Lately I have really been thinking about societal constraints or expectations that are put upon us by the society we live in. My interest was sparked after reading a few works in my Paideia class this semester. We read a book called The Return of Martin Guerre and a graphic novel, Persepolis. They both dealt with this issue of fulfilling society’s needs or wants. In The Return of Martin Guerre and Persepolis characters are confined to society's expectations of how they present themselves and how they are allowed to behave. I will include more details in this letter! In the book, The Return of Martin Guerre a man pretends to be Martin Guerre while the real Martin is at war. He returns to their town and everyone believes this man is the real Martin because the actual one had been gone for so long that their memory of him was hazy. It wasn’t too long before the fake Martin slipped up and asked about the family money, making a few people suspicious of his real identity. All the while, his “wife” Bertrande was happier than ever. She hadn’t been with her husband in almost eight years and even the companionship was enough to make her believe this fake Martin was her husband. Although in today’s time, pretending to be someone else isn’t a life threatening act, back then it was. The fake Martin was sent to trial for the town’s suspicions of his true self. The society felt that pretending to be someone else was one of the worst crimes you could do; they were trying to confine you to
