Creating Monsters in Children

Throughout the graphic novel Persepolis, Sartrapi uses the development of Marji to show that childhood innocence shields them from the horrors of the world. This also makes it easier for them to be influenced by their surroundings. The first example of this is on Pg. 22 when Marji finds out that her grandfather was a prince. Rather than being horrified at how her family was treated, she can only think about how her grandfather was a real prince. This trend also continues when her uncle, a real (!!) hero comes to stay with her family. She is interested in that fact that she has her own hero and knew a prince. This blinds her from all of the pain that the rest of her family is experiencing at the moment. Another truly scary fact brought out through this theme is how easily children can be influenced. After hearing about how people in prison got punished, Marji went to play a sort of torturing game with her friends. While it may seem like harmless fun, just one conversation from her parents was able to cause her to inflict seemingly harmless pain on herself and friends. As children, practically everyone does this with different games but never act on it. The government used these characteristics of children to build his army in Persepolis.