Themes! Themes! Themes!

Themes in Persepolis (constructed by you!)

• Being an outsider
• Self-discovery
• Standing up to ignorant people, having confidence in yourself
• Coming-of-age, Bildungsroman
• Assimilating to a new life/world
• Hatred/Fear/Insecurity of the unknown
• Crossing a threshold (Hero’s Journey)
• Realization of change in yourself
• Self-acknowledgement
• Confidence in your identity
• Alienation
• Frustration/Anger while trying to fit in to the world around you or with others.

These are GREAT themes to work with for your personal narrative essay. And I am sure that there are many more out there from your careful, active reading. Keep looking for them and see if you can connect it to your life. What experiences in your life are similar to what Marji lives through in the book? How are they different? Do you have mentor figures in your life like Marji’s grandmother?