Daniel Cox

Proffessor Bangerter
English 1010
September 27, 2015

The importances of political cartoons are a great example of the

freedom we inherit within the United States. The right to free speech
gives us the ability to question groundwork that affects our lives daily.
With this comes a great deal of responsibility among both the readers
and writers. The image above that I have provided has an influential
presence among itself. To better understand this image we must look
at the three main appeals used by the artist. These appeals include
logos, ethos, and pathos.
The first aspect known as logos is the reason behind the image
or text. In regards to the political cartoon, the artist is conveying his
perspective knowledge on an affair that he believes to be true. The
image produced is that our president is draining our treasury dry to
bailout large conglomerate businesses. We must ask ourselves as the
intended audience if this image portrayed is used to either move us to
action or change our minds. In my response I would answer this by
saying it both moves us to action and may change minds.

The next aspect regarding the three appeals Aristotle proposed is

pathos. This appeal ties together with the emotion of the text or
image. The political cartoon provided has various examples of this
aspect. The image as a whole presents the president as the farmer
who is draining the cow that symbolizes the U.S. Treasury. In the
farmers (presidents) hands are the milk buckets that are labeled each
with a multibillion-dollar corporation. The representation that this has
is the bailout program. Another key aspect to not overlook was the fact
that they decided to use a farmer to present this image rather than a
high-ranking official. From my perspective this shows our tax dollars at
an individual level helping out the larger than life firms with our own
money. The cow is another key feature to this image being that it is
malnourished. The health represents the condition of our economy on
a national level and gives us an emotion to build from. With this in
mind we can draw our own inferences based on subjective analysis.
The last appeal is known as ethos and regards itself to the
credibility of the image or text being presented. The Star Tribune was
credited with the image presented. Being that this is the largest
newspaper in the state of Minnesota, it is generally easier to call upon
its credibility as opposed to an independent magazine or even
journalist for that matter. From an audiences standpoint the credibility
matters to a great extent. We as readers can grasp a better
understanding over a topic when we know the sources legitimacy. This

gives us a background as to how the communicator came to this

conclusion by which he or she is presenting.
Political cartoons are a great way for the public to both express
themselves as individuals and to better understand the viewpoint
among todays society. The image was easy to understand and connect
with which enhanced my engagement with the image. The cartoon also
conveyed its logos in an organized and developed manner. By being
able to distinguish main points and reasoning from other less
important information, we are able to sort through and find what we
are looking for within a text or image.