Class in Persepolis

One theme that shows up constantly in Persepolis is the differences between social classes. At the beginning of the novel, she mentioned that she wanted to be a prophet. One of the reasons she wanted to be a prophet was "because our maid did not eat with us" (Satrapi 6) She felt ashamed that Mehri had been with her since she was a child, yet Mehri did not have the right to eat with them. Marjane also feels ashamed of her social standing in the chapter "The Letter". Her father says "in this country you must stay within your own class" (Satrapi 37) when explaining to Marjane that Mehri and Hossein. Her father's actions created a juxtaposition of ideology. Marjane's parents were advocates of freedom and independence, yet they didn't consider Mehri as their equal. It was as if they were saying that only some people deserved rights, that only the upper class deserved rights because they were better than everyone else and Marjane just couldn't understand this.

Another instance of the differences between social classes was when her uncle had a heart attack and needed to go to England for open heart surgery. When Marjane's aunt went to ask for a passport and the man replied that she would have one if it was God's will, she came back and said "The fate of my husband depends on a window washer!" (124), solidifying the differences between social classes. Even though the former window washer got ahead in life, she still looks down on him. This treatment might explain why some people were so willing to become devout Muslims. The lower class people saw that they were given a chance to become something more than what they were born into, and they jumped on the chance. In that sense, the upper class can be blamed for the situation it is in. The way the upper class treated the lower class explains why some people were so open to Islam. Ironically, when people were previously being prejudiced to the lower class for being poorer and beneath them, their view evolved to hate them for being sold out to the new regime. On top of being poor, they were traitors, further lowering their status to the upper class. Satrapi might have included this concept to show that no matter how hard one tries, one cannot rise above one's social class without suffering.