Jesse Cooley
1)
Loss of innocence is one of the major themes of
this section of the book. What do you think of the major transition in
Marjane’s character at this time? What do you believe the major factor was
behind this transformation, or was it simply just the culmination of everything
in her life?
2)
We see Marji’s relationship with her mother
change drastically at this time. Marjane states that when you do not see your
mother very often that little things slide. Was it the time that created this
change or was it more that Marjane was being treated more like an adult
instead? Would Marjane have gone through the same changes if her parents were
there? What about her Grandma?
3)
We see the discrimination of Iranians slowly
build in Austria throughout this time. Does it remind you of the changes in
Poland described in Maus? We see the troubles that Marjane went through; does
this change your perspective of Vladek hearing about someone going through
similar hardships and changing radically as a person?
4)
On returning home we see Marjane struggle with
the person that she has become. The weight of her choices and mistakes are
clearly weighing heavy on her shoulders, was coming home the right idea for her
at the time? Do you think her parents should have tried to leave to support her
sooner?
Personally, this section was an
amazing one to read. The details of how she lost her innocence and her
childhood ideals is something that will stick with me. You can see how the past
has changed her, and how the situations she now faces because of her country is
slowly poisoning her. The final questions I am asking are ones that came to me
while reading. Would Marjane had suffered as much through this time in her life
if she had been in a conformist family and is the suffering she is facing now
worth the person she is today?
Persepolis
ReplyDelete1) Marjane always seemed to be the type of person to want to grow up fast. She wanted to go to dangerous rallies as a kid and always seemed to be strongly opinionated. It seems like living in Iran in this period of time, people needed to be educated in their government or life would become more complicated than they should. With Marjane making her way back home to her parents, she has gone full circle and returned to her roots while still acquiring her adulthood. The major factor in Marjane’s transformation was her time apart from her family. Those years apart and Marjane finding her individuality and personal freedom let her discover who she wanted to be. Her new freedoms gave her a new look into her life in Iran. She was always so opinionated growing up, but I definitely believe that the drastic change in life from Iran to Europe made her more open to what she wanted in life.
2) Before Marjane moved to Europe, her mother was very hard on her. She was a strict parent because she only wanted to protect her from the outside would. Now that Marjane had grown into a woman while away from her family, her mother seems more open to her daughters life and what she wants but still acts like a normal mother wanting her daughter to be safe. I feel that Marjane would have been less likely to experience life the way she did alone in Europe if her parents were there. She’s always be worrying what her parents would think and this would keep her from going the extra mile and experiencing new things. I remember when Marjane talked about how her parents might not approve of her punk look. This opinion really shows that she would second-guess herself if they were any closer. Her grandma, unlike her parents, seems more open about life. Her grandmother would probably be so happy about her trying to be so open and expressive. Her last lines with Marjane telling her to always be “true to herself” was probably the driving force in Marjane moving into her new freedoms.
4) Marjane returning home, she saw that she was returning to nothing. She felt that she came home with nothing new in her life and returned home with “again” almost nothing. She lost her childhood tapes and this loss pushes her to see that she is a grown-up. Retuning home with nothing was like starting over again. Her future is open to many possibilities now. Coming home was what she really wanted. In Europe, Marjane was living a life of poverty for months on the streets. Her living away from her parents for so long and losing whatever she gained personally in Europe, the only option was to return home. Home was a shining light and a place that she could breathe once again even though it was hardened by war. I feel that her parents should of left the country a long time ago. They missed their daughter growing up. These years in Europe were the most complicated in a person’s life. If her parents were there, she might have been more likely to keep moving forward and not desire to “somewhat” give up.
