A key aspect of Marji’s personality is her rebellious nature, a streak that is often provoked by her desire to understand the world, and subsequent frustration once she learns of its contradictions and cruelty. This frustration can lead her to be blunt at times, sometimes appearing rude, as her less-developed emotional intelligence is not yet in league with her intellectual intelligence, perhaps due to her inexperience with social cues and subtlety at her young age. She ends The Story of a Childhood appearing self-assured and confident in herself due to the instructions of her family, whom she values, to ‘always be true’ to herself, although this doesn’t necessarily hold up in The Story of a Return, she undergoes a significant development from someone who’s beliefs are constantly shifting to someone who is firm and rigid in their values. The panel showing her Michael Jackson badge, denim jacket and hijab portrays her as a visual representation of the clash of cultures that she experiences.

Marjane values her family, especially the wisdom and company of her parents and grandmother, and I believe in a way her country and the war, as it has allowed her to learn many of life’s key lessons at a young age. It is because of these experiences she is, in her eyes,  a cut above her ‘innate’ friends, as they have not been exposed to, and therefore do not possess the knowledge of, the pain and tragedy that she has. Taking after her father, she values the truth, and detests the propaganda she is fed at school; this distaste can be seen as she berates her teacher with facts on page 144.