Marjane Satrapi is a child who lived through the Persian revolution and the Iraq-Iran War. She is a rebellious little girl and her parent's decide that Iran is no longer a safe place for her. I am going to try to examine the specific reasons her parents opted to OR chose to send her away and weigh the external cause and internal effect of these situations. And I will also explain to you what exactly was Marjane rebelling against? School? Religion? Government? Her parents?
Marjane’s story starts when she is a 10 year old in school, and the Islamic revolution Is taking place. Marjane’s life before the Islamic revolution was very different, she used to go to a Non- religious French school, her mother never wore the scarf, and all in all her family considered themselves very modern and as she puts it “Avant-garde” (p.6). Marjane is raised to think with science and logic which religion interferes with. But despite this fact, Marjane thinks of herself as a very religious person and believes that she is the last prophet of god because she talks to him in her imagination. From a historical background she comes from a line of royalty. Her Great grand-father was the king of Iran until Shah Reza overthrew him. After that, He made Marjane’s Great-Grandfather’s son, Marjane’s Grandfather his Prime Minister. Marjane’s Grandfather angry and rebellious is frequently thrown in jail and her family suffers deeply from it. Marjane is told the story of her Family at a young age, but she is still far too young to connect dots between her family’s struggle and the Revolution. She has no idea how much her parents truly believe in the Revolution.
Going back to Marjane’s childhood, one of the first things Marjane mentions is that she doesn’t like to wear the mandatory scarf at school because she didn’t understand why she had to. Her relationship with god was different than what society at that time believed to be. For the society, The scarf was a part of the Fundamentals of Islam, and it was enforced to make people accept the religion. Marjane already considers herself very religious, so she assumes that she is doing nothing wrong by god by not wearing the scarf.
As I mentioned before, Marjane believes she is the last prophet of god and that she frequently communicates with him in her imagination. Marjane is pretty confident about this belief and she doesn’t think any different because her Grandmother, becoming her follower, clears any doubt from her mind that she is wrong. So when Marjane is asked in class what she wants to be when she grows up, Marjane confidently answers that she is going to be a prophet. The class and teacher’s reaction is shocking to Marjane; The teacher notifies her parents and the kids laugh at her. The Internal affect of this is that Marjane starts to lose faith in god, when asked by her parents what she wants to do in the future, she lies and tells them that she wants to be a doctor. Her parents’ approval shows her that they are relieved she isn’t thinking about being a prophet anymore. She feels guilty towards god and tells him she still wants to be a prophet, but the doubt has seeped in.
Marjane takes a break from thinking about her duties as a prophet and holds a protest in her backyard, seeing her interest in the protest; Marjane’s parents buy her books to “enlighten” her. Marjane becomes absorbed by these books and is absolutely fascinated with history. In her next conversation with god, Marjane doesn’t even want to talk about being a prophet anymore. (Because) Marjane is most influenced by the theory of Dialect materialism by Descartes, She know unsure if whether god even exists because as the theory goes, even if you see something it doesn’t exist because its only your imagination. Marjane cries later on that night because her parents won’t let her go to the protest, Marjane seeks refuge in gods comforting words whenever she is troubled , but this time God doesn’t come to her. Marjane loses hope and basically abandons religion at this point and her focus shifts completely towards the revolution. Her parents go to protest every single day and they come back exhausted. Marjane becomes angry that they don’t spend time with her. And she naughtily claims to love the king because he is chosen by god; of course she knows that her parents don’t agree with this. But her father anyway explains to her how the king was actually chosen. He tells her about her family history and how her great grandfather was overthrown by the shah and how his son, her grandfather was the prime minister. Marjane’s grandmother elaborates more on the situation and the challenges she faced without her husband. This is a lot of information for a little girl to handle, Marjane still isn’t clear on why the revolution is there, and what it means to her, she definitely feels sorry for her grandmother and grandfather, but she cannot link it to the revolution.
While this is taking place, Marjane’s Mother reveals to Marjane’s grandmother that her dad went out to take photos of the rebellion which is strictly prohibited and that he is very late, Marjane catches on and soon she starts to think of her father as a dead man. But to her satisfaction, her father finally shows up and her mother and grandmother are happy again. Then after the mood settles down, Marjane’s father explains why he was late with sad story about a widow whose husband died of cancer but some protesters mistook him for a martyr. To Marjane this sounds like a serious and sad story, but then all of a sudden her parents start to laugh, this is a turning point in the book because Marjane realizes that there is something humorous about the story but since she can’t understand it, she know knows that she has no idea about what the revolution is actually about. This realization she experiences drives her to acquire a better understanding of the revolution. After extensive research and contemplation, Marjane understands the reason for the Revolution, but not before she also finds the reason for the guilt she feels when she sits in her father’s Cadillac and the sadness Mehri feels when she is deprived of her relationship. The reason for the Revolution as Marjane figures is the difference between social classes. Now that Marjane has a clear understanding of the Revolution, she takes a bold step by going to a protest alone with Mehri without notifying her parents. This is Marjane first act of true rebellion. She is no longer protesting under the influence of her parents or the people around her, but she is protesting for a reason that she has firm belief in.
