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Summary: The Jewels
Marji and her mother go to the grocery store, where they find nearly empty shelves and people fighting for food. Disgusted with people’s behavior, Marji’s mother walks out of the store. Gas is also now being rationed because of shortages. Marji's father shouts at her, exasperated with the stress of simply getting to work. One day, while the Satrapis are getting gas, an attendant informs them that the Iraqis bombed a local refinery in Abadan, a border town where Marji’s mother’s friend Mali lives. Worried, they rush home to find out if Mali and her family are all right. Mali explains that their home was destroyed, but she was able to save some family jewels. Mali’s family stays with the Satrapis for a week as they sell the jewels and look for a new home. Marji finds Mali’s children demanding and annoying and Mali bitter. One day, Mali overhears two local women gossiping about refugees, accusing them of clearing the grocery store shelves and becoming dirty prostitutes. Ashamed, Mali says that to be “spat upon by your own kind is . . . intolerable.” Marji feels bad that she ever thought anything negative about Mali and her family.
Summary: The Key
Iraq leads the war with modern weapons and artillery, but Iran has its own advantage: a large young male population. When these young soldiers begin to die in huge numbers, Iranian newspapers print their pictures and names, and they are declared martyrs. At school, Marji and her fellow students are required to join in funeral marches and line up twice a day to mourn the war dead—including beating their hearts as a show of grief, similar to the practice of self-flagellation in religious ceremonies. After a while, Marji finds these demonstrations silly, and she and her friends mock the rituals, much to their teacher’s fury. This leads to a heated confrontation between the teacher and the children’s parents in which Marji’s parents lead the way in questioning the school’s hardline ways.
The Iranian army begins recruiting boys from poor neighborhoods, luring them to fight by giving them plastic keys painted gold and telling them that these are keys to paradise. The Satrapis’ maid, Mrs. Nasrine, comes from one of those neighborhoods and becomes distraught when recruiters approach her son. Many of the boys who join the army don’t return, dying on the battlefield wearing their gold keys around their necks instead. One night, while speaking to her cousin Peyman on the phone, Marji asks if people give out keys to paradise at his school. When he doesn’t understand the question, Marji realizes that both of their school experiences vastly differ from those of children in poorer neighborhoods. Later, Marji attends a party at Peyman’s house at which she wears a punk-rock-style necklace that her mother has made for her.
Analysis
As the war continues to escalate, the consequences ripple through an increasingly suffering Iran. Satrapi suggests multiple layers to this suffering as symbolized by the Iranian tradition of self-flagellation. In the context of the events of Persepolis, self-flagellation can be interpreted as a way for Iranians to publicly take responsibility for the deaths of so many people in the war. It is a way to say, “the death of any Iranian cuts at the heart of every Iranian.” The self-flagellation in Persepolis also represents the shame and guilt Iranians feel over their children’s continued sacrifice. Those who are left to live while so many others die feel a tremendous sense of survivor’s guilt. Beating themselves is a performative way for Iranians to express this guilt and atone publicly for failing to die for their country. On another level, self-flagellation symbolizes how the people of Iran have harmed and continue to harm themselves. As Marji’s father says, the real invasion comes from within the government, not outside. The government, made up of Iranians, oppresses the people. Neighbors spy on one another. The people fight amongst each other. Fundamentalists fight modernists, and locals fight refugees. In a sense, Iranian society performs a grand act of national self-flagellation by turning on itself, oppressing its citizens, and sending its children to die in war.
“The Key” especially highlights the regime’s actions to drum up support for the war and shows how adept the regime is at exploiting the weaknesses of its population to exert tighter control. One advantage Iran has in the war is its 38 million people at the time, compared to Iraq’s population of 13 million. The Iranian regime therefore understands a grim truth: if it can convince the people of Iran to buy into the war, it can win the war through sheer attrition. To win over the population, the regime insidiously preys upon its people’s sense of national pride, ignorance, and religious devotion. Marji’s patriotic reaction to the war shows that even Iranians who hate the regime can be moved to support the war effort. The regime knows this and plays upon nationalist sympathies to get people to send their children to fight. The regime also preys upon the country’s large uneducated population by appealing to their devotion to Islam. With promises of an afterlife much better than life on Earth, they entice young men to volunteer. The success of these efforts to shape the Iranian populace into compliance is represented by the chauvinistic and ignorant behavior of Nasrine’s son. Based on this example, the regime’s tactics appear to be working.
Though the pages of these chapters are full of darkness and horror, Satrapi emphasizes the way many Iranians band together and manage to find some joy in spite of everything. The country is at war, and the store shelves are nearly empty. Tensions are high and people are turning on each other. Even Marji’s mother, who espouses the need for togetherness and sacrifice, succumbs to the pressure of the many dangers around her and selfishly buys more rice than the family needs. The stress of the gas shortage also causes strife within the Satrapi family, and they bicker and yell at one another. The pressure only increases with the Iraqi bombing campaign in the south that causes Tehran to be flooded with refugees. Many Iranians react xenophobically and denigrate newcomers. But the fact that Marji can find humor in horrible situations emphasizes a collective need for camaraderie. This is best illustrated at the supermarket when she humorously tells Mali’s young boys what the word “flatulence” means. It’s a light moment juxtaposed against the women’s xenophobic tirade in the same scene. While many bemoan and hate those who have come to Tehran for safety, Marji demonstrates that lightness is needed to survive the darkness.
The Satrapis not only manage to stay close as a family, but they also welcome in their friends from the south whose home has been destroyed. Marji shows herself to be kind and selfless by looking after Mali’s two young boys. She gives them the gift of normalcy when she makes them laugh and acts silly with them. Marji’s mother shows her moral fortitude by standing up for Mali in the grocery store. Marji’s father stands up to the school principal’s shaming with humor and dignity. These incidents are important reminders that even amidst mounting cruelty, people are capable of remarkable bravery and kindness. Satrapi also shows a suffering people’s capacity for joy on the last page of “They Key.” The two images on the page juxtapose the deaths of scores of young men against Marji enjoying a party at her friend’s house. The dual image is off-putting, and Satrapi hints at a certain amount of guilt within herself as the subject of her autobiography. But the image also suggests something more positive in that people will find a way to feel a little joy, if for no other reason than to help cope with tragedy.
