To many peoples eyes they relate Iran to fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism. Marjane Satrapi is not only the author of this book, but also the main character. These things that people seem relate Iran with are far from the truth, and is the main reason why she wrote this book. Also to show that a country should not be judged by it’s mistakes. The book begins with a brief history about Iran, and starting when Marjane is ten years old in 1979 at her school, also during this time is the start of the revolution to Iran. Before 1979 Marjane attended a French non-religious school where boys and girls studied in the same classroom. The revolutionaries saw it as a symbol of capitalism, and decided to split the schools to girls only and boys only classrooms. It also started that the girls had to wear veils, and most of the girls didn’t understand why and played around with them or complained about them instead. Marjane’s childhood is very plain and simple, and she’s on a search for her own identity. She comes to understand what’s right and wrong and is proclaimed to seek out justice. She believes that she is going to be the last prophet, and she wants to become the last prophet because no person should suffer. She notices that even though her family has benefited from the Shah’s westernization of their culture, that her family does demonstrations against the Shah’s rule helping the poor and working class fight against it. For her to understand more of what’s going on politically and socially of her country, she starts to change her perspective to the way others around her are seeing these situations, including her parents, grandmother, and others that have plenty of knowledge on the subject. She learns about the fall of the Persian Empire and the Rise of the Shah, the violence, the torture, and the corruption going on around her, but because she is only a child it is hard for her to envision what is going on. She uses humor throughout learning these stories about history to keep her sanity. When she first starts to become aware of social classes she notices things around her but doesn’t fully understand why some things are the way they are. For example that her maid doesn’t eat at the same table for dinner, and that her father denied her maid the chance of love, or education. But she does understand that it’s not fair that her maid can’t eat at the same table or have a chance at love with someone of a different social class, or that she isn’t educated. When the shah is deposed from his throne the nation, many people say that they must forget what has happened and move of with their lives. As time goes on, forgetting is not as easy as it may seem. Marjane learns that their friend Ramin’s father was part of the Shah’s secret police, and when her and her friends were out playing they attempted to reenact the Revolution by meting out justice on Ramin. Once they were stopped she learns from her mother that she must forgive. When she goes to apologize to Ramin, she’s disgusted that he said his dad is a hero and is proud of what his father did. It shows her that just forgetting the past is not simple. Thus portraying the idea that you can forgive but can never forget. It also brings up the matter of what makes someone a hero. She has many options in her family to define someone as a hero, and she comes to the conclusion that her Uncle Anoosh is what defines one. He was her hero because he is blood related, and he risked his life for his ideals.
Changing Girl, Changing Country 