In Marjane Satrapi's novel Persepolis: A Childhood Story, there are many different themes that you might look at and decide to analyze. I decided to examine four different themes that are addressed in the novel. There is a lot of talk in the novel about the contrasting regions of Iran and elsewhere in the world, politics, religion and war. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, the concept of contrasting regions is explored by Satrapi when she talks about what it's like to grow up in Iran, and to be misunderstood, wherever you go, simply because of your origins. The country of Iran acts as if it hates Westerners, but many of its citizens envy Western culture. The main reason for the hatred that Iran hurls against Western culture is because we dismantled the old regime that it had, which was a democracy. Western countries, mainly the US and UK, were prevented by the previous presidency from buying Iranian oil, so they replaced the president with a Shah who would allow them to buy oil from Iran. Because of this problem, people in Iran will stereotype Westerners the way we stereotype them, based on what they wear and what we think we know about that culture. There are some cultures in the world that stereotype other cultures. For example, when I visited Tanzania and Zanzibar, many African kids believed that the American kids in our school were all very rich. In their country, most people don't have running water or air conditioning, so what we consider normal things that we need and have in a home, these people don't have. This is why we appear extremely wealthy because we own things that they can't afford. Some people in Iran might make it seem like Iran hates Westerners, but Satrapi notices a big difference living in Vienna compared to living in Iran. In Vienna, Satrapi had more freedom than in Iran, and things were completely different than in Iran. In Vienna she had “eight roommates who were eight men, all homosexuals”, and for Satrapi this was extremely different from what she was used to in Iran. In Iran, if people were homosexual, it wasn't widely talked about. Muslim cultures didn't want people to believe that they were going against the Quran and that there were homosexual people, so they never said anything about it. The religion of the Iranian people, Islam, plays an important role on the people and their politics, which is why the people of the Middle East fight and argue based on their religion. Religion and politics go hand in hand when you look at the world. politics of most Middle Eastern nations. Today there are similarities between the United States and Iran, but in the past there were not many similarities between the politics of the two countries. One big idea that is brought up is the openness and freedom of the media in the United States compared to the government-controlled media in Iran. The media in the United States is unregulated and because of this, views can be influenced or distorted. In many Middle Eastern countries the news media are not as influenceable because they are monitored as to what they can and cannot say, and usually try to provide both sides of the story. In Iran, politics is usually said to be based on religion, and the Shah was said to be "chosen by God... That's what it says on the first page of a schoolbook." What we learn from Satrapi in the novel is that the Shah was appointed by Western governments so that they could buy, 44(6), 1166-1186.