For Better or Worse
There are many different influences
in the world today; a big one that most people in the world face is religion.
Religion is an influence that people first encounter during their childhood. They
grow and learn to have faith or it can be the complete opposite. In the memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, is the
story of a young girl growing up in Iran, during the Islamic Revolution, and
the war with Iraq. Marji (Marjane), the little girl is trying to live a normal
childhood, but with certain events throughout history and her childhood it is
not likely that she gets to live a normal childhood. Throughout the entire
story religion has been mixed in, both in a good and bad way. In the story
Marji losses her faith and it changes who she is, religion also changed her
lifestyle by the government putting religion into the law.
From the very beginning of the book Persepolis, Marji is very religious. “I
was born with religion” (6) Marji believes that it is her path to go into
religion and that could only mean one thing, she wanted to be a prophet; in her
religion there has only been men as prophets.. When she told all her classmates
that she wanted to be a prophet when she got older, everybody laughed; her
parents were also talked to about this matter. She truly believed that she was
going to be a prophet. She talked to him every night. She wanted to be “[…]
justice, love and wrath of god all in one.” (9). God was Marji’s comfort, even
if she hadn’t seen him in a while, or if she didn’t talk to him that day, if
she were scared she turned to him. On page 25, panel 8 Marji takes a long bath
after hearing a story about her grandfather being tortured; God came and sat
next to her. This shows that when she was scared he was there to comfort her.
In the story “The Heroes”, Marji hears the awful things happening to the men in
prison. She is shaken up and scared about the stories she hears. Later that
night she turns to God, “The only place I felt safe was in the arms of my
friend.” (53). In panel 9 she is being cradled by god. In the beginning her
faith is very strong, and she wants to live a religious life, even though
people doubted her.
One would thing that her faith is
unshakable. During her childhood the Islamic Revolution took place. As a child
she didn’t quite understand everything, though she started to take a little
more interest in what was going on in her country. She started to read about history,
and understand why her country was in a revolution. One night she over herd her
parents talking about a demonstration, Marji wanted to go. She started
fantasizing that she could be better than Fidel Castro, in that moment god left
her room. That same night after Marji’s parents said no to her going to the
demonstration, she was crying in her bed. She asked God where he was, and that
night he didn’t come. I think this night was one of the turning points to why
she lost her faith. She was a little girl crying in bed, in need of comfort and
God was not there. In the story “The sheep” Marjane’s uncle Anoosh. He came to
visit and immediately she loved him. This happened after the revolution, even
though the revolution was over, the “Divine Justice” was killing the political
prisoners that were let out when the revolution was over. Marjane’s uncle was
captured and sent back to prison to be executed. God came the night he was
executed. Marjane yelled at him to get out and never come back. This is where
her faith was completely lost. She was mad at god. She wanted to know why her
uncle died and why he didn’t save him. She didn’t understand.
Through all events in Marjane’s life
that affected her relationship with god, I believe one other factor was in
play, her parents. From the start her parents were never really religious. I
believe that is why Marjane’s relationship with god never came back. If someone
was born into a religious family most likely that person will end up believing
in what their parents believed in. If Marjane’s family was more religious, she
might have reconnected with god. It was in the story “The Trip” where Marjane’s
mother tells her to lie about praying in the day. “If anyone ever asks you what
you do during the day, say you pray […]” (75). Her family might not have been a
huge factor in why Marjane lost her faith, but I believe that it had some
effect on her.
Another way religion effected
Marjane’s life was how religion was placed into the country’s government.
Before the revolution, when the Shah was ruling the country was heading toward
the western side of society, there was still religion. Right before the
revolution took place and the shah was still ruling, in the 1980’s there was a
“cultural revolution” (4) this means that the country was going back to their
cultural, their roots. This meant that the French non-religious and bilingual
schools were shut down, and schools are now going to be separated by gender.
Now Marji was forced to wear a veil and attend school that was segregated by gender.
Also she was taught that the shah was chosen by the king. She then learns from
her father that the Shah was not chosen by god. She is confused by this at
first. This is another example of how religion came into play with her life.
Their religion has always had a king, and a king was chosen by god; how can she
trust her school if the government is manipulating what is being taught to the
children. And soon enough the universities were being shut down due to revision
to make sure that the “children are not led astray from the true path of
Islam.” (73) During the Islamic Revolution, the people wanted freedom they
wanted to get rid of the Shah and that is exactly what happened.
When the revolution was over,
everybody rejoiced and thought that the worst was over. Though it didn’t turn
out to be what they hoped for, the country was soon governed by fundamentalist.
Anything western was forbidden. There were “guardians of the revolution, the
women’s branch” (132). Marji was caught wearing punk sneakers, jean jacket,
Michael Jackson pin and tight jeans she was going to be taken to the committee;
thankfully she got out of it. This shows that her religion was restricting her
from who she wanted to be. Clothes are a way people express themselves and in
her culture the women are the same. Marji had to grow up hiding behind a veil.
She had to go to the black market to buy music she liked; her house was covered
with curtains to hind the things her family did that were forbidden. Most of
her life she had to hide who she was, because it was against her religion. In
this situation I feel religion was taken too far and it limited the people of
Iran. I feel because of the fundamentalist that took over, they made religion a
negative aspect in people’s lives, like Marji.
Religion is always looked as a good
thing; it is the thing that can save people and change people dramatically. In
this memoir it started out as a good influence toward Marji, but she lost it
and it changed the person she was. She wanted to be a prophet than she wanted
nothing to do with god. Even though she lost her beliefs as a child, I like to
think she reconnected with god again. And for the events that happened in her
life due to religion, no one can blame religion for what happened it was the
people in charge that took it to the extreme. Even though it must have been
hard to live like that, it made Marji the person she is today.
Work Cited
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Random, 2003.
Print.
The beach is not a complicated
place, it is easily described sand in the toes, crashing of the waves, hear the
breeze in the palm trees and feel the warm sun on your skin. One could except
to see surfers floating in the water waiting for a good set, guys throwing a
football, and girl’s sun bathing. If someone has never been to the beach before
they can only image what they see in the movies, or pictures of those clear waters
and white sand at vacation resorts. It would be easy to describe though, it
would be hard to describe a beach like Venice to someone who has never been to
the beach or never been to Venice. They would not understand what Venice looks
like. It’s has more character then a just the sand, waves and warm sun, it is
more than just a beach, it is a place to express oneself, to go relax and even
some peoples home. 
Everyone has their opinions on
Venice beach. I suggest if you haven’t been there go! And don’t listen to what
people say. Everyone has a different experience and everyone comes back with a
story to tell. 
