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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Growing Up and Growing Old
Identity, Culture, and Self-Expression
Gender and Oppression
Suffering and Trauma
Summary
Analysis
One day, not long after school starts again, Marjane’s friends discuss someone named Bakunin. When Marjane asks who that is, Momo says imperiously that Bakunin was “the anarchist.” He then goes on to talk about how great vacation is. Marjane asks if there’s another vacation coming up. Secretly, Marjane dislikes vacation, because it means having to spend time alone. She assures Julie that she doesn’t have a problem with vacation, she’s just not used to having so much of it. Momo takes her by the shoulders and says condescendingly that she’ll get used to it—in Europe, no one is forced to work all the time. He goes on to say that nobody would work at all if the anarchists had triumphed and encourages her to relax and “cultivate” herself. Marjane thinks Momo is a jerk, but he has a point: Marjane needs to educate herself enough to fit in.
An anarchist is someone who believes that the government is not only unnecessary but also actively armful. “The anarchist” whom Momo is referring to is Mikhail Bakunin, a 19th-century political writer and Russian revolutionary anarchist. Momo sees Marjane’s worry about another vacation as proof that Marjane is just a poor, uncivilized person from a developing country. This certainly makes Momo feel more superior—it allows him to cast himself as an expert in European culture. Despite Momo’s condescension and rudeness, Marjane decides to take his advice and “cultivate” herself in the sense of learning enough to be able to fit in.
Themes
Thus, Marjane decides to spend the next vacation reading. This allows her to distinguish herself among her classmates as a hard worker, all while avoiding having to admit she’s not going anywhere for vacation. She first reads Bakunin, the Russian anarchist who rejects all authority. This is all Marjane understands of his philosophy—and she suspects that’s all Momo understands, too. Then, Marjane studies the history of the commune and reads Jean-Paul Sartre. Her friends love Sartre, but Marjane finds him annoying. When Marjane isn’t reading, she bundles up in her snowsuit and makes multiple trips to the supermarket to pass the time.
In dabbling in politics, philosophy, and history, Marjane is also experimenting with how to present herself to her classmates. Reading so much makes her look cultured and smart, which seem to balance out the fact that she’s not going anywhere for vacation. Her reading, however, teaches her more about her friends than it does about Bakunin, Sartre, or communes. She senses that her friends are probably just trying to look smart and sophisticated by idolizing Bakunin.
Themes
Marjane decides that to educate herself, she has to understand everything. She decides to start by learning about herself, so she reads her mother’s favorite book, The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir. She then reads The Second Sex. Since de Beauvoir insists that women’s outlook would change if they urinated standing up, Marjane tries it. Her urine runs down her leg and she thinks it’s disgusting. It seems far simpler to sit on the toilet. After this, Marjane decides that she has to become “a liberated and emancipated woman” before she learns to urinate like a man.
Turning to her mother’s favorite book is a way for Marjane to connect with her family even though they’re far away. And ranching out from Momo’s reading list shows that, even as Marjane tries to fit in in Vienna, she’s still more interested in figuring out who she is as a liberal Iranian woman. However, de Beauvoir’s work shows Marjane that even though she thinks she’s fairly liberal, she still has a ways to go before she becomes “a liberal emancipated woman.”
Themes
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One day in February, Marjane makes herself spaghetti. She’s starving, so she carries her entire pot of pasta to the TV room to watch TV with the nuns. Suddenly, the Mother Superior steps in front of Marjane and reminds her to use her manners. The Mother Superior says it’s true—Iranians have no education. Marjane spits back that all nuns were once prostitutes, attracting the attention of everyone in the room. The Mother Superior’s assistant scolds Marjane and insists that Marjane must leave. Marjane thinks to herself that it’s possible to find extremists in every religion.
Even though the Mother Superior is deeply religious, she fails to demonstrate the kind, accepting attitude that Christianity preaches. The Mother Superior’s highly offensive comment about Iranians having no education emphasizes to Marjane that Iran isn’t the only country where religion can get distorted and twist its adherents into dangerous, mean people. In Vienna, the religion just isn’t state-sanctioned like it is in Iran.
Themes
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Though the nuns allow Marjane to stay through the end of the month, Marjane immediately calls Julie and asks to stay with her. Julie agrees, so Marjane says goodbye to Lucia. The nuns send a letter to Marjane’s mother and father, claiming that Marjane stole a fruit yogurt and chose to leave the boarding house. Marjane’s parents are confused, since they know Marjane hates fruit yogurt. As Marjane boards the bus, she realizes she has a long way to go before she’ll fit in in Vienna.
It seems that Marjane’s rush to move out is a way for her to preserve her dignity. Staying the rest of the month may read to her as giving in to the nuns’ ridiculous demands. That Marjane’s parents don’t automatically believe the nuns’ side of the story speaks to the respect and trust that they have for their daughter.
Themes
