Challenging Authority: Persepolis Marjane's Life

The transition from high school to college can be a difficult experience, but also life changing. It is a time of independence, along with constant questioning. This transition is a coming of age story, just like the novel Persepolis, the story of Marjane’s childhood and growth. Both are about transitioning from a safe haven to an unknown, distant place. Marjane learns to question authority, and form her own opinions through her experiences during the Iranian Revolution. By the time she steps onto that plane to leave her parents behind in country faced with political unrest, she is an independent woman. A part of growing up is learning how to think for yourself in order to thrive in a new environment such as college. Although Marjane’s story and mine are separated by geography and circumstance, many of the things we learned while growing up allow us to question authority and find a new perspective by thinking for ourselves.

When a child is starting to learn something new, it is inevitable that he or she is going to be curious and ask why continuously. It is something I have started to notice since working with children. However, it does not mean the child will question what he or she is learning. Children tend to look up to authority figures and therefore believe everything that they say. I know I looked up to my teachers in school because I assumed they knew everything. I was very similar to Marjane in the experiences she had in education. To name a few, we both had to wear uniforms, follow strict rules, and sometimes found our own thoughts and beliefs being censored.

Starting a new experience is going to be a difficult journey. Growing up, I was always in Catholic schools. Both my grade school and high school had us wear u...

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...the book, she has arrived at a full understanding of what is happening to her country. She has to leave her family to go to safety in another country. It is a big step for her like college is for me, but by the time she gets there I think her parents know she is ready. She is finally ready to go into the world alone and find her own way, like a teenager going off to college for the first time.

Although the experiences Marjane faces are miles apart from ever really being similar to mine. Some of the issues we went through can be considered similar. We can finally begin to formulate our own opinion and think for ourselves. And of course, question those of authority. Together through the experiences and hardships we face, we gain a greater awareness of our world as it really is.

Works Cited

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003. Print.