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
In the art college, male and female students have separate studios. Students used to draw nudes for figure drawing, but now, their female models wear veils. Marjane’s class thus learns how to draw drapery. Male models are easier. Though they’re clothed, it’s at least possible to tell that they have limbs. One night, Marjane stays late to draw a male model. A supervisor interrupts Marjane’s drawing and notes that she’s not allowed to look at men—it’s against the moral code. If she wants to draw a man, she has to draw him while looking away. Marjane encounters absurd situations like this often. One afternoon, as she rushes to catch the bus, Guardians of the Revolution yell at her to stop. They tell her that when she runs, her bottom makes “obscene” movements. Marjane shouts at them to not look.
Nude figure drawing is an important part of an arts education. Requiring that models be clothed (or veiled) shows that the Iranian government is more interested in promoting their religious ideas than they are in educating their students. This may start to make Marjane think that she needs to leave Iran if she really wants to receive an education in art. Even aside from this, though, Marjane makes it clear that female students often face oppression for silly reasons, which makes them more anxious about how they look and feel less safe in their day-to-day lives.
Themes
Early in the 1980s, the government imprisoned and executed a number of high school and college students. Out of fear, Marjane and her classmates avoid talking about politics. These days, anything is enough of a pretense to arrest a woman—some are arrested for showing their wrists or laughing loudly. Marjane even gets arrested for wearing red socks. The regime understands that if women are preoccupied with what they’re wearing, they don’t have time to think deeply about their freedoms or the current political situation. Marjane notes that this is understandable—fear robs people of their ability to analyze a situation, and dictators use this to their advantage.
Persepolis 2 makes it clear that controlling a population isn’t hard if everything a person does can be punishable by arrest. Women, Marjane shows, live in constant fear that they’ll be arrested for existing—which means they spend their time worrying about how they look to others instead of worrying about their schoolwork. Simply because of this fact, it’s likely that Marjane and her female classmates aren’t getting the most out of their education—these arrests seem designed to distract them from schoolwork.
Themes
Though Marjane’s classmates rebel by showing a bit of hair or wearing makeup, she discovers that her classmates aren’t as rebellious as they seem. One day, she drops her pencil case and her birth control pills fall out. A classmate helps her clean up her things and shares that she also takes the pill. It helps with her irregular periods. Marjane says she takes it because she and her boyfriend have sex, which attracts the attention of everyone in the room. One woman tells Marjane she’s being indecent, but Marjane argues that what she does with her body is her business. To the reader, Marjane explains that the woman is probably just frustrated because she’s forbidden to have sex. And despite the woman’s “rebellious” makeup and visible hair, she’s “acting like the state” because she’s repressed. After this, many students shun Marjane.
This fight with her classmates throws Marjane’s Western values into sharp relief. Though Marjane declares that her body is hers, her classmates show that they think their repressive society should have more of a say in how women conduct their lives and bodies. In this way, Marjane’s classmates actively support the repressive regime they purport to hate. The Guardians of the Revolution would have no way of knowing that Marjane is having sex—but they don’t have to if civilians can step in and shame Marjane. This speaks to a widespread culture of fear and shame.
Themes
Fortunately, Marjane slowly makes friends with those who don’t shun her. They begin gathering to model for and draw each other. Their professor is thrilled with their drawings. Over time, Marjane becomes increasingly aware of the divide between public life and private life. In private, people drink, dance, have sex, and have homosexual relationships. Leading two disparate lives is hard to deal with emotionally. To compensate, Marjane and her friends party nearly every night. But the Guardians of the Revolution still arrest them out of their own homes. Everyone is terrified the first time, but they soon get used to it, and their parents always bail them out. Because of these arrests, partying gets expensive fast.
These friends help Marjane discover where she fits into Iranian society. She may not be able to connect with all of her classmates, but there are some who feel just as repressed as she does. Partying and gathering together gives these students a way to connect and express themselves—though Marjane makes it clear that only being able to express oneself in private is emotionally taxing. In this sense, the divide between one’s private and public life becomes another source of trauma.
Themes
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One night, the Guardians of the Revolution arrive to break up a party. The female partygoers pour alcohol down the toilet and pull on their veils as fast as they can. Male guests run to the roof and sprint away across the city. When the Guardians of the Revolution enter the apartment, they chase after the men. The Guardians shoot one man and arrest the women. When Dad comes to get Marjane, he starts to suggest she stop partying. But because he knows it’s important to let Marjane make her own choices, he doesn’t finish. The next day, all Marjane’s friends gather at her house. They’re angry and terrified, but they decide to throw another party in defiance.
Though Dad cares deeply for Marjane’s safety, he also understands that she’s an adult. It’s important to him that she be allowed to make her own decisions, which is why he doesn’t forbid her from partying. This speaks to the changing nature of Marjane’s relationships with her parents. She’s no longer a child that they need to control and protect—her opinions and desires matter just as much as theirs do.
Themes
