Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Growing Up and Growing Old
Identity, Culture, and Self-Expression
Gender and Oppression
Suffering and Trauma
Summary
Analysis
Frau Doctor Heller lives in an old villa built by her father. The only downside to these living arrangements is that Frau Doctor Heller’s dog poops on Marjane’s bed weekly. When Marjane gets angry about it, Frau Doctor Heller accuses her of being uptight. By this point, all of Marjane’s friends have left. Olivier and Thierry are back in Switzerland, Julie is in Spain, and Momo was expelled. Marjane now has a boyfriend: 20-year-old Enrique is half-Austrian, half-Spanish, and knows real anarchists. When he invites Marjane to an anarchist party, she spends the days leading up to it dreaming about how her new friends will be willing to burn everything to the ground. She also thinks the party will help her understand Bakunin better.
Marjane has every right to be upset about dog poop in her bed. Frau Doctor Heller’s reaction thus reads as rude and prejudiced—she seems to imply that Marjane only takes issue because she’s too conservative and strict. Now that Marjane’s other friends are gone, she has the opportunity to discover all over again who she wants to be. But even if she has more freedom to be herself without Momo’s oppressive presence, Marjane still holds Momo up as an ideal. Because of Momo’s introduction to anarchy and Bakunin, Marjane still thinks it’s important to pursue anarchy and like what Momo liked.
Themes
When Marjane and Enrique complete their hour and a half journey to a commune in a forest, however, Marjane is shocked: the party is just a bunch of adults playing hide-and-seek. She initially refuses to play and feels like she’s fallen out of love with Enrique, but he convinces her to join the group. By the end of the night, Marjane is in love again. Everyone else sleeps together in the living room, but Marjane is too embarrassed. In Iran, even kissing in public is considered sexual, so this is too much for her. Fortunately, Enrique’s friend Ingrid offers them a bedroom upstairs. Marjane and Enrique’s relationship has been nonsexual up to this point, but Marjane decides she’s ready to lose her virginity.
Marjane expects something very adult and serious from an anarchist party, not something as childish as a game of hide-and-seek. The fact that she enjoys the game once Enrique convinces her to play shows her that she doesn’t have to be so serious all the time—even adults can have fun and let loose once in a while. Despite how much she’s changed, Marjane still clings tightly to some of the more conservative aspects of her Iranian culture. Fortunately, these friends seem to respect that by giving Marjane and Enrique a private room.
Themes
The next morning, though, Marjane is still a virgin—and Enrique isn’t in bed next to her. She cries, worried she must be too ugly for him. When Marjane goes downstairs and finds Enrique talking with Ingrid, she decides he must want Ingrid instead. Enrique pulls Marjane to a private part of the house and tells her he has a secret to share with her: he thinks he’s gay. He assures Marjane that she’s beautiful and Marjane feels a bit better. It’s a relief that Enrique is gay and doesn’t think she’s ugly. Eventually, Marjane loses touch with Enrique, but she hangs out often with his anarchist friends. She feels caught between Frau Doctor Heller’s house, school, and her anarchist friends.
Especially after spending so much time with her gay roommates at the communal hose, learning that Enrique is gay may make Marjane feel hopeless about her prospects of connecting with straight, available men. However, even though things don’t work out with Enrique, Marjane is still able to spend time with people who care about her at the commune and develop her identity as a budding anarchist.
Themes
Marjane begins doing drugs regularly with her anarchist friends and people begin to notice. Her physics teacher, Yonnel Arrouas, pulls her aside after class one day. He doesn’t seem to believe that Marjane actually experienced bombings in Iran, but he invites her over for lunch on Saturday anyway. Marjane enjoys a wonderful afternoon with him, his twin daughters, and his mother. But since Yonnel’s wife doesn’t like Marjane, Marjane is never invited back.
Though Marjane never learns or never shares the reason for Mrs. Arrouas’s scorn, it’s possible Mrs. Arrouas objects to Marjane’s ethnicity, or perhaps she’s uncomfortable with the fact that her husband has invited a young woman over to the house.
