Analyzing Political Cartoons

This political cartoon is a reference to the lack of progress being made with gun control efforts and young people’s frustration with this situation. The cartoon targets the GOP (Republican Party) by saying that they are the reason that gun control laws have been so slow to advance. Although the artist has not illustrated any members of the GOP, they make a reference to them in the headline of a newspaper that can be seen on the ground. In addition to the newspaper, there are also two children with backpacks sitting on the steps of a school. The children are not distorted or exaggerated in any way, which casts them in a positive light when juxtaposed with the negative newspaper headline which reads: “GOP blocks all gun control efforts”. Next to the children, there is a red apple, which could symbolize childhood innocence and be a reference to young children giving their teachers apples. The backpacks that the children are wearing also show the reader that the children are still of school age.

 In the speech bubbles above the children, one child is asking a very common question that young people are often presented with: “Whaddaya wanna be when you grow up?”. The other child has answered “A voter”. It is ironic that children, who should be able to fantasize about becoming anything that they set their mind to, would choose to be a voter, a position that many adults take for granted because the privilege is afforded to such a large number of people. This response contributes to the message of the cartoon because it implies that children have been forced to grow up fast in light of recent gun violence, and their greatest aspiration for the future is to be able to have a say in government decisions in the hopes that they can keep younger generations from having to experience what they went through. The use of casual language and slang also shows how the children are young and may not understand all that there is to know about the world, and yet they recognize that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that the adults are running things in the government. 

The message of the cartoon touches on how powerless youth can feel when it comes to watching decisions that directly influence their lives being made for them in ways that they do not agree with. With this, the artist is attempting to trigger a reaction of anger and disbelief from the audience that people with the power to vote have been neglecting their duty to the younger generations who are not able to have a say in the way that the country is run.

I felt that this cartoon was effective in clearly conveying its message and the author's stance on gun laws, while still being open to interpretation by the reader. Personally, I chose to analyze this cartoon because this is a topic that I have been hearing about in the news, and a high school student who will soon be voting, thoughts of what I would change about gun laws if I could have been on the forefront of my mind.