Persepolis: The Veil

  The first chapter of Persepolis sets the introduction and starts leading the audience to a potential situation that can take place. It starts off by introducing the main character and what she is living through. The chapter closes by showing how the main character desires to become the last prophet of her religion.  This little girl is born in the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. She is obliged to wear a veil over her hair, and is soon separated from her friends at school. Afterwards, she starts thinking of a way to pursue her dream of becoming the last prophet. She has a holy book, and has long talks with God at night. By reading this chapter I came up with several questions, including: What is her name? When does this story take place? Why are the obligated to wear a vail? What does this vail represent? Why does she want to be a prophet when she grows up? When she 'chats' with God at night, is it her imagination or is it really God? Will this book relate to us her experiences with the religion? Due to the fact that it was a short chapter, we couldn't receive a lot of information and therefore I don't have  as many doubts about how the story begins. My last question is, what is going to come up next?

The first chapter of Persepolis takes us to Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The time period is one that is chaotic, during the Cold War. The narrator, which is the author herself, Marjane Satrapi, is raised at a very young age as a proletariat-loving revolutionary, by her parents who are the same way. She also believes that she is the last prophet of her religion. When she is forced to wear a veil over her head, she comes to dislike it. I came up with several questions, including

• What does the veil represent for the women of Iran?
• What is her connection to God?
• How does the time and place she is living in affect her childhood?
• How does her childhood compare to, say, an American girl?