I think Marjane’s family had a huge bearing on her transformation in Europe. She came from a group of very active intelligent people, apt to have unpopular opinions, the knowledge to support their beliefs, and the fearlessness to act in accordance to beliefs chosen by them alone, regardless of oppression. Marjane was like any other young child wanting to rebel against authority, but I suppose in a way it was celebrated or at least excused by her family because her triumphs were ideologically in favor of the revolution and against the oppressive regime. I think that this combination of natural developmental problems along with an encouraged rebellious nature made Marjane a little less sharp to the risks of what she engaged in. Perhaps next to death and political imprisonment dabbling in drugs and becoming a vegetable were lesser risks, or perhaps since she scraped so many times past impossible circumstances in Iran she felt herself less susceptible. As if she had triple the resilience because of her experience when perhaps it made her all the more vulnerable, especially with no social support. I think her mother and her family after this transition came to respect Marjane as an adult simply because she had to grow up so fast—they were not aware of all of Marjane’s struggles or actions (which they wouldn’t approve of). But the fact that she was so strong and was doing well despite discrimination, language barriers and isolation she really earned this place as a competent adult like them in their eyes way before she would have otherwise. I’m sure some of the difference came from her simply being older and maybe from being a little bit different—she was living in Europe for a while, maybe a small part of her felt foreign to her mother as well—both the adult part and the smaller European things.
ReplyDeleteI thought the changing relationship between Marji and her mom was really interesting. It seems like it was a bit of an abrupt change, which I can think can be explained by the fact that Marji was in Europe for four years. She says that when she reunites with her mom, and later her dad, not only did they have a difficult time recognizing her, but also she was so much taller and grown up than she had been before. She really aged and matured during this time apart from her parents, so it must have been strange (but very happy, of course) when she saw them again.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think the same can be sad from Taji’s perspective. When she sees her daughter, all of a sudden she seems like a grown woman. While before, Taji probably felt the need to protect her daughter in many ways, now she feels like she can be more open with her. She no longer needs to shelter her in the same way. This can be seen in the way that at one time Marji smokes a cigarette as a symbol of defiance and rebellion, but later she and her mother have a cigarette together. However, I did notice that when Marji’s father Ebi is filling Marji in on the details of what happened in Iran while she was in Austria, Taji seemed uneasy about letting her daughter hear about such horrific events. In this way, parents probably always feel a lingering sense of wanting to protect their children, even when they are adults.
1. When Marji leaves for Austria, she has much more changing in her life than simply where she lives. Satrapi does a good job of reminding us how intense and mercurial life is at that age, when it feels like everything is changing and nothing can be done about it. One of the things I loved about this section was how it kept raising in my mind the question: "Why do I find this so relatable? None of these things have ever come close to happening to me." But of course, Persepolis' biggest strength is taking such a unique and unrelatable story and tying it to the universal experience of adolescence. And like a most stories of adolescence, I don't think there was necessarily a single event that led to her transition to adulthood. During her four years in Austria, there were all kinds of experiences that brought her closer to maturity, some good, some bad.
ReplyDelete2. Like in Maus, family is very much a core theme of Persepolis. Satrapi puts her growth into adulthood in the same context as the changes and developments in her relationship between her parents, which is how many people experience these changes in their own life. It is not her friends who help her understand herself and her place in the world, but her mother, her father, and her grandmother. I think Taji's understanding when she came to visit Marji is based upon a mutual need for family, one that has its roots in the terrors of war that they have both shared. Taji may worry over Marji's new lifestyle in Austria, but the book as a whole makes it clear the her parents' only wish is to see her free and happy. So I don't think that it had to do with their time apart or recognizing her as an adult. Rather, I think that Taji, as well as Ebi, secretly want her to live like this: far out of harm's way, but free to do what she wants.
I think a culmination of things she experienced is the most likely reason for Marji's loss of innocence. She wasn't happy with either place and she looked for misfits in Europe and people who were willing to express humor about the regime when she returned to Iran. She made herself a hybrid identity that didn't really work and for a time she didn't know who or what she was because she was odd and still confused. I understood this conflict and I think it is common for people struggling with finding themselves, especially when they often find themselves being the 'new kid' or 'outsider'.
