"How do you Analyze a Political Cartoon"?

     After looking at a guide about analyzing political cartoons, i was familiar with most of the strategies. The ones that I already knew were to look for symbolism, exaggeration, and labeling. The few that I was not aware of included looking for analogy and irony. Going forward, my strategy for viewing political cartoons will remain fairly the same, however, with a few moderations. I will first look at the big picture and then look at the smaller less noticeable things that the author puts in the cartoon. I will then ask questions such as why the author put this there and the importance of each thing. By observing different things, I feel that my analysis will be much stronger.


My Cartoon Analysis:

This first cartoon was made to show the author's viewpoints on how he felt about the Filipinos gaining independence. The characters are carrying American flags but are clothing that indicates that they are cuban or from the Philippines. I think that they are carrying American flags because America gained independence on the same day and the author wanted to draw attention to the irony of that. This is because this cartoon questions the idea of celebrating the same day as America because sharing a national holiday isn't really independent.


This cartoon is to represent the Philippine conflict. In this picture I see a Filipino running away from Uncle Sam with a gun in his hand and Uncle Sam chasing him with no weapon in hand. And in the back of the picture is a group of Europeans observing the chase. This picture shows the Americans trying to gain control over them while the Europeans are looking over their shoulder.


This cartoon is also about the Philippine conflict. The picture shows Uncle Sam welcoming foreign guests into the Philippines after America gained control. The author labels the gates as the Philippines but has Uncle Sam welcoming people as if it were an American thing and not a Filipino thing.