"One Must Educate Oneself"

    

    "Once again, I arrived at my usual conclusion: one must educate oneself."(Satrapi 327) In The Complete Persepolis, a novel surrounding a girl growing up in Iran, education is a very important theme.  Throughout the book, Marji encounters educated people, as well as people that were very small minded and were not enlightened on the world outside of their home country. Also, Marjane learns quite a bit about herself as the novel progresses and she learns from experiences that she has had.
   As far as the main protagonists personal education, she begins to enlighten herself very early. "I realized then that I didn't understand anything. I read all the books I could."(Satrapi 32) As well as some self education, Marjane also is heavily influenced by her parents and relatives who also are very knowledgable. However, once Marji migrates from her native country, she encounters some people that are not educated on her culture and insult her, due to their ignorance. An Austrian nun that has only heard a single story of Iran states, "It's true what they say about Iranians. they have no education."(Satrapi 177) And lastly, through Satrapi's coming of age story, Marjane learns about herself as a person and where she fits into society. "I am Iranian and proud of it"(Satrapi 197), Marjane exclaims as she finally realizes that trying to assimilate into European culture was not the woman that she wanted to be. Therefore, Education is the main theme of The Complete Persepolis.