Defiance

In Persepolis, Marjane mocks and disrespects everyone who has authority. As the revolutionist that she is, she becomes involved in the fight for freedom and her beliefs without thinking about the consequences. Rules are made to force us to follow them and not break them again. However, Marjane seems to not understand the importance of following them. An example is when Marjane hits the principle when she tries to take a piece of jewelry from her and is expelled because of it (143). There is no way I see myself hitting, not only the principle but an elder. Ever since I can remember my parents have always taught me to respect everyone even if they didn’t deserve it. I can’t imagine myself being expelled from school because of hitting the principle. To think about my parents’ reaction and the severe punishment that would be given to me by them is a reason enough to not even think about hitting someone. Also, one of the possible penalties of hitting a school employee would probably file a police report and an arousal of problems with the law. A bad record would follow me for the rest of my life. Another example that caught my attention was when she had gone to the black market to buy American music and is surprised by the “Guardians of the Revolution”(133). As we know, the guardians of the revolution were the women’s branch that had been added to arrest and guide women who were improperly veiled(133). Now, this brought my attention because even though Marjane knew that following American culture had been banned she was still being careless and decided to go to the black market to obtain music tapes(131). To me, it seems like she was looking for trouble. Why would Marjane go outside improperly dressed; according to the fundamentalist, and to the black market to purchase American music? As I read this passage I pictured a provoking, rebellious young lady in search of trouble. Was she trying to honor in some way the death and the beliefs of her uncle Anoosh? Hadn’t his death been a lecture enough to prove what would occur to those that opposed Iraqi laws? All these questions were running through my head. While she was being questioned by the guardians her answers were fast and insolent. For example, “Why are you wearing those “punk” shoes? What punk shoes? Those! But these are sneakers! I wear these because I play basketball…….Aren’t you ashamed to wear tight jeans like these? They shrank(133).” In my case; if I were to be the one being questioned by the guardians, I would probably not know what to answer and immediately apologize for any wrong doing. Even though she was careless and reckless about her actions I admire how strong opinionated she is. However, there is a limit to our actions and Marjane realized that when she was about to be taken to the committee where she could have been whipped or detained for days or hours. At some point, everyone will always have a limit. For example, a DUI(driving under the influence) could cause imprisonment, an expensive fine, community service, and possibly an accident. All actions have consequences that will not always end up nicely, so why take the risk?