Taking a Stand

1. Taking a Stand This artist is critical of the war and is trying to persuade the reader to think about the cost of the war in terms of lives lost. In this cartoon the artists wants to show his support for the American military response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

2. Using symbols to make a point The crosses that are where the spurs should be represent the large group of Christian voters who turned out in the 2004 election and voted Bush into office. The donkey is the symbol for the Democratic Party in the United States. The donkey is afraid because he (Democrats) lost the election. The “W” on the boots represents the president, George W. Bush. The cowboy boots refers to Bush’s use of the cowboy image he promotes. The saddle represents the idea that Bush won reelection and that he could “ride” the donkey (get what he wants in Congress).

3. Using familiar icons to make a point This famous photograph shows American Marines hoisting the American flag over the island of Iwa Jima during World War II.

4. The many faces of Uncle Sam Sometimes the caricature of Uncle Sam represents the American government. Sometimes it represents the American people. Sometimes it represents the country. The point is that caricatures are drawn differently and will represent different things. The original Uncle Sam was first drawn in about 1834. Since that time different artists have chosen to draw the caricature of Uncle Sam differently.

5. A Call to Action Many artists draw their cartoons to get the readers to take an action. In this cartoon the artists represents the crisis in the Sudan by drawing a drowning man as the Sudan. While Sudan is drowning, the international community is sitting in a life guards chair. The artist has drawn the life guard in the same pose as a famous sculpture called “The Thinker”.

6. Sometimes history repeats itself. Sometimes themes repeat themselves. In the late 1800s Tammany Hall in New York was very corrupt. A large scandal in 1871 led artist Thomas Nast to draw a cartoon of the blame for the corruption being pushed off to others. Drawing Inspiration After the failure of the government to prevent the terrorist attack of 9/11, members of the government did a similar thing in blaming others for the disaster.

7. Saying it without words The peace symbol is being worked on by painters from Israel and Palestine. The flags on the painters backs show us how both parties are working towards peace, yet despite their best intentions, they are cannot communicate and create peace. The cartoonist uses easily identifiable symbols to show us how the situation in the Middle East continues to fail to improve.

8. Explaining Social Security with a metaphor A metaphor is an implied comparison between ideas to suggest a likeliness or analogy between them. It’s a tool that can help you understand difficult concepts like, say, the problems with Social Security by simplifying the idea.

9. Understanding the Cold War through editorial cartoons.

10. In 1949 the powers failed to reach an agreement that would have limited the spread and control of atomic energy. The artist suggests that atomic energy is going to be dangerous, as he creates a caricature for “Mr. Atomic” in the form of a bomb.

11. The Suez Canal crisis signified the danger of Russia moving into the oil rich Middle East. President Eisenhower asked Congress for money to help contain the communist threat in the Middle East. The artist is critical of the government’s inability to stop the spread of communism at the same time it stopped American journalists traveling to and reporting on events in China. “However, we have been pretty successful in keeping American newspapermen out of China.”

12. The USA tried to rebuild Europe by giving massive assistance to European countries (who had to spend the aid on American goods) with the Marshall Plan. In response to the Marshall Plan, Stalin announced the Molotov Plan for Eastern Europe. The artists highlights the differences in western and eastern Europe. Notice the use of the Hammer and Sickle symbols. Instead of being used as symbols of freedom, the artist manages to change the symbols as a yoke that turned people into farm animals.

13. In the years after World War II, America went through a “Red Scare”. People thought that the communist threat to the USA was great, and so the country started looking inward for traitors. Hundreds of elementary and high school teachers lost their jobs under suspicion of being communists. The artist is showing how the FBI investigated “suspect” teachers.

14. Communist China exploded its first nuclear bomb in 1964. The artist has drawn a caricature of the Chinese leader Mao Zedong in the form of a mushroom cloud, symbolizing a nuclear explosion. The reaction in Washington, DC and Moscow suggests that the balance of world power based on the “bomb” had shifted in dangerous and unpredictable ways.

15. The artist uses a metaphor in this cartoon. An Ancient Greek myth tells about Pandora’s box. This was a mysterious box that people were warned not to open, because once it was opened it could never be closed again. The USA and the USSR came very close to nuclear war over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963. President Kennedy and Premier Krushchev of the USSR are like the people who opened Pandora’s box. Here the artist suggests that the threat of nuclear war is something that may never be put away again.

16. Here we see the Soviet Premier, Nikita Krushchev in the form of a dentist. He is working on his patient, the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro. In an agreement to end the Cuban Missile Crisis, Krushchev agreed to remove the nuclear missiles the Russians put on the island of Cuba. Six months later, President Kennedy quietly removed American Jupiter missiles from Turkey, on the border of the USSR.

17. In January 1968, moderate communists came to power in Czechoslovakia. They started a period of democratization that became known as the “Prague Spring”. The Soviet Union worried that the experimental democratic reforms might spread to other countries in the Soviet Block. In August 1968 the USSR sent troops into Czechoslovakia who put an end to the democratic reforms.

18. In 1965 President Johnson announced that the USA was not changing its policy in Vietnam. And yet, at the same time, the Department of Defense announced that the USA was sending an additional 21,000 troops to Vietnam. The artist shows the president going up an escalator. He claims that he is not changing the USA’s position, but the escalator continues to climb, just as the USA’s involvement in Vietnam.

19. The artist for this cartoon uses the symbol of the USSR, the hammer and sickle. In 1991, the USSR (hammer and sickle) has been smashed into 15 pieces. Each piece of the broken symbol represents one of the 15 Soviet republics, which became independent of the dominant Russian Republic.