42 pages • 1 hour read
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Soup”
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses drug addiction, suicide, and war.
The sequel to Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood opens in Vienna in 1984 after Marjane’s tearful departure from Tehran at age 14. She finds herself in a small room in a Catholic boarding school, awaiting her mysterious roommate. This was not what her parents intended when they sent Marjane abroad.
Her parents arranged for her to stay with her mother’s friend, Zozo, but it immediately becomes clear that Marjane isn’t wanted in the home. In exile, Zozo and her husband Houshang have lost much of their status, wealth, and dignity. In Iran, the family was wealthy with status and good jobs, but in exile they struggle financially and emotionally. The result is a home full of fighting, screaming, and anger. Their teenage daughter, Shirin, has become spoiled and materialistic. When Zozo finally says that she has found another home for Marjane, Marjane is relieved to be moving on.
The boarding school is in Vienna, near Rathaus. Several of the nuns speak fluent French. Marjane is fluent as well but speaks no German. She is nervous about the arrival of her roommate but is proud of her newfound independence. She explores a well-stocked grocery store, marveling at the full shelves compared to barren shops in Iran. When she finally meets her roommate, Lucia, they discover that they cannot communicate. Lucia speaks only German, Marjane only French. They watch TV together, but Marjane cannot understand anything and sneaks away.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Tyrol”
Lucia and Marjane’s relationship gets off to a rocky start when Lucia uses the hairdryer in their room early each morning. Marjane feels even more isolated at school, where she struggles to make friends. Eventually, she wins some classmates over with her superior intellect, high academic marks, and cartoon sketches. She befriends an older classmate named Julie, who believes Marjane to be mature because she has known war. Julie introduces her to Momo and two orphaned friends, who are also fascinated by Marjane’s experience with death and war. This is a counterculture group of free thinkers and lovers of punk music.
Marjane’s patience in attempting to communicate with Lucia pays off when Lucia invites her to spend Christmas with her family in Tyrol. There, Lucia’s family does not ask about death or war, and Marjane is able to relax and enjoy a family environment for the first time since leaving Iran.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Pasta”
Back at the boarding school, Marjane clashes with Momo while discussing philosophy. She finds him conceited and entitled but admits that he may be right in his assessment of her lack of knowledge about Western philosophy. She spends the rest of her Christmas holiday reading so that she can keep up intellectually with these peers and fit into this new society. She reads The Mandarins, The Second Sex, and other books about sexual awakening and finding oneself.
Later, while watching TV and eating with a group of nuns, she is confronted by a nun who insults her: “It’s true what they say about Iranians. They have no education” (23). Marjane responds by asserting that the nun was a prostitute before taking the vow. For this, Marjane is expelled from the school. The nuns send a letter to her parents claiming that she left in shame after stealing yogurt. Her parents know better but do not push the issue. Marjane moves in with Julie’s family and understands that reading alone will not help her fit into Western society. She will have to look elsewhere to understand how to fit into this new world.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Persepolis 2 begins in medias res as Marjane attempts to settle into her new life in Austria after fleeing war-torn Iran and leaving her family, culture, and blossoming sense of identity behind. The abrupt beginning conveys a sense of being dropped into something new and difficult to understand, which mimics Marjane’s sense of her immigrant experience.
In Iran (detailed in Persepolis 1), Marjane was known as outspoken, bold, and rebellious—a lover of philosophy and idealism in many forms. In Persepolis 2 her identity is shaken when she is confronted by a culture that is open, accepting, and expressive. She no longer stands out as a rebel but appears traditional and submissive in comparison to her peers. Her dress is conservative—even more so than her attire in Iran—and her hair and face are unadorned. Her personality appears meek in comparison to characters such as Julie and Momo, and Marjane Satrapi uses these characters to emphasize Marjane being different to Europeans. She asks more questions than asserts herself in the opening chapters and fails to stand out as a result. In exile, her identity is redefined by the new setting, norms, and regulations. As she battles to find a physical home, she confronts her changing sense of self (or lack thereof) as she deals with the consequences of her multiple displacements.
Persepolis 2 is, at its heart, a bildungsroman—a coming-of-age memoir set during a difficult time under near impossible circumstances. As such, Marjane struggles with An Identity in Conflict Between Two Worlds. This section of the novel establishes this central conflict as she begins to find her sense of belonging in a complex world.
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