Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

by

Marjane Satrapi

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Julie Character Analysis

Julie is a young French woman in Marjane’s classes at school. She’s the first student to take an interest in Marjane and becomes Marjane’s first friend. All of Julie’s friends are older than Marjane, and they all are self-professed anarchists who are attracted to independent people who have faced adversity of some sort. Thus, Julie’s interest in Marjane stems from the fact that Marjane is from war-torn Iran and that she’s is living in Vienna without her parents. At 18 years old, Julie seems impossibly mature to Marjane. Though Marjane finds Julie’s behavior shocking in a variety of ways—Julie is rude to her mother, uses drugs, and is sexually active—Marjane also aspires to be more like her.

Julie Quotes in Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

The Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return quotes below are all either spoken by Julie or refer to Julie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Growing Up and Growing Old Theme Icon
).
Tyrol Quotes

She introduced me to Momo. He was two years older.

“This is Marjane. She’s Iranian. She’s known war.”

“War?”

“Delighted!”

“You’ve already seen lots of dead people?”

“Um... a few.”

“Cool!”

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Julie (speaker), Momo (speaker)
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Pasta Quotes

For me, not going to school was synonymous with solitude, especially now that Lucia was spending all her time with her boyfriend, Klaus.

“Do you have a problem with vacation?”

“No! But you see, at home, we had two weeks of rest for the new year and after that we had to wait until summer.”

“You’ll get used to it. Thanks to the left, there are holidays in Europe. We are not forced to work all the time [...] Come on, relax, take advantage! You don’t even know Bakunin!”

[...]

This cretin Momo wasn’t altogether wrong. I needed to fit in, and for that I needed to educate myself.

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Julie (speaker), Momo (speaker), Lucia
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
The Pill Quotes

That night, I really understood the meaning of “the sexual revolution.” It was my first big step toward assimilating into Western culture.

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Julie
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
The Vegetable Quotes

The harder I tried to assimilate, the more I had the feeling that I was distancing myself from my culture, betraying my parents and my origins, that I was playing a game by somebody else’s rules. Each telephone call from my parents reminded me of my cowardice and my betrayal. I was at once happy to hear their voices and ashamed to talk to them.

[...]

If only they knew...if they knew that their daughter was made up like a punk, that she smoked joints to make a good impression, that she had seen men in their underwear while they were being bombed every day, they wouldn’t call me their dream child.

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Marjane’s Father/Dad, Marjane’s Mother/Mom, Julie, Momo
Related Symbols: Makeup and the Veil
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
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Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return PDF

Julie Quotes in Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

The Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return quotes below are all either spoken by Julie or refer to Julie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Growing Up and Growing Old Theme Icon
).
Tyrol Quotes

She introduced me to Momo. He was two years older.

“This is Marjane. She’s Iranian. She’s known war.”

“War?”

“Delighted!”

“You’ve already seen lots of dead people?”

“Um... a few.”

“Cool!”

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Julie (speaker), Momo (speaker)
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Pasta Quotes

For me, not going to school was synonymous with solitude, especially now that Lucia was spending all her time with her boyfriend, Klaus.

“Do you have a problem with vacation?”

“No! But you see, at home, we had two weeks of rest for the new year and after that we had to wait until summer.”

“You’ll get used to it. Thanks to the left, there are holidays in Europe. We are not forced to work all the time [...] Come on, relax, take advantage! You don’t even know Bakunin!”

[...]

This cretin Momo wasn’t altogether wrong. I needed to fit in, and for that I needed to educate myself.

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Julie (speaker), Momo (speaker), Lucia
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
The Pill Quotes

That night, I really understood the meaning of “the sexual revolution.” It was my first big step toward assimilating into Western culture.

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Julie
Page Number: 34
Explanation and Analysis:
The Vegetable Quotes

The harder I tried to assimilate, the more I had the feeling that I was distancing myself from my culture, betraying my parents and my origins, that I was playing a game by somebody else’s rules. Each telephone call from my parents reminded me of my cowardice and my betrayal. I was at once happy to hear their voices and ashamed to talk to them.

[...]

If only they knew...if they knew that their daughter was made up like a punk, that she smoked joints to make a good impression, that she had seen men in their underwear while they were being bombed every day, they wouldn’t call me their dream child.

Related Characters: Marjane Satrapi (speaker), Marjane’s Father/Dad, Marjane’s Mother/Mom, Julie, Momo
Related Symbols: Makeup and the Veil
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis: