Persepolis

Satrapi draws a definitive parallel between the trajectory of her childhood and the trajectory of the Islamic Revolution, as well as the Iran-Iraq war. Her life—and her family’s history—is entwined with Iranian politics and culture. This is not solely a memoir of Satrapi’s childhood; in order to understand how she grew up, the reader must understand how the revolution, civil unrest, and war changed the world around her and affected her family. Satrapi’s story is inseparable from the story of her homeland, and the events that marked her childhood years.

For this reason, the book’s plot is not entirely linear: Satrapi’s experience of the revolution was not a perfectly linear experience. Flashing back and forth between Tehran pre- and post-revolution, as well as before she is even born to imagine her family’s experiences, Satrapi employs a semi-chronological structure. This allows for greater flexibility in storytelling, and a richer, more vibrant understanding of the forces influential to Satrapi’s upbringing.

The Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age tales, always revolve around loss of innocence. By making the revolution an intrinsic part of the narrative, it allows Satrapi’s losses of innocence to be easily identifiable. Her personal loss of innocence is readily symbolic for the loss of innocence for many—if not all—Iranians, especially once it became clear that the country post-revolution would adhere to fundamentalist Islamic beliefs rather than socialist and communist ideals.