This is Goodbye

126-end

I admire Marjane for staying true to herself as she matured. She still looked up to popular culture icons, Iron Maiden, Kim Wilde, and Michael Jackson, wore retro Nike sneakers and a denim jacket (Satrapi 131). Then, even after she is harassed on the streets by "guardians of the revolution," fundamentalist women, and accused of being a punk, she returns home and calms down to a rock 'n roll tape (Satrapi 134). Keeping to their true selves and interests must have been hard for Iranian teenagers, considering the very conservative ideas the Fundamentalists were trying to impose onto society. It's great the Marji was able to see past the blatant control government was attempting to keep and instead allowed herself to be completely comfortable in her own home, whereas many teenagers were not even able to find comfort at home.

"Persepolis [Punk Is Not Ded]"

This video is the scene from the film that shows Marjane buying tapes from the street and getting condoned by the Fundamentalist women.

I was touched by the parental love and how visible it is when Marjane's parents decide to send the only daughter to live in Austria so that she can have a better life/education. I appreciate the way Marjane's father's confesses that he feels "it's better for [Marjane] to be far away and happy than close by and miserable" (Satrapi 148). It definitely shows how bad life in Iran was getting and that even if it meant being out of touch for a while, sending Marji away would be worth it in the long run. I could imagine how hard it would be for me to send my only child away if I were a mom. I guess this is how my parents are going to feel in less than a year when I'm leaving to start a new life in college. Since forever, I've wanted to just get out of San Jose and go to Southern California or even the East Coast, but after seeing Marjane's mother faint from overwhelming grief of sending Marji away, I wonder if I will soon be giving my parents that same feeling. I hope not...but if it does, then I'll definitely be staying in touch more than I previously would have planned to (Satrapi 153).