Persepolis Childhood Analysis

Childhood is a word often associated with naivety. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi explores the world through the character Marji, who starts off as a young child with a strong grip on her faith. The beginning portion of the graphic novel has allusions of God and holiness scattered throughout. While the second half is filled with religious practices, it is devoid of any notion of actual spiritual belief. The parallel created between the advancement of Marji’s age and her growing disbelief in religion demonstrates Satrapi using God to symbolize childhood innocence, allowing the reader to track the progression of her childhood as it is lost, and to signify the jump between Marji as a child and Marji as a teenager. Satrapi

However in these pages Satrapi has Marji go through many ordeals, such as facing the possibility of her father’s death or going to a protest. The effect of which was to bring her to a point of distress were she was driven back to her childhood. After all the revolution ceases, Marji is depicted as being unwilling to participate in the debates going on about her country. She retreats back to God and admits that “the only place [she] felt safe was in the arms of a friend” (Satrapi 53). By showing that Marji no longer wants to participate in grown up conflicts, Satrapi implies that Marji is reclaiming her childhood. Not long after that however, Marji’s uncle comes into the picture. Satrapi demonstrates that Marji substitutes Anoosh for God on page 54, by showing a halo around Anoosh’s head when he first appears. He overshadows God because with him Marji is not only allowed to keep her childhood innocence, but Anoosh also is a character that allows Marji to explore ideas like Marxism and revolution, that her version of God disapproved of. While Satrapi sets this development up as a positive transition, the overall goal of this was to sever Marji’s ties with childhood for