PERSEPOLIS

CHAPTER-PASTA
 A QUICK SUMMARY
❑ After spending her Christmas with Lucia's family
Marjane happens to know that there are even more
vacations coming up which was very different than
Iranian schools where they only had 2 week of vacation
after New year.

❑ Momo is shocked to know that Marjane had no clue

about Bakunin and tells how Europeans are not always
forced to work about which Marjane wasn’t impressed.

❑ Marjane gets to know that all her friends are going out
to spend their vacation, so she decides to spend her
vacation by reading book.

❑ She starts with reading about Bakunin and followed

about the history of commune, none of which she found
interesting, so she read Satre's work which too was
boring for her.

❑ She decides to educate herself with everything and

beginning it with herself, so she picks up her mother's
favorite book "The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir.

❑ According to the book, if women peed standing up

their perception of life would change.
.
 A QUICK SUMMARY

❑ After a failed attempt at standing and peeing

she realized that it was much easier to sit and
pee and in order to stand and pee an Iranian
woman should become liberated and
emancipated.

❑ So one night in February, she decided to make

some pasta in a pot and took it to the TV room

❑ Mother Superior finds it disrespectful that

Marjane was eating directly from the pot, and
says that its true that Iranians have no education.

❑ To which Marjane gets very triggered and

says that it is also true that the nuns were all
prostitutes before becoming nun.

❑ Marjane was evicted from the boarding

school within a month, Marjane calls Julie and
she allows Marjane to live with her family and
eventually said goodbye to Lucia.

.
Anarchism mentioned by Momo

The belief that all forms of government are

oppressing and therefore undesirable. It has a
desire to create utopia which has a strong influence
over the European continent. Most of the European
countries are involved in left wing politics when
compared to Iran which is mostly populated with
rightists. Utopia would simply mean a society which
is nearly perfect, and the main object of anarchy
was to bring utopia around the world.
EDUCATION SYSTEM IN IRAN DURING THE 20TH CENTURY

The number of schools were limited to only the elite, whether it was the
bureaucratic or the economic elite. Instruction was limited to basic
subjects, and with a great focus on religion. All these schools were run
by Islamic institutions

Following the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1907), serious efforts

were put in place to establish a nationwide, public, primary school
system. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 did bring about several changes
to the educational system. Islam was reintroduced as an ethical
framework and as part of the curriculum, teachers not considered
Islamic enough were removed, conservative dress codes were imposed.
All institutions were closed in April 1980, some remained closed for
more than 3 years. A large part of the teachers were dismissed, and
students either left or were forced to leave, effectively making 2/3 of the
students never to return.
EDUCATION SYSTEM IN AUSTRIA DURING THE 20TH CENTURY

• The children had to attend Volksschule for four years and middle
school and then high school which would eventually grant them
diploma. Before the 1962 reform majority of children attended
compulsory middle school. The Act of 1962 and subsequent
amendments require that all state-funded schools be open to
children regardless of birth, gender, race, status, class, language,
or religion. Many programs of specialization were introduced in
the branches of Business, commerce and technology.

• This strikes a shocking contrast between the Iranian educations

system and Austrian education system. This difference could have
been one of the main reason why mother superior passed that
comment about Iranians having no education.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OF MARJANE AND ANALYSIS

Marjane was only 14 year old when her life took a turn and was sent
to Vienna in a boarding school to study and it could be also
considered as an escape from the war torn country, Iran. Marjane’s
parents wanted nothing but good education for her as well a safe
environment which was very difficult to find in Iran. The verbal
showdown she had with superior nun still showcases that even though
marjane is in different country she isn’t hesitant to voice her opinions.
The nuns show no mercy towards marjane considering she is only 14
year foreigner who is still trying to find a place within the new culture
and traditions alone In a foreign country. She’s going through puberty
during that phase of life every child’s moody and is learning different
things about their body and also snap at certain instances, which
could also be the reason why marjane used her words as her weapons
to defend herself from the racist comment that had been passed by
mother superior.
 ANALYSIS
• The last two panels of the page 177, talk about how after reading
the book which was suggested by her mother ‘the second sex’ she
tried to pee while standing up. It was an utter disaster. But then
she says that Iranian women first need to be liberalized in order to
stand up and pee, because most of the women in Iran are
suppressed. They need to have the same freedom as men in order
to be a par with men. This could imply to the fact that this
statement is indirectly saying that if the things keep on going this
way and women don’t stand up against the oppression, they
might as well leave the dream of having freedom and standing up
for themselves.
 ANALYSIS
• Marjane is trying her hardest fit in with new people and making
new friends by learning about heir interest and favorite topics, in
the hopes of not being a weak target for someone to pick on.

• Panel 7 pg 180. “in every religion, you find same extremist”.

Marjane shows her frustrations with mother superior. She is
directly comparing nun with extremists and fundamentalist of
Islam who had already caught marji in western clothing and how
much they were concerned with the religion and God, which marji
must have not excepted in Vienna, which has western ideologies.
Just like the way those guardians had insulted marji for wearing
western clothes she compares rudeness of mother superior. In
both cases, their rudeness and coldness overrides their mission to
uphold God’s word.
 ANALYSIS
• The nuns racist behavior was the only thing that
made marji snap at her. Her saying Iranians have no
education really hurt Marji, because no matter what
was happening in her country or what other people
thought of her country, her sentiments were hurt
because she still identified as Iranian, and saying that
Iranians have no education is very disrespectful and
which clearly showcases the judgmental character of
Mother Superior.
 LETTER BY MOTHER SUPERIOR
• The letter sent by mother superior to marjane’s parents was in a
way completely false. The reason of kicking out marji out of the
boarding school was a blatant lie. This in a way shows that mother
superior wanted to put all the blame on Marjane and to make it
appear that she wasn’t at fault, but clearly mother superior was
the one who started this all. Had she been a bit polite and asked
marjane to eat her pasta in the kitchen, this wouldn’t have
happened. It appears like mother superior swept the entire
situation under the carpet, by clearing her name. But she didn’t
know that the excuse she made for expelling marjane was very
dumb because Marjane never liked fruit yoghurt and it was very
easy for Marji’s parents to identify that something else had
happened.
 TITLE SIGNIFICANCE
• The title of this chapter is pasta. Why I feel this chapter
has been given this title is because one tiny pot of
harmless pasta was enough to kick her out of the
boarding school and go through so many things at once
In a day. Had she not been eating pasta in the hall or
made pasta, she still would have been part of the
boarding school and wouldn’t have to say her last
goodbye to her friend whom she would never meet. But
fortunately, Julie had her back. But at the end the
readers can somewhat relate and empathize with
Marjane even though she went overboard when it came
to returning the insults back to the nun.
 POSSIBLE THEMES

• Farewell

• Racism

• Loneliness

• Vulnerability in new environment

 “
THANK YOU 🥳
— Sheral Bhati