PERSEPOLISChapter 1 “The Veil”

Novel begins in 1980 Education was affected by the response of the veil by the girls not wanting to wear the

veils and by the separation of the boys and girls in the schools Some women wanted to wear the veil, some didn’t. Those that didn’t want to wear the

veil demonstrated in the streets against it At one of the demonstrations, a German journalist took a picture of Marji’s mother. Her

mother then got scared, died her air, and hid herself. Conflict between her religion and how she acts modern Marji’s reasons of wanting to be a prophet:

o 1) her maid didn’t eat with hero 2) her father drove a Cadillaco 3) her grandmothers knees always ached

She wanted to be justice, love and the wrath of god all in one Zarathustrian was the first prophet in Marji’s country before the Arab invasion; Three

rules for living: o 1) behave wello 2) act wello 3) speak well

Marji wants to be a prophet but tells her parents she wants to be a doctor because they musn’t know that she wanted to be a prophet

Chapter 2 “The Bicycle” The children began to reflect the political realities of the adult world in which they live in

by dressing up as Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Trotsky as they demonstrated in their garden.

The Persian people faced oppression from the emperors, the Arab invasion from the west, the Mongolian invasion from the east, and modern imperialism.

The books shaped public sentiment by teaching Marji about the children of Palestine, Fidel Castro, the Vietnamese killed by the Americans, and the revolutionaries of her country; was also used to enlighten the public

Marji’s relationship with God begins to change by Marji acting awkward with him and acting like he doesn’t exist; God gets mad and leaves her alone for a while; Marji also puts being a prophet aside and replaces it with the revolution

There is a fire at Rex Cinema; the police were there but they wouldn’t allow civilians to save the people inside. By the time the fire engine got there, everyone was dead.

Marji wants to demonstrate in the streets with her parents but they say no because it is too dangerous for her.

Chapter 3 “The Water Cell” Marji’s parents find her request to play monopoly humorous because it is a capitalist

game and they are demonstrating against the Shah whom is a capitalist

According to Marji, the king was chosen by God; A low ranking officer was told he would become emperor, it said so in her school book. Her father and the feeling to Marji her grandfather was a prince.

Reza, the father of the Shah, was different from Gandhi and Ataturk because he wasn’t educated or a leader

Reza’s original political move was to make a republic; He makes a trade off to give them what they want as he gets power.

Marji learns that her great grandfather was the emperor who was overthrown by Reza; It added a conflict to her life since it involved her personal family.

Marji’s grandfather then accepted his new government role of being Prime minister; his beliefs changed because he had to study Europe and read the Marx.

Marji’s mother reveals in a flashback that as a little girl she was scared the police would come and take her father to jail.

God then returns to Marji after a long absence because she needs him since she is emotionally upset.

Chapter 4 “Persepolis” Marji’s grandmothers’ response to questions about the past makes her not happy The Shah’s rules were ten times tougher than his fathers Marji’s father went to take pictures of the demonstrations everyday that made her mother

very nervous Ironically, as a second dead man is carried out on a stretcher during the demonstration,

the dead man was thought to be a hero even though his widow told them he had died of cancer.

Chapter 5 “The Letter” Marji’s feels so ashamed because everyone around her has to live life hard as she is living

high in a Cadillac because of the difference between the social classes. Mehri is Marji’s maid; He came to join Marji’s family as she left her home as a child to

work For six months, Marji helped Mehri write letters to her boyfriend since she didn’t know

how to read or write The news of Mehri’s clandestine affair reached Marji’s father by Mehri’s real sister being

jealous and telling her uncle, who told her grandma, who told Marji’s mother, who told her father about the affair. The father then told the young man that Mehri was his maid because of the different social classes. He didn’t think it was right

Marji was upset about Mehri’s break up so she told her they were going to go demonstrate

On Black Friday, there was a rumor that Israeli soldiers killed many people. Marji learned the consequences for doing things behind her parents backs.

Chapter 6 “The Party” The Shah attempts to appease the people by testing a dozen Prime Ministers. He failed by

trying to make a democracy. Everyone wanted his departure The U.S. changed its public policy toward Iran by having Jimmy Carter to refuce to give

refuge to the exiled Shah and his family

The teacher having told the students to tear out all the photos of the Shah in their books contributed to Marji’s anger and confusion when she returns to school

Marji and her friends want to attack Ramin because they found out Ramin’s father was the Savak and killed millions of people.