ReplyDelete2) Marji's parents seem great. I was especially impressed with what excellent parents they seem to be. They gave her freedom, protection, and support when she truly needed those things. I think she had a lot of respectable shoes to fill with the courageous and compassionate members of her family. That may have been one of the reasons she tried so hard to discover the meaning of things at such young ages as well as the reason she tried to find a purpose with dignity for herself.
1) I think when Marjane lost her innocence truly was when she started smoking weed. Going from a girl who pray every day and had such a powerful relationship with God to something like that opens the world up to you. Not saying that the act is wrong, but it is showing that she is relaxing more and letting her guard down. When someone let's their guard down the world seems to wake them up pretty quickly.
ReplyDelete2) I think that the times changed the relationship along with what was happening in each of their lives at the time. Both have seen a lot of death and discrimination whether it be in Austria or Iran, things don't seem as important when you might not see a loved one because of a bombing that night. The relationship changed because the world woke them up. They realized that life is too precious to hold anger against someone for a mistake or decision you don't agree with they made in their past.
I think the major factor in Marjanes transformation was the culmination of events and influences in her life. These various ideas and factors slowly built until they were allowed free expression in Austria, and so Austria and her freedom there can be seen as a catalyst to her transformation though i do not think it ultimately affected her trajectory or anything of the sort.
ReplyDeleteI do believe Marjane would have gone through the same or similar changes had her family been present in Austria with her, because the society was so much more willing and open to allowing her expression of independence that her family would have only been an irritation throughout the transformation, and not really a force for prevention of change.
The changes in Poland described in Maus, and those in Austria are similar, though of a different caliber. In Maus, i doubt anyone would have ever been proud enough to scream they were Jewish and proud of it, that would very likely get them into some significant trouble, perhaps even killed. However Marjane did just this.
I think Marjane's parents could have attempted t support her sooner, though i am unsure if she would have really allowed it, maybe financially, though i think mentally she was going to continue rebelling against them and continue on the trajectory which she had been on. Returning home was inevitable. Whether it was the right time or not, it had to happen sooner or later. With monumental changes, and life altering shifts in perspective there always comes a moment in time when past and present have to stare one another down, and see which one stands tallest, because a person can not continue to hold to perspectives within them for long. Marjane's returning home was to either accept her Iranian life, or to put a bullet into it. Which she nearly mistakes for her life rather than her Iranian past-life.
She would have suffered, just in a different way had she been in a conformist family. As for her current suffering being worth the person she is today? There is always a price to be paid for stretching, and growing beyond what/who you are, and her "suffering" was only this, growing pains. Looking back on her life i seriously doubt Marjane Satrapi would ever say she suffered, or if she did that it was greater in cost than all of the experience and benefit gained from it.
I believe it was the culmination of everything in her life which caused her to be the person she is at this point in her life. She went from removing her best friend (God) out of her life completely, to struggling to form friendships with people who had different opinions than her. She had to leave her home at a young age, had inner battles with her identity, trying to fit in, and looking for companionship, she reaches a point in the story, when she smokes her first cigarette, she says she “kisses her childhood goodbye.” Throughout the story, her innocence slowly shatters, with her living at a time of war, it is very hard for her to maintain her innocence in such harsh times.
ReplyDeleteI think it was because she was finally treated like an adult, not because of time, because when her mom saw her, she yearned to be held by her as when she was when she was younger. But when her mom asks her if she wants a cigarette, she was stunned, as if she is doing something completely taboo and her mom is giving her permission too. It is a amusing thing to see, how she reacts to her mom treating her as an adult. I don’t think she would have gone through the same exact things she went through if her family was with her, if she had her family’s love and support, she would have had much better memories of Europe. I think if her grandmother was there she would’ve been much happier, to share moments with someone who understands her completely.
I think it was the right thing for her to do, I wish she had gone home sooner, I can imagine it was hard for her, she wanted to make her parents proud, to be someone important. She was ashamed to go home with nothing to show for all her time being gone. I think her parents should have tried to contact her sooner, to visit her sooner as they promised, I don’t think things would have turned out so rough for her if her family had visited her and supported her more.