomes angry when Marjane is being rude and tries to take the bracelet from her and Marjane pushes the teacher off her making her fall over. The teacher, who is also the principle, expels her Marjane in an instant. Marjane is placed into another school where she again disrespects a teacher, correcting them on what they were teaching. It is after this incident Marjane’s parents finally decide that Iran is not a safe place for Marjane to live with the way they raised her.

            Even though Marjane’s parents decision may seem drastic they obviously had a good reason for doing so. Marjane had grown into a very opinionated young lady who wasn’t afraid to be herself and say what she felt in a country where it wasn’t safe to do so. This was a product of much modeling from her parents beliefs, the way they had made her feel about the government along with her seeing all the bad things the government did. Not only did her parents reinforce her dislike for the government but so did her extended family and family friends. If her parents had not spoke their opinions in front of her so often and had moved when things had started to turn bad Marjane would not have grown up to be so disrespectful and rebellious .

Week 4 Prompt #4

Near the end of the book Marjane’s neighborhood is bombed and a girl near her age, Neda, who she use to talk to is killed. After Neda’s death Marjane becomes fearless, she disobeys her teachers and gets expelled for pushing the principle off of her. Her parents go through the trouble of finding her a new school and when she gets there she corrects the teacher on some of Iran’s history. Her parents realize that it is unlikely that Marjane’s behavior will change, and Iran is not a good environment for the rebelling teen, so they decide to send her to Paris. Marjane is torn by the situation but gets to say good bye to her friends and on her last night she sleeps with her grandma, who gives her advice. At the end of the book Marjane’s parents are seeing her off at the airport. Marjane knows that she will never live with her parents again.

The end of the novel definitely leaves you wanting more. The story has lead you through Marjane’s life as a little girl wanting to be a prophet who lives through a period of time in her country where the government isn’t stable and this has led her to become rebellious. She loses many people in her life, some she’s loved dearly and have been killed while others were friends who had moved to get away from the government. Through unintentional influences from her parents and the people who surround her she becomes rebellious against the government and many authority figures, such as the teachers.

Seeing everything that has happened so far in the book, I think Marjane will be a little bit more against the religious reforms and the government in Iran, but she also won’t be as much a part of it as she was when she lived there. Everything that will be happening in Iran she’ll know about, but she will no longer be in it, so I think she may perceive it a bit differently then she would if she had been living there. I also think the move will be good for her; she will be staying with her mom’s good friend where there won’t be as many issues as Iran had. In a sense she is going to have more freedom then she had in Iran, though we don’t know what kind of person Marjane’s mother’s friend will be. She will be able to listen to anything she wants, wear whatever she wants and not be forced to wear a veil, the schools will also probably have a different feel to them. The people she is around will also probably be different, if they are from Paris they will probably have a different way of thinking and this might be very good for Marjane. If worse comes to worse Marjane may end up hating who she’s living with and rebel against her rules and her beliefs, but I doubt it. I believe Marjane will move to Paris, miss her family and country dearly, but will enjoy the people she meets. I think she’ll enjoy the schools more over there and may become more involved with politics.