Themes
Get the entire Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return LitChart as a printable PDF.
Following the Enrique debacle, Marjane finally understands what Julie was talking about in terms of Armelle and Martin’s sexless relationship. Sex, Marjane realizes, is necessary, but she has no idea how to go about finding someone to have sex with. One day, a new student, Jean-Paul, invites Marjane to get a drink. Marjane is so excited that she gets there an hour early, but Jean-Paul is a half-hour late. As Marjane tells him she’s “experiencing a great lack of affection,” she leaves her hand on the table for him to take. Instead, Jean-Paul tells her that good things come to those who wait and asks for help with his math homework. Marjane feels stupid for thinking he liked her.
Even if Marjane feels ready to have sex and become an adult in this way, her behavior with Jean-Paul nevertheless reads as somewhat immature, because she doesn’t yet know how to read romantic situations and behave accordingly. Her desire to become sexually active also speaks to how far away she’s moving from her more conservative Iranian culture. Julie is a role model to Marjane now, rather than an example of how not to behave.
Themes
Marjane becomes good friends with Ingrid and spends most weekends at the commune, meditating or doing drugs. She doesn’t always like using drugs, but when she’s inebriated, Marjane doesn’t have to think about how disappointed and lonely she is. Eventually, Marjane meets “the first great love of [her] life”: Markus. He invites her to a club one weekend. Marjane makes no effort—she wears ratty clothes, shows up late, and doesn’t hide her dislike of dancing. When the club closes, Markus offers to drive Marjane home and asks if she’d split the cost of gas with him. He says he loves Marjane’s rebelliousness and nonchalance before kissing her. Marjane is thrilled to have a real boyfriend.
Even though Marjane has previously voiced her concerns about becoming a “vegetable” through drug use, she continues to take drugs anyways in an attempt to mask her deep sadness and loneliness. Her sadness and apathy rob her of any hope she might otherwise feel about life improving—which is why the events of her date with Markus surprise her so much.
Themes
Things go downhill. One afternoon at Markus’s house, Markus’s mother bursts in and shouts in German for Marjane to go “raus”—essentially, to get out of the country. Old men on public transit have said this to Marjane before, but this feels different. Markus’s mother doesn’t realize Marjane understands German and spits that Marjane is just trying to get an Austrian passport. She throws Marjane out. Marjane says nothing and figures that Markus is suffering more than she is, since he’ll have to give up his relationship with his mother to see her. When they hang out at Marjane’s house, though, things are no better. Marjane doesn’t have marijuana anymore since she’s not seeing Ingrid much. Frau Doctor Heller kicks Markus out, insisting her home isn’t a brothel. She accuses Marjane of prostitution. Enraged, Marjane insults Frau Doctor Heller in Persian.
Incidents of racism and sexism happen more often now that Marjane is sexually active with an Austrian man. Marjane is no longer an innocent child in the eyes of European adults—to them, she’s a foreign seducer, intent on stealing the hearts of gullible Austrian men. However, Marjane feels worse for Markus than for herself because she still clings to Iranian family norms. Since Iran positions parents as “sacred,” she assumes that Markus must be distraught—but there’s little evidence that he’s upset.
Themes
After this, Marjane and Markus hang out most often in his car, smoking joints. One day, he suggests they go to a cafe to buy drugs. Since Markus can’t find a parking spot, he asks Marjane to go in and purchase the drugs. Though Marjane is terrified, she tells herself she’s doing this for love. She successfully purchases the drugs. Markus is so proud that he tells the school that Marjane has drug contacts. With this, Marjane becomes her school’s official drug dealer. She figures that she’s following Mom’s advice to be the best at something, and she gives dealing her best effort.
When Marjane works herself up to purchasing drugs “for love,” she makes it clear that romance is the driving force in her life right now. Even if Marjane’s romantic relationships turn her into a person her parents wouldn’t like, Markus’s pride in her likely outweighs any shame. Becoming a drug dealer opens a new chapter in Marjane’s search for her identity.
Themes
