Review: Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis 1: The story of a childhood.

LSSL 5385: Required Reading

Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis 1: The story of a childhood. New York, NY: Pantheon.

Gripping and mature, this memoir in graphic-format will interest older teens with a compelling true story about a young girl growing up under an embattled, oppressive regime. Marjane Satrapi originally published her story in 2000 in France, though her childhood was spent in Iran, where she was born and lived through the atrocities of the Iranian Revolution. As riveting as her story is as a standalone, it is best understood with at least some historical context regarding the history of Iran and the nature of Satrapi’s war-torn life, as she leaves behind a fairly peaceful existence at age ten to be forced into dictated fundamentalist piety, violence and aggression toward women, and imprisonment and even executions of family members and neighbors. 

Satrapi describes coming of age and growing into a somewhat rebellious teen, while she and her parents joke as any regular family about friends and neighbors putting on religious airs, pretending to be outwardly compliant; otherwise, they are described as being persecuted for “showing the slightest resistance to the regime.” Bombings become a reguar occurence, and ultimately one of Marji’s best friends is killed. Following an expulsion and other discipline concerns, her parents acknowledge that she is too defiant in the different schools she tries, and she must leave for a French school in Austria at fourteen years old.

Satrapi has formal training in illustration and has stated that she chose the graphic format for her memoir because images are more universal and can be understood throughout many languages, also pointing out that drawings were the form of written communication utilized by the earliest humans. The illustrations are done in black and white, with large eyes conveying the characters’ strong emotions, and harsh, unsoftened edges to reflect the realities of her young life. She has described the novel as fictionalized in that any autobiographical history told in a story format comes to contain some elements of fiction, though she will not reveal which she may have included. The title is after the capital city of ancient Persia, and again it will benefit students to have a basic understanding of the country’s historical timeline--also helpful in appreciating Satrapi’s own personal history, and the politically complex dynamics of her family. While not a broad historical overview of the revolution or life in the country during the 1980’s, Satrapi’s story does present a humanized view of one adolescent’s trials and experiences living through it.

The second half of Satrapi’s story was originally published as Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, and picks up with her arriving in Austria. Both parts are included in the film based on the graphic novels, and her teen years abroad contain yet more mature elements--including not vastly improved environments--though they complete her story of transitioning into young adulthood. In the end she is able to leave for France, finally a “free woman.” Her story paints a picture for modern teens of a very different type of window into, for most, a completely foreign--though thoroughly realistic--existence. As she is forced into submission, her family is persecuted, and their currency loses value, Marji shows what it’s like to be a so-called “normal” girl becoming a teenager through extreme circumstances. She has very close relationships with her parents, grandmother, and some extended family; she has friendships, and eventually romantic relationships, as well as hopes and dreams as any other teen, rebellious thoughts and questions of conscience, all the while fighting for what Americans would consider the most basic rights. Throughout the story, Satrapi’s family members encourage and remind her to be true to herself in the face of conformity, and this is a universal theme which will resonate with teens, possibly even more for the foil of true dangers and difficulties against which she learned this lesson.