After the triumphant end of the revolution, Marjane and her family go through some very emotional experiences such as, Marjane’s dad losing his two oldest friends through murder and Marjane losing her Uncle Anoosh because of state execution. Through conspiracy and cunningness the New Republic created by the revolution once again becomes a Dictatorship led by Fundamentalists and the protests start all over again. Marjane’s mother convinces her husband to let Marjane go with them to the protest, and so Marjane goes with her parents to a protest for the first time. It turned out to be that the protest got so violent so fast that Marjane and her family were forced to leave. After that first protest, the situation in Iran got worse day by day until Marjane and her family decided to take a vacation Italy. The point I am trying to make here, is that this is probably one of the contributing factors to the Decision Marjane’s parent’s make of sending her to Austria. The fact that they had to seek refuge in another country, because the condition in their own country was so dangerous, lead (Internal Effect) them to ask the question of whether it was okay to raise a child in this atmosphere.
After Marjane and her family come back from their “vacation”, they discover some shocking news; Iran and Iraq are at war, the Second Arab Invasion in 1400 years has started. Marjane is furious at this fact and wants to fight for her country. In a sense of the word rebellion is a refusal of obedience or order and it may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state. Since Iran is fighting Iraq, its goal is to destroy the authority of Iraq. In other words Iran is rebelling against Iraq. Therefore, Marjane wants to “rebel” for her country and this is why I consider it an act of rebellion.
We can see just how devoted she is to her country in the scenes where Marjane and her family are listening to the radio or watching the news about the war, she is happy when Iran makes progress and she is sad when Iran retreats. The atmosphere that’s created in these scenes is very similar to the atmosphere of the scenes that take place during the Islamic Revolution; based on the fact that Marjane is celebrating “with” her family just as she was before, and she is excited when they are excited and she is sad when they are sad. But the difference here is that Marjane is actually feeling these emotions independently, they are no longer driven by what her friends or parents feel but rather because she understands what a victory to Iran means and what a Loss means to Iran, she even has a difference of opinion with her father in one of these scenes and declares him a defeatist. I think this fact is important to point out because Marjane’s parents probably start to notice that she is starting to think independently, and take this into consideration when deciding on sending her to Austria or not because it could bring her harm. Even though they don’t realize that she is thinking independently now, the fact that she labeled her father a defeatist is proof enough.
After these events event’s showcasing Marjane’s independent thinking and rebelliousness take place, we are finally at a point in the story where we see Marjane rebelling against things other than the government which begs to ask the question: What is Marjane Rebelling against? In order, the first entry should be the shah but that revolt was a success and is now irrelevant. So the first thing Marjane rebels against is Iraq. The second would be the school, the third would be her Mother, and the final would again be the school; a very confusing pattern indeed.
In the same way that the school enforces these practices such as the torture sessions and making winter gear for the soldiers onto the students, the government enforces these practices on the school. Yes, Marjane does rebel in school by goofing off in the torture sessions and saying inappropriate things, but what she is actually rebelling against is the practices the government enforces on the students. I believe that Marjane is rebelling against the ideas and themes of Fundamentalist Islam that are oppressed upon her by the government. Ergo, she is rebelling against the government.
There is also a scene in the book where Marjane’s mother is angry with her for ditching class, Marjane has a fit, and rebels against her mother by smoking a cigarette in the basement. Marjane is rebelling because she is angry at her mother, but her temper is short –lived, she completely forgets about it after a while and her focus moves back to the school. So Yes, Marjane does rebel against her mother out of anger, but it begins and ends so quickly that it is insignificant.
In the end, Marjane’s behavior and actions at school are responsible for the final push her parents needed to send her to Austria. But not for the minor things that I mention in the earlier paragraph, they are definitely a small part of it but the more significant events occur when Marjane is out and about one day when a bomb hits her street, she quickly rushes back fearing the worst but she finds her family and is calmed. But then, Marjane notices that her friend Baba-Levy’s house is destroyed and as she is walking past it, she sees Baba-Levy’s Bracelet lying in the rubble, she also sees the wrist that its attached to…Baba-Levy and her family are dead and Marjane is devastated.
After this incident Marjane realizes that what happened to Baba-Levy could have easily happened to her as well, she also realizes that if she could die at any moment, then she has nothing to be scared of, this idea takes her rebelliousness to a whole new level. It starts with her wearing jewelry to school after explicitly being told not to, then Marjane gets physical with her principal which results in her getting expelled, and her final act of rebellion happens when she criticizes her teacher in the middle of religion class. After Marjane is sent home that day, her parents gets a call from her teacher cautioning that Marjane’s objection in class was a serious offense and that even though she hadn’t sent a report to authorities this time, the situation would be different next time.
