What do we know in the West about the rest of the world? There is no need for in-depth analysis to identify in our environment a very marked tendency to ignore what is happening far from the Western world, so it could be said that there is almost total disrecognise of the reality of other countries, which would lead to a good number of prejudices. The West, for most of our retinas, is the positive, the “good,” the example to follow. In this line of thought, Marjane Satrapi eded this reality so unknown to many in his autobiographical work Persépolis.
We are talking about a graphic novel that chronicles the changes that have taken place in his country, Iran, and in his person since the late 1970s, Persépolis was brought to film in 2007, an adaptation that received critical acclaim at the Cannes Marjane Festival was still a child when the 1979 Islamic revolution began. He belonged to a wealthy family of progressive ideology, attended French high school in Tehran and then continued his studies in Vienna.
- Eurocentrism has reigned in Europe for centuries.
- We are the center of the world.
- The origin of history and culture.
- Western countries no longer correspond only to a purely geographical position.
- But we call this country Westerners.
- Which due to colonization has adopted an essentially European culture.
The story, told from Marjane’s point of view, implies the discovery of a situation of which we are totally ignorant in the West; it shows how Iranian society has evolved, how it has acquired the Islamist character we know today, the consequences of war, and challenges the Western vision.
Although it begins as a story of girls, seriousness is evident in the absence of color, being a black-and-white romance. As Marjane grows and the revolution progresses, Persépolis takes on a more dramatic, more tragic tone. Marjane becomes aware of what is happening in her country and we, readers or viewers, realize how little we know and how much we have left to learn.
From a girl’s innocence, we see the cruelty of humanity, the danger of ideas, the pain of repression, and the swings of a revolution, Persepolis opens the truth behind history, the history lived by the people and not by politicians or war leaders. A truth that is not universal, because it does not depart from subjectivity; after all, it is a point of view, an individual reality: that of Marjane.
Iran in the late 1970s, presented by Marjane, is very different from what one might imagine because it looks a lot like any European country. Marjane’s family is progressive, believes in the revolution and fall of the Shah; none of the women around her wear a veil, they all go to parties.
Although Marjane has always been in contact with religion, she attends a secular school where boys and girls go to class together. Marjane’s family belongs to a well-off class: the reality that attracts us certainly does not correspond to that of the majority. population.
Marjane, at first, does not understand revolution; at school, he knew that the Shah was chosen by God and does not understand why his family does not support him; That is why he wants to know a little more about the history of his ancestors, the revolution was a promise of freedom, of ending an era of hereditary successions and, finally, of the triumph of the republic, however, this was not so expected and ended up taking a very different direction from the original.
Despite his young age, Marjane began to support the revolution, documenting and reading countless books, listening to his family’s stories, etc. , but what really makes him decide to support revolutionaries is the class difference, something even his family seemed to ignore. .
The Satrapi family lives with a maid, a young woman of very humble, illiterate origin and who from a very young age had to take care of Marjane, the two grew up very close and Marjane was always sad because he did not eat with her. family; For Marjane, revolution is the end of social classes, the equality of all peoples. As a daughter, she has no prejudices and her views are more open than those of her parents. He’s embarrassed when he drives his father’s Cadillac while other kids. they have to work.
The revolution took an unexpected turn and became an Islamic revolution; Fear began to invade much of the population and Marjane had to say goodbye to some friends and family who decided to emigrate to other countries. Soon, schools are no longer lay and mixed, and girls are forced to wear the veil.
All these changes, as well as the Iran-Iraq war, led Marjane to soon lose the innocence of his childhood, as he would soon have to travel to Europe to continue his studies. His privileged social position and his years of study in a Frenchman. High school facilitated her schooling at a French school in Vienna.
Reaching Europe was not easy; She did not know the language and had escaped a war. The most progressive seemed to show some fascination with Marjane’s history, but it was a selfish fascination, focused on appearances and the satisfaction of their own curiosity, never leaving their European comfort. .
At the same time, he had to face the critical gaze of the most conservative and reluctant to know other cultures, even lying about their nationality.
Marjane has no place in Europe and has returned to her home country, but it also does not take place there. He had not lived the worst of the war, had not lived the suffering of his neighbors and friends, his problems had been “Westernized”.
Graduated in Fine Arts, he tried to remake his life in Tehran, without much success, so he moved to Paris. In Persépolis, he captured his own perspective on revolution, war, emigration and subsequent adaptation to a country other than his own, a culture and a people that also did not facilitate this integration.
In Europe he tried to find people who shared his ideals, but found a different reality than he knew and discovered that these ideas are defended in a very different way, in a much more superficial and comfortable way.
Satrapi’s vision in Persepolis is not objective, because it is an autobiographical work, but the truth is that it offers a reflection: there is a total disrecognise of the West in relation to the rest of the world, prejudices and entrenched criticism of disrecognition. .
Something that is not so different in the world from which Marjane is, because her parents, despite their progressive ideas, supported those who ended their freedoms and preached equality when they were raised and a myriad of privileges.
Satrapi places us all as observers of a girl’s gaze; Persepolis composes this Bildungsroman (learning novel), from which we can all learn a lesson, an evolution, like Marjane he he he own, which forges his opinion as the world grows and understands: from children’s utopia to raw reality. the world would be simpler if we all kept some of the childish innocence we lost over time.
“We were so eager for freedom that we forgot we weren’t free. “- Persépolis-