Blog 11 (Week 2) (MP2) (Political Cartoon)

Site: http://thesocialpoets.blogspot.com/2011/01/political-cartoons-obama-2011-state-of.html

This political cartoon is in the context of the current situation with Obama's presidency.  It depicts the idea that Obama is promising many things to the people of our country but is not following through.  The author clearly drew this picture because he is unhappy with the way Obama is ruling our country.  The audience is clearly the American public and the purpose the author is trying to achieve is the need for other people to join in his cause to go against the current president and to have a new one who actually gives the country what he is saying he will give them.  The author is not credible because he is bias with his own personal views and would sway the viewer into thinking what he thinks is an accurate generalization about Obama. 

Rhetorical Devices:

Symbolism:  What is interesting is that the cartoonist chose to have the main two characters to be conveyed as an elephant and as a donkey.  The donkey is portrayed as the person who does not really have their own opinion and is just there because they have to be and that that is the way the country is run. This alludes to the cartoonist's thoughts about our country as a whole who go alone with what Obama says but don't pay attention as closely as the elephant seems to in the photo.  In general, an elephant is seen as a huge and overbearing animal, one that is feared by other animals and is pretty on the food chain as well as having the wisdom that other animals lack.  Interestingly enough the elephant is the animal chosen to be the American that has a "brain" and understands that Obama needs to be put out of office which is the underlying view point of the cartoonist himself in this case,

Logos:  It is logical to throw Obama out of office if he is going to keep making false promises and not going through with them.  

Expression:  The cartoonist uses a goofy expression to convey the donkey's face and a wise unhappy look on the elephants face to further his generalizations about the smart and dumb people of America.

I believe the author did not achieve his purpose because the cartoon is too bias and it is not convincing enough to change the views of onlookers.  Although it does achieve the purpose of getting information out to the general public.