payment page
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
God
Marji’s personal God who comes to talk with her at night symbolizes her feeling of belonging, her faith, and her innocence. Marji is deeply religious and spiritual as a young girl. Her faith in herself and her place in the world is symbolized by God’s warm embrace. She feels whole, safe, and at home. She feels in control, even to the point of being able to “control” God, calling on him and sending him away at will. But as Marji learns more about the world, her relationship with God weakens. On a night when she needs him the most, God does not come. This represents the first crack in her faith and suggests that the more Marji learns of the horrors of the world, the more estranged she becomes from God. As Marji’s interest in the secular world increases, her interest in God, and thus her faith and innocence, decreases. She becomes interested in the Revolution and ignores God and talk of being a prophet. This shows that Marji’s relationship with God is tied to a sense of safety. When Marji feels in control and a part of a righteous crusade, she doesn’t need God. But when the moral ambiguity of the Revolution and the complexity of Laly’s situation becomes overwhelming, Marji wants to feel safe and retreats into God’s warm embrace. Marji’s final break with God comes after Uncle Anoush’s execution. She screams at God and tells him never to come back, and he is absent for the rest of the book. God’s absence symbolizes the loss of Marji’s innocent belief that all will be well. Her loss of innocence has resulted in her loss of faith and sense of belonging.
The Veil
The Iranian regime’s requirement that women wear the veil is a powerful symbol of oppression, division, and isolation. It is notable that Satrapi begins her novel with a discussion about the veil even though the veil requirement is not chronologically the first thing that happens to Marji in the story. This signals that the veil has a wide-ranging significance that goes beyond the practical. Practically speaking, the veil has the immediate effect of separating women from men and relegating women to second-class citizens. For this reason, the veil represents a now-permanent division in Iranian society. The veil also serves to represent the extent to which someone supports the regime, with fundamentalists wearing it to the letter of the law and modernists showing some hair as a form of protest. A metaphorical veil has thus been lowered to separate Iranians from one another and make unity impossible. The veil also symbolizes the regime’s repression of the individual. It not only represents this repression by literally covering up individual traits, but it also facilitates the regime’s repression by signaling who the regime’s true supporters are. Finally, the veil symbolizes Iran’s withdrawal and isolation from the international community. On their trip to Europe, the Satrapis see a news report that contains an image of Iran being slowly covered by a pall of darkness. It looks a bit like a veil descending over the country and represents the way Iran is growing “darker” and turning its back on the West. Though in the opening pages of the book Marji and her classmates treat the veil as a meaningless plaything, Marji comes to associate the veil with division, oppression, and isolation.
The Henchmen of the Regime
The way Satrapi draws the bearded henchmen of the Iranian regime suggests these faces are symbols as much as they are real people. The drawing of each bearded, fundamentalist man is nearly identical. The face is either angry or self-righteously pious. Marji feels surrounded by and intruded upon by these men who threaten and look down on her. The angry faces that pepper Satrapi’s graphic novel thus symbolize the brutal patriarchy under which Marji lives. The way the drawings are crafted also suggest a darkening and a flattening of Iranian society. Nothing distinguishes one face from another, symbolizing the way the Iranian regime seeks to stamp out individuality. The people of Iran don the veil, long dark clothing, and cover their faces with beards. This creates a sort of “flattening” effect where there is no spontaneity, gaiety, nor outbursts of joy. As the regime’s power spreads, the feeling of a flattening darkness spreads as well.
