Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi (2000)
“A ten-year-old girl watches a revolution devour her country — and draws it in black and white, because that's exactly what it felt like.”
EraContemporary / Autobiographical
Pages153
Difficulty★☆☆☆☆ Accessible
AP Appearances4
Character Analysis
The child narrator who doesn't know everything but notices everything. Marji is not a precocious sage — she is genuinely confused, genuinely brave, genuinely selfish in the ways children are. Her political education happens in public (through the revolution) and in private (through her family), and Satrapi is careful to show both processes. The adult narrator looks back at the child narrator with a mix of affection and clear-eyed assessment: this girl was extraordinary, and also just a kid.