Identity In Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

In the memoir, “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi, the author’s grandmother advises her to, “keep your dignity and be true to yourself”. The author then departs Iran and spend four years in Vienna trying to find her true self while keeping her roots from back home. This becomes a challenge since she faces discriminatory acts alone, without her parents.
While Marjane was alone in the Catholic boarding house, during the winter she decided to join the nuns watching “Inspector Derrick” while she ate a whole pot of spaghetti. The mother superior generalized Iranians by saying, “It’s true what they say about Iranians. They have no education.” Marjane got offended and said, “It’s true what they say about you, too. You were all prostitutes before becoming …show more content…
Marjane shows this again in the memoir at a party, Marjane meets a guy named Marc and tells him that she is French which isn’t true since she is Iranian. After she goes to a party at school, some girls talk about her being ugly and a liar inside the dinner. They said that she was lying about knowing war because she never talked about her country nor her parents. Marjane is overhearing them saying all of this and she gets furious and yells, “I am Iranian and proud of it” and storms off. This reveals that she had a moment of self-realization that helped her overcome her initial embarrassment and become her true self again. This reminds me of when I had just moved from Miami to Houston and I didn’t know anyone at my new school. When I moved, I decided not to tell anyone I was Hispanic because I was ashamed that I was from Honduras, a very poor and dangerous country. These girls were talking about me in Spanish making false accusation like; how I was Indian, ugly and acting too smart; thinking that I didn’t understand Spanish. Realization hit me that I should be proud of knowing my native language and where I come from. Never in my life had I felt the greatest satisfaction until