Persepolis Drugs and Alcohol Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Panel)

Quote #4

I didn't like to smoke. […] So I pretended to participate, but I never inhaled the smoke. (24.23, 24.26)

Marjane pulls a Bill Clinton with the whole I didn't inhale thing. She wants to fit in, but she doesn't want the side effects from it. What do you think her friends would do if she just refused to participate?

Quote #5

Becoming a vegetable was out of the question. (24.25)

Marjane's parents instilled in her a fear of drugs. Too many drugs and you'll turn into a vegetable is kind of their version of keep doing that and your face will freeze that way. We're not sure if they have a point, or if they're just saying it to instill fear in their daughter. We do know that Marjane "vegetableizes" a bit eventually, but it seems like she is able to snap out of it.

Quote #6

The communal life went hand in hand with the use of all kinds of mood enhancers: weed, hash… I tripped every weekend, and you could see it on my face. (26.49)

Living on the anarchist compound, Marjane experiments with all sorts of drugs. This is another reason we equate these anarchists with the free-wheeling hippie lifestyle of the 1960s in the United States—both really liked their "mood enhancers."