The Breadwinner and Persepolis have a strong themes of storytelling and education. Both Marjane and Parvana have fathers that seek to educate them of their countries past. Their fathers want them to see their country to be more than the war stricken present.

In both films, Marjane and Parvana have to grow up under oppressive regimes, although they both react differently. Marjane’s parents do a very good job of teaching her the realities of the Shah’s regime but she is too young to understand the pain until her uncle Anoosh gets executed. She idolizes Che Guevara and Karl Marx like they were figures in a fairy tale. not to say that she is childish, just to say her parents did a good job of protecting her and letting her be a kid. However, in Parvana’s case she doesn’t get as much protection. Her father does his best to educate her and tell her stories, but he couldn’t shelter her from the taliban. even when she cuts her hair and assumes the identity of atesh the freedom of appearing like a boy does not protect her from the horrors of war.

Where the two movies differ is in their endings. Marjane is able to escape the war into europe but at the cost of feeling like an outsider so she returns. although we never get to see if Parvana escapes the war with her family, she overcomes a lot and fights for her father’s return. even though parvana never gets to escape to europe its interesting to think about what she would think of it. She and Shauzia dream of a future unburdened by the war that they fight every day. would they like it? if Parvana was the one who went to europe to study, would she encounter the same difficulties of fitting in? I think she would. people find it hard to understand experiences they have not lived through. I can read all i want about what war and oppression is like, but i will never understand what it feels like.