Marji learns two lessons from her mother:o To learn to forgiveo To not blame Ramin for his fathers’ actions

Chapter 7 “The Heroes” According to Laly, she says her father is on a trop. Marji believes when she is told

someone is on a trip that it actually means they are dead. Siamek and Mohsen have been in prison for the past few years because they were

revolutionists The CIA helped lead the training in torture practice Laly is still mad at Marji because of what she said but is happy that she was right and

Marji was wrong about her father. According to Marji, a hero is someone who was in prison Now that the revolution is over, Marji feels that one that loses should be tortured. Marji is confused and doesn’t know what justice is anymore

Chapter 8 “Moscow” Anoosh is Marji’s uncle; since he was in prison, Marji thinks he is a hero Fereydoon is Marji’s great uncle; to gain independence of Azerbaijan Anoosh travels to his parents house after he escapes from prison He leaves his family because he thought he would get in trouble if he was with his

parents so he went into exile with the USSR His girlfriend then came to his prison cell because she wanted to make a child with him.

She paid the guard to allow them to do their duty and make a baby. Anoosh tells Marji the stories because he doesn’t want the family history to be lost Anoosh made a swan out of bread in prison that symbolizes freedom and beauty. Marji

might think that it symbolizes his life in prison. Marji had no one to look up to but now that she has talked to Anoosh, who she thinks is a

hero, she can look up to him.

Chapter 9 “The Sheep” According to Anoosh, it is impossible to persuade the population to follow Marxism

because half the country’s population was illiterate so he said it would be impossible. 99.99% of the population voted for the Islamic Republic (propaganda) was the reported

outcome of the elections. Marji’s dad thinks that if he goes to the U.S. he would become a taxi driver and his wife

would because a cleaning lady (they would get bad jobs) Mohsen died because he was drowned in his own bathtub Siamek’s sister was the executed Anoosh is put into jail but she thinks he died Anoosh wanted to see Marji because she in the star in his life and the daughter that he

always wanted to have.

Anoosh was going to be executed because he was a Russian spy God visits Marji after Anoosh’s death and Marji tells him to leave her life. The significance to the title, “the Sheep”, is to symbolize people as sheep or followers.

The Iranians follow and believe everything they are told, like sheep.

Chapter 10 “The Trip” The U.S.’s response to the embassy take-over was with the fundamentalists; this upset

Marji because she couldn’t visit her friend, Kaveh, in the U.S.; the embassy and universities were also closed

They closed the schools because they had to revise the books the children were using The rationale for making the veil obligatory was so women couldn’t not be raped and

thought about badly since apparently women’s hair attracts men so they had to cover it up Fundamentalist cover up their entire body and don’t shave their beards. Modern people

are a little relaxed with the way they dress “There was kind of justice, after all.”; If one thing happens another thing happens for

men, so it goes both ways. Ordinary citizens were wearing the veils and chadors because they had to follow their

guidelines Marji had to tell her friends that she prayed all days At their Madrid hotel, Marji’s family gets startled when they see a black cloud hovering

over Iran on the news; Marji’s mom says it’s probably pollution but it isn’t. “There’s no place like home” is ironic because there is going to be a war and their home

will soon be taken away or burnt down, so no more “home sweet home” The last invasion of Iran was 1400 years ago; The reason for the second Arab invasion

were the Iranian Fundamentalists tried to stir up their Iraqi Shiite allies against Saddam With the news of the invasion, Marji wanted to fight.

Chapter 11 “The F-14’s” Marji see’s Iraqi fighter jets Marji starts talking about the time her father was learning in the military; her father

changes the subject. He says the real enemy is the fundamentalist government The nature of the war takes everyone by surprise It would be impossible for Iran o retaliate effectively against Baghdad because Iran

would need pilots but they don’t have any Marji is angry at her father because he dad doesn’t like her ideas It was so unusual to hear the national anthem because thye haven’t heard it for more than

a year. Pardisse described in her paper how she will take care of her mother and brother because

he dad is dead; Marji tries to console her friend by telling her that her father was a genuine hero but Pardisse says she wishes he were alive and in jail rather than being dead and a hero

Chapter 12 “The Jewels” Marji’s mom says the people don’t act like civilized people; here mom suggests a

confusing statement by saying she needs more rice as she leaves the store, even though she just questioned and insulted people about not being civilized

Iranians are required to ration their supply by getting a small amount of everything Everything of Mali’s family was destroyed; Marji’s family let them spend the night;

Mali’s family was all about materialistic things and they were snobby The common attitude about the refugees the other shoppers express are that they don’t

like them because the shoppers “take everything” as they are taking everything also The refugee families lost their food and they are afraid their will lose their husbands

