Sunday, October 13, 2013

TOW #5 (Visual Text)- Government Shutdown Political Cartoon

Source- cagle.com


In the wake of the government shutdown, this political cartoon was produced to display the major dispute currently taking place in Congress between Democrats and Republicans. In the cartoon, a large elephant that symbolizes the Republican Party is blocking an Obama Care ambulance from passing on a road. The Democratic Party, represented by the ambulance, supports the new health care plan developed by President Obama. Although, Republicans bitterly oppose this new plan because it will increase the national debt, which is at about $17 trillion. Behind the two political parties, there is a pile-up of civilian cars that are affected by the ongoing argument due to the government shutdown. For thirteen days, the federal government has been out of action, affecting the lives of each American citizen. This political cartoon is not only directed towards the American people, but to Congress, in attempt to create a resolution to this problem. The overall purpose of the cartoon is to convince readers that the two-week government shutdown is ridiculous and embarrassing that Republicans and Democrats cannot reach a compromise. The makers of cartoon display this purpose through the use of humorous satire and pictorial representation. The representations of the political parties using an elephant and an ambulance driven by Barack Obama put humor into this serious predicament in order to appeal pathos. The goal of the author is to get the reader to laugh at the fat elephant sitting in the middle of the road, causing the Democrats to crash. It then draws their attention toward the problems it is creating for the other drivers. In my opinion, the cartoon does a great job of portraying the different players that play a role in this debate. Not only are both parties and President Obama accounted for in the image, but also the inclusion of the American people is important because they are the ones that are most affected by this situation.

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