In the first panel of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi marks her narrative as an autobiographical coming-of-age novel: “This is me wh
en I was 10 years old. This was in 1980” (3). The author also chooses to refer to her childhood protagonist with the nickname “Marji” — a diminutive form of “Marjane.” By differentiating her childhood self from her adult self, Satrapi suggests that her novel will pay close attention to the processes of childhood development and identity formation. How does Satrapi represent her protagonist’s process of identity development? How does Marji begin to discover who she is and what she believes?