Chapter 13 “The Key” The primary difference between the Iranian and Iraqi armies is that Iraq has more modern

weapons but Ira has more people. The Persian philosophy of resignation are that you are to respect your elders One of the country’s rituals are to hit themselves to show their appreciation The students tried to ease the tension of a very serious situation with humor Marji’s generation is so rebellion because they rebelled against everything since their

parents did not teach them how to behave Mrs. Arsin was Marji’s new maid; she received a key from her son which mean a key to

paradise The government recruited boys to serve on the front lines of the war; They persuaded

them by saying it would take them to paradise The government gave boys the keys because they were trying to convince them it was a

key to Heaven after they died if they went to fight in the war The clothing of the 80’s were ripped and included chains which reflected the political

realities of the time period

Chapter 14 “The Wine” People went to the basement for refuge. The environment of the basement reflected the

emotional state of the people/country because they were basically trapped by the government

Marji’s mother is putting up masking tape on the windows to prevent flying glass from the bombs to fly in their house and black curtains to hide from the neighbors

The government found a deck of cards, records, video cassettes and a chess board. Timoosh’s dads’ punishment was 75 lashed from a whip.

Marji’s family continued to hold partied despite the danger because they said that the war would be unbearable without parties.

The wine came from Marji’s uncle that made the wine and his housekeeper crushed the grapes for him.

Marji doubts “maternal instinct” because she didn’t know what to do when her aunt left her with the baby.

Two violations Marji’s dad was guilty of was driving drunk and having alcohol at home. His wife was worried about the situation.

Marji’s grandmother says she has diabetes and has to get in the house. She is planning to get rid of all of the alcohol they have in t he house. They eventually got rid of the officer just by paying him money.

Chapter 15 “The Cigarette”

The war had been going on for two years. The new reported that the Iranians destroyed 13 Iraqi planes. However, Marji and her friends realize that it’s a lie, and the Iraqis actually shot down 2 of their planes.

Marji’s motives for breaking her parent’s rules were that she wanted to stay with her older friends and they were breaking the rules so she followed them.

Marji’s destination was Kansas on Jordan Avenue; Kansas was able to survive the regime’s repression because they had no idea what it was (it was a burger restaurant)

Marji describes her mother and her tactics as being a torturer, dictator, and guardian of the revolution.

The survival of the regime depended upon the war; the human cost of his survival was a million people

The regime became more repressive by arresting people and executing them Marji’s symbolic act of rebellion was smoking cigarettes

Chapter 16 “The Passport” The internal war, anyone who was caught showing resistance to the regime was

persecuted 3 year (1980-1983) “Those poor 20 year olds get slaughtered. They kill me” Her parents think she is very stubborn Uncle Taher had his third heart attack People are giving blood, losing limbs and having heart attacks Marji’s aunt ask the hospital director to help her husband so he can get his passport but

the HD only says “if god wills it” To make passports; for a price of $200 in 5 days

Chapter 17 “the Shabbat” What was the new strategy? How does the author Iranians?

o To use ballistic missiles against Iraqis; Iranians love to gossip and over

exaggerate What did the siren signify? What did Marji realize for the first time?

o If the end has come; she realized how much danger she was in

What does the picture on the top of page 137 reflect the mood? Where does Marji’s only hope lie?

o The streets are abandoned; to get a French education. Shows loneliness;

desertedness What motivated the Baba-Levy family to stay in Iran? Why is this so unusual? What was

Neda’s dream?o Their ancestor had come three thousand years ago and Iran was their home; their

daughter did not pray much but talked about romance; a prince would take her to his castle.

How does Marji’s mother attempt to protect her daughter? How does Marji discover the truth? What does the last frame on page 142 reflect?

o Saying that the Baba- Levy’s were in a hotel. She sets Nedas bracelet in the

remains; er pain and suffering, death

Chapter 18 “the Dowry” How did Marji;s like change after Neda’s death? What happened at school?

o she was 14 and a rebel; she gets in trouble for wearing jewelry and jeans

what did Satrapi learn about the government in her new school? how did she respond?o Its forbidden to wear jewelry, Marji does not care and continues to wear jewelry;

she gets expelled for hitting her principal. How does Marji’s dad respond to her behavior at school? her mom?

o The dad doesn’t care and says she is like her uncle; her mom freaks out and is

worried What happened to Niloufar? Why? How do you know? What is Marji’s reaction?

o Executed but a guardian had to marry her and lose her virginity since it is against

the law to execute a virgin; the husband is to pay the dowry; Marji is shocked. Where do Marji’s parents decide to send their daughter? Why?

o Austria because its easy to get an Austrian visa, and Marji’s mom’s friend lives in

Vienna; Marji can get her German education What is her grandmother’s advice to her?

o Always keep your dignity and be true to yourself

Who made up a large segment of those leaving the country?o Young boys (considered future solider) they were forbidden to leave after they

turned 14 Marji’s dad says “don’t forget_______ or________”

o Don’t forget who you are or where you are from

What is Marji’s last memory of her parents before leaving?o Her mother fainted