While the the historical and political content of Persepolis is obviously crucial, I would argue that the book, at its core, is the story of one girl’s complex transition from childhood into adolescence and adulthood.  We can’t help but be drawn to sympathize and identify with her innocence, idealism, and identity being broken apart and rebuilt.

The process and struggles associated with growing up are a staple in so many powerful stories.  And in such tales, common themes include the destruction of innocence and some form of rebellion — something we already discussed a bit with Wang Lung’s sons in The Good Earth.  We’ll be talking about this more holistically in class, but since little Marji is so wonderfully rebellious, I thought it would be fun for you completely innocent and non-rebellious teenagers to reflect on this topic 🙂

Drawing inspiration from Satrapi and even the sons in The Good Earth, respond in your blog some of these questions.  Is teenage rebellion unavoidable?  Can rebellion be considered a necessary or even good part of what it means to “come of age”?  What do you think are the typical motivating factors when teenagers rebel?  And most importantly, how do you feel like some kind of rebellion has played a significant part in your own coming-of-age journey?  (remember – personal storytelling blog posts always make for more interesting reading!)