Late October Cartoon Analysis

This is a political cartoon written around two years ago during the election at the US. From this cartoon we can see that it is in the perspective of the author is either a Democrat or possibly neutral because it portrays the Republicans in a negative way. First of all, we know that this cartoon is against the Republicans because of the elephant, which is their symbol. The elephant is portrayed as a fat man wearing a suit and the suit represents wealth and greed just like a typical businessman or politician. The message the cartoon is trying to send is that the Republican party platform for the coming election is made up of anger, accusations of Barack Obama being a socialist and hatred against Muslim. This can be seen from the facing cards (ANGER, JOKER, and QURAN). We could see that it is not a very strong, but rather a weak and robust platform from many aspects in the cartoon. This is seen by the platform the elephant standing on made of small pieces of wooden planks and connect by masking tape. The base of the platform is made up of cards which are know to fall apart when just in contact with little wind. We could also see this by the elephant shaking showing that it is unstable and he is balancing himself to prevent himself from falling. Lastly, the "tea" sign at the back of the card is a reference to the Boston Tea party which indicates that they are instigating most of it.

I chose this cartoon because after being confused and skimming through all the cartoons without understanding any of them; this one came out appealing and understandable, which is why I decided to analyze this one. I analyzed the cartoon based on my understanding and the news I watch on American politics in the past and my general knowledge about the elections and the competing parties in the US. My analysis was mainly based on how I saw and interpret the message of the cartoonist with the assistance of a little bit of research for more background information on the parties.

In my opinion, I loved this cartoon because it is filled with humor and symbolism, which portrays the Republican at an angle, at the point of view of the cartoonist. I think his cartoon have illustrated his points and is clear to the audience. For instance I could understand that the JOKER represents Obama and him being socialist by look at the picture and the text on his collar. I could also recognize QURAN as hatred against Muslims because the Quran is a Muslim term and the image of the Muslim in the card look evil. However, the snake I do not know what it means and how it represents ANGER. After a long tedious research I gave up, but my connotation of the snake is being dangerous and poisonous. The Republican party is clearly portrayed as the fat, dull, elephant and their stability is clearly shown by the structure of the platform the elephant is standing on. I think that the author has done an awesome job to send his message to the audience and this was one of the political cartoons that I strangely understood by nature (not being American).