Persepolis

One might only image the misfortune of growing up in a country during a time of political and cultural dissonances a war creates. This conflict not only affects government issues, it also affects life at home for many. Marjane Satrapi’s movie, Persepolis, portrays firsthand the broken relationship a war causes between a family and their political and cultural conditions. Social statuses in Iran are erased as the movie progresses and the people in Teheran find their worlds flipped upside down. As the invisible lines once separating the social classes vanish, the people of Terhan find themselves coming together in an attempt to fix the nightmare in which they are living. Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis exemplifies a unique relationship between her family and the politics and culture in which they live with. Marjane’s parents are strong advocates for working class equality and liberation which conflicts with the position that they hold and seek in society. As a fortunate middle class family, the Satrapi’s own a car, live in a nice apartment, and even employ a maid. The family’s maid began working for them at the age of eight and is not allowed to sit at the table with the Satrapi’s during meals. This seems to be inconsistent with their view on equality and liberation. As time progresses the Satrapi’s find themselves in an unfamiliar position, a position in which it does not matter what occupation one holds. During the time period of this movie, the lines between social classes become nonexistent. The Satrapi’s once a well off middle class family began talking about the possibility of having to take inferior jobs compared to occupations they were working. In a conversation between Marjane’s father and mother the possibility of them having to become a maid and a taxi driver is brought up. On the other end of the spectrum, people who held inferior jobs found themselves climbing the ladder to higher status jobs. Taher’s old window-cleaner, a man that had been in an inferior position to that of Taher and his wife, suddenly became the director of the hospital in which Taher died. The film Persepolis shows the inconsistency on social class systems and how during a time of violence they become less important. A clip in the film shows a young man being carried out of the hospital as a hero, as he is carried out, no one stops to check his social class ranking. This man had just been shot and killed during a demonstration against the government. In a place and time where he may never have been looked at twice due to his rank in society; he is instead treated with the upmost respect due to his “heroic actions” and is carried out like one would think a person in the upper class would be. This clip in Persepolis exemplifies the fall of the importance of the class rank in Tehran during this time period. Prices paid by the citizens in a country plagued with war are substantial, but with an incoherent amount of bad always comes a bit of good. The good thing that came from the war fought by the Iranians depicted in Persepolis is the fading of social class importance. Marjane Satrapi’s film Persepolis shows how citizens of a country once consumed by lines drawn between social classes, overcame these barriers and came together as human beings with passion to change what they did not like. For a brief time, it didn’t not matter the occupation a person held or his or her monetary worth, the only thing that matter was the mutual cause the citizens were fighting for, freedom.