Identity: Where Does One’s Allegiance lie?

In Persepolis, there is a theme of loss of identity. Marjane struggles with the conflicting ideals of her society and her family brought about by the reversal of roles due to the revolutions in Iran, and eventually, her estrangement from these early influences by submergence into the cultures of other countries. There is a progression through which Marjane experiences this loss of identity which may be illustrated, in the Iran bound portion, by three points representative of three stages of loss.

The first stage of loss is Marjane’s loss of confidence  in her family. She is aroused to their failings from a state of overconfidence reinforced by the fact that they had introduced her to the only seemingly true and innovative societal ideas she had encountered thusly. Despite being a fount of knowledge for Marjane in her early life(ex. P.21), Marjane discovers her family’s failings by way of the rude awakening of her realization of her own social class. A point to illustrate this stage is the incident of the false love of Mehri and the boy next door(37). Marjane sees the juxtaposition of her family’s bleakly blunt views on social classes with their radical ideals(ex-communist uncle), to which she has become accustomed. This stage of loss of confidence is a result of a displacement between expected, the ideals, and the result, acceptance of social class(from the top of course). Thus she is aware of the hypocrisy and loses the trusting confidence she had in them.

The second stage of loss for Marjane is her loss of religious conviction.  In her early childhood she is driven by a zealous aim to become a prophet. The veracity of her faith is illustrated by her talks, directly, with God(ex- p.8). However her religious zeal was shattered when the execution of her uncle caused her to renounce her faith in her last talk with God(p. 70). At this point Marjane feels “lost, without any bearings”(p.71), as she has lost both her religious bearings and her familial bearings.

Finally, the third stage of loss for Marjane is her renouncement of childhood. Prior to this stage Marjane still views the world through the lens of childhood. This transition is made evident by the point of declaration of the end to her childhood “With this first cigarette, I kiss childhood goodbye”(p. 117). After this point of renunciation she falls farther from the guarded nest of her simplistic childhood view.

            These three stages of loss illustrate Marjane’s progression to loss of identity itself. Not surprisingly she falls victim to such troubles as expulsion and drugs, and feels very isolated after she is forced to move to a different country. But those stages are beyond the realm of this exploration of the theme of identity loss as they partake, mostly, after the Iran bound portion of her progression. So, for now, there it is(still my favorite TTC quote).