The Complete Persepolis and The Sand Child - Essay Example

In comparison to the first book of Tahar Ben Jelloun’s trilogy, The Sand Child, it talks about the story of a young girl, Zahra, who is raised as a man, Ahmed. As her father’s eagerness to have a son as his heir arises, it has been decided that the 8th kid will be a son. Zahra’s identity crisis emerges since her early years when the natural emotions of a girl come into surface. As she conceals her true identity in accordance to her father’s image, a tyrant figure, she becomes distorted as she realizes and enjoys the advantages of being a man but at the same time empathizes with the society’s cruelty to women – her true identity.

This paper compares and contrasts the most important theme in the two novels – identity. In Search of Identity Marjane, being a daughter to liberal parents, grows up as someone who thinks outside the box. In the early part of the first book, The Story of a Childhood, she has conversations with an imaginary friend that looks like God and tells him that she would be the ‘last prophet.” She announces one day in school that she would be it but all laugh at her and her parents have been Last Name 3 summoned to discuss the incident.

Her parents instantly defend her to her teachers. In this scene, it will be noticed that Marjane’s parents do not succumb to the Islamic doctrine, which gives a good background on Marjane’s character and defines their family as modern. . As a result, she rebels on the deeply-rooted Islamic society and professes herself of being different. It is explained that she wears her veil sideways with her sneakers on, giving a punk image, which makes the Guardians of the Revolution question her. “The reason for my shame and for the Revolution is the same: the difference between social classes.

(Persepolis, 33) In this quote, Marjane rebels on the idealism of her parent’s political stance and the reality of their social class. She realizes the class divisions at a very early age when she discovers that Mehri, her maid, cannot be with the man she in in love with due to their class difference. She feels a great deal of disagreement in herself from this fact, which affects makes her identity revolt from the class conflicts. Marjane’s life is a study of inconsistencies and contradictions.

She is torn between her “avant garde” lifestyle and her family’s loyalty to their motherland and everything it entails. Her parents have been fighting for the poor for the longest time and yet they also have been holding on to their class distinction. She strongly defines herself as someone born in a religious heritage yet her family is secular. These contradictions during her coming of age make her feel a sense of disenfranchisement from the only land she knows. As the story progresses, Marjane finds her identity in the midst of all political chaos.

As she continuously enjoys the privileges of her Last Name 4 family’s she finds herself in rebellion towards those fanatics of the current Shah regime. She hits her principal for trying to take her jewelry from her and proclaims the truth behind the lies her professor is professing to her