Significance of Identity to Human Experience

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Just like in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour, Persepolis: The Veil is also that of a woman who was oppressed and was forced to live her life against what she believed in. Marji is a child who learns about revolution and Islamist way of modern Iran, where she sees the oppression of Shah and misogynistic values ingrained in the society. The government had made wearing a hijab mandatory and women were forced to cover up their head and wear a veil whenever they had to go out and at school. “We didn’t really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to” (Satrapi 1188). She was against these rules and wanted to live the life of a free woman who had the freedom to wear what she wanted in order to express herself. Marji can be seen to express herself while both conforming and rebelling against the veil. This shows the clarity of sense of identity she had while she was rebelling against the oppression. By both rabbling against the veil while also keeping the hijack as part of her identity, she showed a clarity or sense of self. “Except for my grandmother, I was obviously the only one who believed in myself” (1193). Unlike the previous two characters, Satrapi was able to keep herself sane and was more confident and sure of what she wanted because she did not give in to the circumstances. She was true to her identity and did not let others dictate her thoughts while the previous two characters did.

The importance of identity and being true to oneself is reflected in the lives of the three characters discussed. The first two characters, The Narrator from The Yellow Wallpaper and Mrs. Mallard from The Story of an Hour, both were not clear about their identity. They did not realize that they were oppressed and wanted something different from life, while Marji from Persepolis: The Veil did. This is the reason that both The Narrator and Mrs. Mallard ended up dead and Marji kept her head straight and fought against her oppressors. She expressed herself properly in private and questioned the oppression in public, which is why she was able to successfully escape the injustice. She did not let anyone define her sense of identity and lived true to it. Even if she had to pretend for a while to be someone else. This is why being true to oneself and one’s identity is extremely important in living a fulfilling and peaceful life, so that one can truly recognize where they belong and live life to the fullest.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, 9th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2015, pp. 288–289.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, 9th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2015, pp. 533–544.

Satrapi, Marjane. “From Persepolis: The Veil.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, 9th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston, 2015, pp. 1188–1194.