No Borders Between the Ideal World and Reality

Pg. 318, Bottom panels
Before and After shot.
Panel on the left: Marji as a bright beautiful young lady.
Panel on the right: Marji back to her chain smoking, slightly irritable ways.
Marji beautifies herself, as an act of rebellion, yet at the same time, maybe hiding herself from the harsh reality of Iran. She reluctantly marries Reza as they hope to escape this harsh reality and live in an idealistic world, though in the end, it doesn't work out, as reality comes crashing down on the ill-fated lovers.
Perhaps if Iran wasn't in the strict oppresive state it was in and Marji was given more time, and Reza hadn't sort of forced the marriage upon her, then it may have worked.
But that's reality.

BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL

Throughout the comic, there are panels where Marji will look directly at you, speechless or explaining her thoughts. This is called breaking the fourth wall, which means the character's awareness of the reader/ audience. Although, I'm not actually sure if the author, Marjane Satrapi, meant for Marji to be aware of the readers, or if she wanted to capture the whole "documentary style" in her comic, as this is an autobiography. Either way, I think it's pretty cool.