Dania Keller Persepolis Theme

Throughout Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi brings up the stark differences between religion and faith. She grapples with the idea that religion is good, and soon after goes through a transformation into hating religion and losing faith. Marjane should never have lost faith, though, because her relationship with God was not at all related to this "religion" that was being forced up her during the revolution. At the beginning of the novel, Marjane talks to God a lot and she even says that she wants to be the next prophet. She is really into religion. The first part of when her transformation began, to me, was when the idea of wearing the veil was introduced to her. She didn't really want to wear it, even though it was a representation of faith and religion. Finally, Marjane tells God to go away and not talk to her. It is interesting to me because she seems to have lost all faith at this time. I think that Satrapi was trying to say that even though religion is supposed to symbolize faith, it corrupts people's faith, and it isn't a true representation of how the people should believe. The government was trying to manipulate people into following what he wanted by using religion as an excuse, but in reality, these things he was doing, had nothing to do with their relationships with God and their faith.