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
Julie and Marjane share a room at Julie’s family’s house. Marjane throws herself into her schoolwork, but Julie is often out on dates with “mature” men. Julie is also extremely rude to her mother, Armelle. For instance, Julie often refuses to tell Armelle where she’s going when she leaves the house. To Marjane, this is unacceptable—in her culture, parents are sacred. Marjane adores Armelle, so she spends a lot of time with her to make up for Julie’s insolence. Armelle is very cultured (though she only reads the French psychoanalyst Lacan and hasn’t read Bakunin) and understands Iran’s culture, which is comforting to Marjane. Armelle calls Marjane’s parents to assure them that Marjane is okay, which also makes Marjane feel secure.
Living with Julie and Armelle gives Marjane a window into European family dynamics. What Marjane sees from this small sample size makes her feel like her culture is superior—while Julie is rude and unruly towards her mother, Iranian children treat their parents with reverence and respect. But Armelle’s caring, generous behavior highlights that European parents can be just as good as Iranian ones.
Themes
Julie and Marjane always chat before bed. One evening, Julie moans that her mother is “unbearable.” She says it’s great to have Marjane around, though, since Armelle thinks Marjane is a good influence. This confuses Marjane, so Julie explains: Marjane does her schoolwork and is a timid virgin, while Julie has already had sex with 18 guys. Marjane is shocked; at home, people hide it if they have premarital sex. Julie lists all the guys she’s had sex with and says that she doesn’t like using condoms, since the guy “feels less.” Noticing how shocked and confused Marjane looks, Julie explains that guys can’t feel her vagina if they’re wearing condoms. Now, though, Julie is on the birth control pill. That’s what makes her butt so big. Marjane thinks that her own butt is big, but she’s not taking birth control.
Julie is shameless in talking about and having sex, which throws Marjane’s relatively conservative upbringing into sharp relief. Marjane seems to think that people who have premarital sex should hide that fact no matter where in the world they are. Her confusion about what sex entails also emphasizes her youth and innocence.
Themes
Since Armelle works for the United Nations, she often travels for days at a time. As she leaves for a trip, she warns Julie to not cut class and tells the girls to call their neighbor, Martin, if they need anything. (Julie has already explained to Marjane that she knows Armelle and Martin aren’t sexually involved since her mother is still annoying. This logic escapes Marjane.) Once Armelle drives away, Julie immediately calls her friends to organize a party. On the night of the party, Julie does Marjane’s makeup by drawing on thick black eyeliner. From this point on, Marjane begins wearing eyeliner like this regularly. Marjane, however, is shocked when she catches Julie spraying perfume on her vagina, which she’s named Minou. When Marjane remembers that minou means paradise in Persian, she laughs.
Since Marjane is so young and comes from a culture that’s more private when it comes to sex, Marjane doesn’t understand how Armelle’s obnoxiousness has anything to do with her sex life. But Julie, whom Marjane would likely describe as a “liberated woman,” seems to propose that sex is necessary to maintain a healthy, relaxed outlook and not annoy one’s family members. (In other words, Julie implies that Armelle wouldn’t be annoying if she were having sex.) Marjane starts to take steps toward becoming liberated as she wears makeup for the first time and is able to giggle about something as taboo as Julie’s vagina.
Themes
The party isn’t anything like Marjane expected. Julie plays Pink Floyd, which Marjane doesn’t think is party music. Instead of dancing and eating like partygoers do in Iran, everyone lies around and smokes. People also make out publicly, which disturbs Marjane. Guests finally leave around 4:00 a.m. As Marjane struggles to remove her makeup, she hears noises coming from the bedroom—Julie and her latest partner are having sex. Horrified, Marjane tries to read in the living room.
Talking about sex is one thing, but it’s entirely different for Marjane to come to terms with the fact that sex is going on in her own home. Even if Marjane is feels more like an adult by wearing makeup, eyeliner alone isn’t enough to turn her into a liberated woman with Western sensibilities about sex. Marjane’s horror suggests this situation isn’t just uncomfortable but genuinely traumatizing.
Themes
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A few minutes later, Julie and her partner walk out of the bedroom, naked. Julie wraps herself in a blanket and her partner puts on underwear, and then they join Marjane on the couch. Marjane has never seen a man in his underwear before. She remembers how her father once explained to her what testicles were. He’d described them as ping-pong balls. Remembering this, Marjane howls with laughter. Julie accuses her of being stoned. This evening marks Marjane’s first step toward assimilating into Western culture and understanding the sexual revolution.
Even though Marjane tries to act nonchalant in front of Julie and her nearly naked partner, the experience is wildly unsettling for her. Remembering her father’s humorous sex-ed lesson helps Marjane connect this unsettling experience with a more comforting memory of the past, but the conflation between testicles and ping-pong balls nevertheless reveals Marjane’s innocence and her more conservative upbringing where sex was involved. But that Marjane is able to laugh at this memory suggests that she’s slowly becoming more comfortable with Western culture’s openness about sex.
Themes
