Memoirs In Persepolis Book

Persepolis is a memoir about a girl named Marjane, who grew up during the Islamic Revolution. Marjane remembers growing up when there was a Shah, the king, the outcome of the Islamic Revolution and the war with Iraq. Marjane was growing up when huge political and social changes were happening the Iranians. Marjane starts the book with the people trying to overthrow the Shah. She illustrates the movements that were going on, even her own parents were in on the action. After the Shah is taken down, the book moves toward the Islamic Revolution and the war with Iraq. Both of these events were huge changes for Marjane; both physically and mentally. The only downfall with the book is that it’s a memoir about her life, so in this case we barely know anything happened outside of her family, which is why memoirs are not good references.
Memoirs are not essentially all bad, they have certain characteristics about them that make memoirs unique. For starters, the memoir is based on the author; i.e. what the author went/was going through. In this

case, Marjane was a child growing up during these monumental movements in the Iranian history. Her book is about everything that her and her family went through during the different changes. Since, the book is surrounding her family and friends, we are able to see how it impacts her daily life. Marjane stats in the book that “[her] parents demonstrated every day” (Persepolis, 18.) She was growing up in the center of everything, between her society and school life telling her one thing and her family fighting for the opposite. Therefore, memoirs are unique, they don’t exactly give us everything but they are informational to a degree.
On the other hand, memoirs are not effective for learning history. Marjane was simply a child during these movements. She could not possibly remember everything and it’s only about her and her family. She does include her friends throughout the book, but the majority is centered around her. It is not centered around the events surrounding her, it’s only surrounding what is happening over her. Marjane is also being told information through her parents and the readers can understand what is happening, but in order to be fully educated, the readers need more information on the topic. One thing the book mentions is that Marjane’s grandfather had apparently been a prince (Persepolis, 22.) Even though, the book makes it seem plausible, it does not mean it is true. The reader has no idea if that little bit of information is real or made up to make the next part more entertaining. To be able to learn about a certain part of history, the more information available the better. Information consists of newspapers, books, reports and even interviews. The more perspectives, the better.
To answer the question if memoirs are useful or problematic for learning history, the answer would be that they are ineffective or problematic.

Memoirs are only based on one person, the author. Even though, Marjane remembers key facts about her childhood, it is only in her perspective. She is also a child during the time so how reliable is she really? Maybe she only remembers certain pieces and makes up others. As a reader, we would not know if she were telling the truth or not. We are assuming that everything is correct in terms of the history behind the time period, but there is no way for us to be completely sure of it unless we were to look for more information based on this time period, which defeats the purpose of using this for learning history. It does give us an insight, but in order to make sure that the information is correct, we are having to do more research which no one should have to do if they were learning

history.
In conclusion, even though memoirs give us a different approach, they are not useful for learning information about history. There are too many what-ifs when it comes to memoirs. Of course, the reader would never question the author, but what if they did? Which is why it is difficult to learn history through a memoir, there are too many other things someone should know. The book Persepolis is very entertaining and informational, but only on Marjane’s family not on the overthrow of the Shah, or the Islamic Revolution, or even the war with Iran. The information provided in the book is just the surface of the issues that people experienced through these movements, which is why in order to have more knowledge towards these certain subjects, the reader would need to consult with other pieces of work besides this one.