Nakeya - Political Cartoon

Political Cartoon

            When you see political cartoons in the Sunday paper, and you haven’t had any knowledge what it means unless you watch and keep up with government. You can use these seven characteristics to identify a cartoon and have the idea of what the cartoon stands for, context, iconography, exaggeration, irony, caricature, symbol, and caption.

In this political cartoon, Paul Ryan holds an axe to cut down the Obama Medicare plan, while the donkeys, which represent democrats, they don’t see a problem and they don’t plan on fixing it. They are ignoring the issue, blocking out anyone who brings up Obama Care. Because Obama our president, is a democrat. The democrats agree that Obama Care is in perfect condition. Paul Ryan who is a republican, thinks that it’s a problem and wants to fix the Medicare problem.

There are five of the seven characteristics in this political cartoon they are context, exaggeration, symbols, and caricature. First we have the context, its Paul Ryan’s plan to cut Obama care and fix Medicare while the democrats see no problem are avoiding the issue. Context is trying to see if a person gets what the cartoon is about. Also we have a caption which sets up the context of the cartoon. They help understand the cartoon a little bit better.

Then we have exaggeration, the donkeys are being exaggerated because donkeys don’t really plug their ears, speak, or wear t-shirts in real life and to fix Medicare you don’t fix it with an axe. Most political cartoons are almost always exaggerated, to give the reader an unrealistic depiction. Next we have symbols, the donkey and the axe are symbols, and almost everyone knows what a donkey stands for. They stand for democrats, and the axe stands for cutting things down. In this political cartoon Paul Ryan plans to cut down Medicare. Symbols are always important to put in a cartoon because people will get the cartoon; they will understand it better. 

Finally we have caricature. Caricature is just something famous about a person like their physical appearance. In this cartoon we can see that this is Paul Ryan because he is known form his big ears and nose. Caricature is very helpful when you’re looking at a political cartoon because it gives an idea of who is being represented.

There are two more characteristics that were not represented in this cartoon they were, iconography which uses images that suggest an incident or and idea. It immediately clears up an image. The other is irony, it simply contrasts between what appears to be expressed and what it actually is being expressed.

You should have your own say so, also should work as a team, but should have your own thought about ideas. Have your own individuality. When finding out the conclusion you should listen to both sides and as a team make the right decision. Even if you work independently, you always have the art of discussing independently with others.