Manipulation

Goodmorning my fellow readers!
The weather was a bit chilly this morning, but it's nice and sunny now :)
So I just finished the reading for tomorrow in Persepolis and I could not put the book down! I liked the Monopoly reference, but when her parents refused to play, I felt bad for Marjane. Of course, it must be tiring to demonstrate all day; still, Marjane is just a little girl and losing family time because of the revolution must be tough.
Her dad's story was so cool! I wonder what it felt like to find out that a great grandfather had been an emperor! I guess he wasn't that great, though, since people wanted to set up a different government. I am very disappointed in the British who took advantage of Reza. They could have become partners with Iran instead of controlling it and they still would have received help when they needed it!
There was one thing I didn't get: When that intellectual Marjane's grandpa spoke to said, "That is really the problem of our country: Only a prince can allow himself to have a conscience" (23). Why does he say this after her grandpa revealed how oblivious he was as a prince?
Anyway, I was shocked when her grandpa was arrested so much, since I thought he was prime minister! Why didn't the police respect his title?
Marjane is so mature for her age! She really seems to sympathize with whatever is happening. Like when she took that really long bath instead of choosing to play Monopoly. Man, she is too cool.
It was really funny how Marjane didn't understand why everyone was laughing about people just jumping on the bandwagon during the revolution. 
I can't believe how much ambition she has, reading all those tough books. I doubt I can even comprehend what she read at my age!
It's touching to see the relationship with her maid as so sisterly. I wish everyone would think like Marjane, so all the inequality in the world would just disappear. What's the difference between someone in poverty on the streets of India as compared to a person with an expensive place in Atherton? How can that house sell for $33 million? Goodness this is outrageous. Maybe the person who buys that place worked their butt off, but they could give that money to the impoverished in India! Social classes suck.

And that neighbor is such a jerk. How can he lose interest in Mehri just because she isn't the daughter of a Cadillac owner? Hah, Cadillac, that reminds me of  White Walls by Macklemore. It's a little inappropriate, but fun to listen to! I think it's kind of making fun of how much rappers indulge in wealth...
Well at least the Shah left. I guess it's nice to have friends, since no one but Egypt would take him. It's also nice to have so many friends because then you can go a ton of places and always have people to hang out with! :D

I couldn't believe Marjane wanted to beat that kid up with nails! It would be so horrifying to witness all that blood and pain! How could she even consider that? Oi, just thinking of what it would have been like makes me cringe!
But I was proud of her for forgiving the child. She knew it wasn't his fault that his dad killed so many people.
The descriptions of the torture was unbearable, though! Why does this exist in the world?! Who gives these people the right to cause others so much pain? I wish these bad intentions would just disappear. Our world would be so much more pleasant! Can't we just focus on having a good time?
Seeing Marjane want power by torturing her friends was also very unsettling. Ew, eating garbage?
I'm happy that she had a hero figure in her family, though. Hopefully, with her uncle having gone to prison, Marjane feels better about being part of the revolution!

Goodbye my friends!
Angie :)



Well that was an interesting read. It wasn't surprising to see that the Shah spread propaganda saying that he was chosen by God. I remember reading about divine right in history a couple of years ago. Jeeze, these ego maniacs really disgust me. At least Marjane's parents know otherwise and were willing to teach Marjane the truth.
You know, we are always taught that the "Western" countries are all good and everything because they're democratic, but here it says the British manipulated Reza to get money. Sheesh, all this hype about wealth is really disturbing. I guess it's unavoidable, though. It makes sense why we've evolved to be such greedy pigs (no offense to pigs). Only the ones who fought for food and shelter survived when it wasn't so easy to get by. Well, that sucks.
People always want to keep the innocence of children, but this really does not seem beneficial. I'm sure Reza had been an innocent little boy with no exposure to con artists and people with bad intentions, so he wasn't able to fight for his republic. Although parents say, "Finish your food! There are kids in Africa that are starving!" kids don't know the reality of it. They just hear it and think, It can't be that bad. These kids have never been hungry.
I was glad to see Marjane try to experience what her grandfather went through, though. Perhaps sitting in a bathtub for a long time isn't equal to being tortured in a room full of water, but she might get some idea of what it was like. Then again, she may just think that it wasn't that hard sitting in a bathtub, and so her grandpa didn't really have a bad time.

It's really sad how everything about life is comparing everyone to everyone else. Marjane's grandma had to pretend to cook just to not lose face. Social acceptance is just absurd. Again, from an evolutionary perspective, it's clear why people developed the need to fit in. Living in groups was much more beneficial than living on one's own back then. I guess it still is now, since doctors can heal us and all these institutions make life easier. But this equates to social standards and those have become so arbitrary!

Seriously, for a person to be rejected because he or she doesn't follow the latest trend of wearing skinny jeans or having the newest phone just disgusts me.
Social standards leads into the next sad point in the book. Merhi being rejected for being a maid made me so annoyed. That neighbor is such a butt.
Was he really just into Mehri because he thought she was from a rich family? Money can do such horrible things to people. I guess affection can, too. I mean, Mehri's own sister ratted her out.
Then when Marjane wanted to beat up Ramin because of what his father did...Boy, that was brutal. Using nails as iron knuckles? Clearly she doesn't connect consequences with her action. That reminded me of Kite Runner with Hassan getting raped by Assef. That jerk.
Well anyway, Marjane's quickness to forgive was surprising. It's really easy to distance oneself from a problem I guess. Like, you hear about all these horrible events around the world and you can just ignore them. I remember my neighbor talking about this 8 year old girl having to get married off to a 40 year old man in Yemen because her family was too poor, and on the wedding night, she died of "internal injuries." That is just unacceptable. She probably didn't even know of sex and then died from it.
Then there was that case where a preacher in Saudi Arabia continuously raped, beat with canes, burned with electrical cords, crushed the skull of and ripped the nails off of his 5 year old daughter until she died. He was only sentenced to 800 lashings and 8 years in prison. Sure 800 lashings isn't so great, but only 8 years in prison? Then what's going to happen when he leaves? Torture the rest of his family? What is wrong with the world?!
Okay, back to the book. Those torture descriptions were nasty. It's funny how the C.I.A. taught the Shah's people how to find the worst methods. People think America is super wonderful, but then we go off torturing others. Great!

There was nothing I haven't heard before, though. It's surprising how many torture methods I have learned of over the years. I remember that the back of the knee caps have a ton of nerves so people would shoot at people's knees.
I was disappointed in Marjane for hating that her dad wasn't a "hero," though. So what if he didn't go to jail? He still took pictures and tried to spread the word! That's probably more important than getting sent to jail and getting tortured. The media is so powerful. 
I wonder why Fereydoon didn't run away. He must have faced hell when he was arrested. Or maybe he gave up names and was let off the hook.
Anoosh made a hasty generalization when he described his wife, though. Just because she wronged him, it doesn't mean that all Russians don't know how to love. Attraction has so much power over people. It's really difficult to get priorities straight. Is it best to become successful and rich by putting every ounce of effort into school and work, or is it better to find someone that makes you happy that you can start a family with? The situation is a bit of a paradox. The ones with the best genes who have the most ingenious ideas tend to focus too much of their lives on their work and ignore their evolutionary goal of producing children. So the next generation won't include their wonderful genes. Or, they wait until they're older to have kids--after they make all their money--so their gametes won't be in top shape when they're needed. How unfortunate.

Deb.