Persepolis: Readers response

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi, is a very good graphic novel detailing Marjane's own childhood living in Tehran, Iran. I've read comic books before, and even one or two Japanese "Manga" books but I have never read an Graphic noviel in English before. I have to say I really liked the book; both because of the powerful impact it left on me as well as the artisticness of Satrapi. I honestly didn't realize that this story was in part non-fiction besides the historical events; many aspects of this book are actual events in Satrapi's early childhood.
Persepolis really showed me a lot about the culture and lifestyles in Iran during their many revolutions, revolts, and wars. I honestly had no idea that women's wearing of a veil was ever a controversy; I had just assumed it had always been something they did as a part of their religion. But right from the very begginning of this book I could tell that was not so. During Iran's "cultural revolution" the veil caused conflicts. "Everywhere in the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veil" (5). With page 11's "2500 years of tyranny and submission" I really saw all the opression these people have had to deal with. I wondered if these events really happened, and as I looked more at them I realized they probably did. On page 22, Marjane learns that her grandfather was a prince, and pictures him riding on an elephant with a lion chasing after him. This helped me to understand why Marjane had a hard time understanding what was going on; Marjane wanted to "become a prophet...because our maid did not eat with us...Because my father had a cadilac...And, above all, because my grandmother's knees always ached" (6). It is hard for her to understand because she has been living a good life all her life without even realizing it.
Marjane Satrapi is a very religious young girl. Besides wanting to be a prophet when she was young, she had many personal conversations with God throughout the book; from anything faith all the way to "tomorrow the weather is going to be nice" (13). As she is faced with the many evils of life, she pushes God away and he leaves her alone for awhile. But when she starts to feel truely alone God comes back to talk with her. Throughout her life she is faced with many tragic events and scenes, which make her basically skip her childhood. She constantly hears about death and torture, until she is so numb to it she play games involiving it with friends. She is not the only one; the majority of children living in Iran in this time period seem to have lost their childhoods as well.
I thought the sadest part of the whole book involving children growing up too fast was the chapter "the Key". Mrs. Nasrine shows Marjane and her mother a key that her son gave to her. "They gave this to my son at school. They told the boys that if they went to war and were lucky enough to die, this key would get them to heaven" (99). The mother's struggle to accept this along with the traumatic impact of this make this a very powerful section of the book. I couldn't imagining living in a place where your school encouraged you to not only fight but to die for your country to gain access to heaven.
By the end of the book Marjane is only fourteen years old, but she seems like she is a grown up. Her parents decided to send her to a French school in Austria. Marjane rejects the idea at first, "But I'm only fourteen! You trust me?" "You're fourteen and I know how i brought you up. Above all, I trust your education" (147). As Marjane finishes saying goodbye and leaves to get on the plane, she turns one last time to see her mother laying in her father's arms. What happened? What does Marjane mean when she says "I turned around to see them one last time. It would have been better to just go" (153). I'm very confused by this part, and I'm hoping it's made clear in the sequal, which I plan on reading later this week.
I found Persepolis to be much more interesting then I expected. I was entertained by the book and its artwork, while I also gained quite a bit of knowledge about Iranian culture and background. I feel very sympathetic for all of the innocent civilians in Iran that had to suffer not only at the hands of their enemies, but the hands of the overbearing reformists as well.
I am really curious about what happens next in the story now that Marjane is on her way to an Austrian French school. I'm going to read the next book this week and I think for my creative journal I will write a story on what happens between the end of Persepolis: the Story of a Childhood and Persepolis 2: the Story of a Return.