Journal Entry- Persepolis

Francesco Argentina

Dr. Cobos

ELA

9/29/17

Why does Marjane want to "make her past disappear" (194)? And how does this affect her development as a person?

On page 194, Marjane reveals to us that she wants the past to disappear. This statement, makes us as the reader really start to wonder, considering how far in the book we've come, and how much we've learned about Marjane already. I chose this prompt because I feel that there is no direct answer to this question and it invites an interesting conversation. We know that Marjane is proud to be Iranian and has a lot of love for her country as it states on page 197 where she lashes out on a group of friends at the cafe “You are going to shut up or I am going to make you, I am Iranian and proud of it!” But where there is love, there is also hurt and pain which I believe Marjane is feeling when she says this. The pain of her past may be too much for her to bear at this moment in the book, and she wishes nothing more but to just let it go, However she can not. This also greatly affects the way Marjane grows as an individual. A quote that supports this is on page 222 where she says “This is how, for love, I began my career as a drug dealer. Hadn’t I followed my mother's advice? To give the best of myself? I was no longer a simple junkie, but now my school's official dealer.” This quote really gives us an insight to how Marjane is feeling at her current situation in life. It seems that she thinks she has not only let her mother down, but herself as well. It’s interesting to imagine how Marjane would have developed if she was still under her mother's influence in Iran, instead of in Europe making her own decisions. To conclude this post, I believe that although the past can be hard at times, at least for Marjane’s sake, she shouldn't try to forget it, because her difficult past is what is responsible for shaping her into the woman she has become.