Ryder Massey

5/22/2019

English II Honors

Mr. Garcia

In the graphic novel, Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi includes many symbols over the span of

the book representing different ideas; however, I have come to the conclusion that the “sheep”

symbol is the most important symbol in the entire story because of how it represented what was

causing the madness in the country. The sheep symbolizes the Iranian people and how they are

blindly following the government. The first time the actual symbol was mentioned was “Later on

we learned they crossed the border hidden among a flock of sheep” (Satrapi 66). This quote

shows us the first time Marjane Satrapi sliding in the symbol literally to show the reader that

people of Iran are sheep. Another example of this symbol appearing would be when Marj’s

father says “Do you realize how ignorant our people are? The elections were faked and they

believe the results: 99.9%! As for me, I don’t know a single person who voted for the Islamic

Republic. Where did that figure come from? From their asses, that’s where!” (Satrapi 62). This

quote directly states how ignorant the people of Iran were for not even questioning the Islamic

Republic for the falsified voting and blindly following in footsteps of the past. This also allows

the reader to perceive how important the “sheep” were by their actions of doing nothing which

caused all of the chaos in Iran. In Marjane Satrapi’s story, Persepolis, she uses the symbol of

sheep that represents the people of Iran blindly following the government and how important the

citizens of Iran were to causing these events.