Persepolis

After I finished Persepolis, I found myself repeating the line "to die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society" (115), a slogan Marji finds graffitied on a wall. She disagrees--after seeing so many of her loved ones die, death seems to contribute nothing to the revolution but despair. These deaths, though, propel personal and familial revolutions, instigating the changes that push her life--and the story--forward.

Just after this quotation is a full page panel: Marji's small figure walks down a flight of steps on the top left into a large explosion that holds the figures of fighting soldiers. There's no way to tell which soldiers are fighting for which side. A speech bubble says "They eventually admitted that survival of the regime depended on the war." On the bottom right Marji's figure walks out a door. Another speech bubble says "When I think we could have avoided it all...it just makes me sick. A million people would still be alive" (116).

The regime becomes more repressive as Marji indulges in the stereotypical teenage rebellions. She tries her first cigarette, she wears punk clothing, she listens to rock music. And her parents generally indulge her rebellions in a way that is protective, knowing the danger she is in if her rebellion is known to the state, for the repressive regime is killing those it perceives to be its enemies.

The "martyr" graffiti is subtly referenced when Uncle Taher has a heart attack (brought on by a grenade attack). There are calls to give blood to the war wounded--these speech bubbles aren't the soft, semi-rectangular ones in other panels, but are enclosed by sharp, jagged edges. The words "give blood" are thick and black. The regime is asking for more blood, but they have already taken so much blood will another transfusion really make a difference?

Marji's parents attempt to get a passport for her uncle so he can get appropriate medical treatment in England or at least see his son. They even attempted to get a fake passport. The man who was supposed to make the passport was harboring a revolutionary, a woman named Niloufar. Two days later she was spotted, arrested, and executed. Uncle Taher died without being able to see his son.

Though Marji's friend Neda is killed by a missile, it is Niloufar's death that seems to have caused more of a change in the direction of her life.  After Marji got in trouble at school, her parents explained that Niloufar wasn't only murdered by the regime, she was raped--that one of her executioners married her and sent her family a small ($5) dowry to let them know that she'd been raped. She says: "All night long, I thought of that phrase: 'to die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society.' Niloufar was a real martyr, and her blood certainly did not feed our society's veins" (146).

Niloufar's death may not have fed society's veins, but it created a change in Marji's life. It provided that motivation for her parents to send Marji to Vienna to finish her schooling. Though her parents reassure her that they will be joining her soon, she is certain they will not be. And she is right.