Persepolis Reading Blogs

The Veil

In this chapter, the main character, Marji is required to use a veil, but I think the title has a deeper meaning.

She wants to be a prophet, but she has to hide it from the world because it is not correct in her society. She has to hide behind a figurative veil that doesn't let her be her true self, and show who she really is. Society is oppressing her; she and other girls her age can't show their true self for fear of being mistreated. A veil doesn't let you be yourself, it keeps you hidden, and it makes everyone identical. It is true that everyone should be treated equally but everyone shouldn't be and act exactly the same. There is a Dr. Seuss quote that I really like “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.” With a veil, you can't be yourself, your identity is stolen, and with this veil the society is preventing people from thinking differently which is fundamental in the progress of a country. The government is giving the idea that if you are different you are bad, and if you want to express yourself you need to do it revolting and being violent.

Class photo. You can see everyone looks exactly the same.
Everyone is unhappy too. They don't like the new change.

Persepolis

This chapter kind of reminds me of the book The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas. In this book there is a boy, Bruno, that is son of a Nazi general, and he goes to live near a concentration camp. He can see the concentration camp through his window, but he doesn't know what it is. He sees people all dressed the same way, but he doesn't understand what is going on or why they are there. He is blinded by the innocence of being a child. The same happens to Marji in this story. She doesn't know what the revolution is, and she doesn't understand her parent´s behaviors. She doesn't understand why they laugh and for what are they fighting. This is why she starts reading about the revolution, so she can understand what is really happening.

Bruno doesn't understand, for him its all a game. He thinks the
other side of the fence is better.

Gretel and Bruno are looking out the window. They see the concentration

camp but are unsure of what it is.

The Sheep
In this chapter, Marji goes through what her mother once felt when her father went to jail. Her uncle, who she loved, goes to jail, and she has the opportunity to go visit him. The same had happened to her mother when her father was in jail. The difference is that Marji is proud of him being in jail since that makes him a hero, so she tells everyone she can. When her grandfather was in jail they were ashamed and tried to hide their problems from their neighbors. Marji´s uncle, Anoosh, gives her another bread swan, and he says it's the uncle of the first one he gave her. I think this represents him, and the other one represents Marji. Birds often represent freedom so it may mean that he wants her to have freedom in her life, he wants her to be happy, and he wants her to remember him forever.

Marji visits her uncle, Anoosh, like her mom once
did with her father. In the bottom left square,
 Anoosh gives Marji the bread swan.

The Passport
In this chapter I had many questions:

• How did a window washer become a health director? Is it just because he grew a beard?
• Can war blind a government and a society so that important jobs like health directors are taken by barely educated people like window washers?
• Why doesn't Marji and her family move out of the country as soon as possible? Everyday there are more people dying, and there is more suffering, is it really worth it to stay in that country?
• Can religion blind a society so much to say things like "If god wills it, he´ll get better" when he has had 3 heart attacks? Until what point is religion good? When does it start taking over the people?
• If there are people being tortured just for thinking differently, what will they do to someone who is doing false passports?
• Who should you trust is situations like the one the country is living?
• What benefits does the country see by not having religious and cultural freedom?

Taher's wife is trying to convince the health director
to get a passport for her husband because he is really sick.

The Dowry
I can relate this story to the story of Narnia. In Narnia, the country is going through a terrible war so the parents of 4 kids send them away to were they can be safe. It is possible that they will never see each other again but the parents want to do what is best for their daughters and sons. The same thing happens in Persepolis. Marji's parents want to send her to Austria were she will have a better education and a better and safer life. Parents will always do sacrifices for their children and this is what Marji´s parents have to do. She knows that maybe she will never see them again like the biggest of the Narnia kids who knows he will have to take care of his siblings since he is the new "parent". In both stories the "goodbye" is a sad moment but they know it is for good and for the benefit of the kids.

Two of the Narnia kids are in the train
station ready to leave. There is
sadness all around them as many
kids leave their families behind.

Marji is told that she is going to leave to Austria. She is sad and
suspects she will never see her parents again.