Marji's identity is greatly altered during the course of the novel, Persepolis. Marji starts out as a young 10 year old girl who identifies strongly with her spiritual/religious side, but she also identifies herself as a modern girl living in Iran. Before the revolt in Iran, she had her own spiritual side and often had conversations with God. During the time before and during the revolt, her spiritual side was not imposed on her, but it was her own decision to be involved with God. She was also very involved with modernizing the country and that side of her was fueled by her family's drive to do the same. The frame of Marji split at the beginning of the novel effectively shows the even split between her modern side, and her religious side. On the right, the background is filled with a traditional middle eastern design, and her vail is fully covering her hair and body. The other side shows her in western dress and her hair is uncovered. The background shows symbols of construction and technology which imply that the other side of her is interested in progressing and modernizing.
As her life progresses, the revolt is successful and a religious regime takes control over the government. Marji starts being forced to wear a veil, and religion is taught very strictly in school. We see Marji slowly loose faith in her spirituality. The more religion is forced onto her, the more removed she becomes from it. The regime is based on religion and morals, yet they are killing innocent people for rejecting their rule. Marji recognizes the hypocrisy that the government's religion is implementing, and that is a huge reason, I think, why she begins to identify more with the modern side of herself. Later in the novel she has her parents bring back western things from Turkey and she excitedly prepares to go out wearing her new clothes. The frame posted to the right shows her outfit. This frame reminded me a lot of the first frame I posted. There is a stark contrast betwween the traditional veil and the modern dress, just like the contrast in the first frame. I also see a major difference though. In the first frame, the veil was shown as a different side of her, and the veil was worn very conservatively covering her entire head and body. Only her face was exposed. In the second frame we see Marji wearing a jean jacket and a Michael Jackson pin, symbols of the western world at the time. While she is again wearing a veil, here she wears it purposefully showing some of her hair, and the veil is loosely tied around her neck. The veil no longer represents a part of her. In this frame she is wearing it because it is a rule, but even still she does everything she can to make it as modern as possible.
During the course of her life that the novel depicts, Marji loses touch with her spiritual side. This transformation is greatly catalyzed by the strict religious regime. As Marji grew into an adolescent, her tendency to rebel grew and opportunities to rebel multiplied. Marji was hardly determining her own future, as her only choice due to the combination the strict regime and her progressive family was to be rebellious.
