But she also cares deeply about pleasing her parents. Throughout the graphic novel, Marjane is rebellious and unafraid to stand up for herself. They ultimately divorce when Marjane decides she can’t live in Iran anymore. Though Marjane feels compelled to marry Reza two years after they meet, she regrets it immediately. To Marjane, Reza represents a connection to the Iran-Iraq War, since he’s a veteran. Her future husband, Reza, falls in love with this version of Marjane that wears makeup, fancy clothes, and seems European. When she fails, she decides she’s supposed to live and reinvents herself entirely. However, Marjane becomes depressed and attempts suicide.

When she learns about what her parents experienced over the course of the recently concluded Iran-Iraq War, Marjane is overcome with guilt and vows not to speak about what happened to her in Vienna, since it feels insignificant by comparison. She expects to feel at home there, but instead, Marjane feels even more out of place than she did in Vienna. After a period of homelessness and a bout of bronchitis, Marjane returns to Tehran. But when Marjane realizes that Markus is cheating on her, Marjane gives up on life. She has several boyfriends in Vienna and has sex with Markus, her last and most serious European boyfriend. Using drugs helps Marjane ignore how unhappy she is and the fact that she knows her parents wouldn’t be proud of her.

Although Marjane initially pretends to smoke joints just to fit in, she eventually becomes a heavy drug user.

In Vienna, though, Marjane is shocked to find out that her new friends are all sexually active and do drugs. This is why she attends high school in Vienna her parents feared for her safety in Iran. Marjane is proud of her Iranian identity, but she’s also very liberal and independent, which sometimes makes her feel like an outsider in Tehran. Marjane is the graphic novel’s protagonist it follows her from age 14 to age 24.

Marjane satrapi's