Analyzing Editorial Cartoons
Editorial cartoonists use images and words, or images alone, to comment on issues and events of the day. They may insert their own political opinion into the cartoons, whether on the left (liberal) or on the right (conservative), or they may be strictly neutral politically. Some editorial cartoons are exclusively informative and observational. While cartoons are often simply drawn, with sparse use of language, they can contain a wealth of information and opinion—that is the cartoonist's art. If you know how to analyze editorial cartoons, it is easier to appreciate the craft of the cartoonists and look at domestic and world events with a more critical and informed eye.
Analyzing Cartoons
In order to analyze cartoons more carefully to determine their meaning, here are some things to look for:
Analyzing Cartoons
In order to analyze cartoons more carefully to determine their meaning, here are some things to look for:
- Cartoonists draw images that provide numerous visual clues to their meaning. Treat all these things as information that might give you a clue as to how to interpret the cartoon:
- Look at the way characters are dressed, the expressions on their faces, and their size relative to each other. Light and shade and characters drawn in silhouette may also have specific meaning in a cartoon.
- Two characters in the same cartoon may have completely different reactions to the same situation—pleasure or alarm, glee or dismay. What does that tell you?
- The background to a scene may be relevant—but easily ignored.
- Shapes, too, could be important.
- The weather in a cartoon—such as a storm or a sunny sky—can also bear some
significance.
- Editorial cartoons use labels, speech bubbles, or just the titles of the cartoon to
supplement the visual image. Read all such information carefully. Some text may be in small type or tucked away in a corner. Don't disregard it. It too might help to interpret the cartoon. If there's a calendar on the wall, it likely highlights a particular date. If a character is reading a book, its title is probably significant. - Cartoonists frequently use symbols to impart information. Ask your self if something in the cartoon could possibly stand for another thing. If you think a particular image seems extraneous, assume that the cartoonist had a particular meaning in mind and try to figure out what it may be.
- The characters the cartoon uses give you information. Why is Uncle Sam used in a particular cartoon and not the Statue of Liberty? A donkey, not an elephant? A boy scout with a water pistol, not a soldier with a machine gun?
- Animals have certain characteristics or associations. What does their use mean?
- Remember that objects may stand in for people.
- Assume that nothing in the cartoon is there by accident—try to extract meaning from
everything. But is it possible that the cartoonist is so used to including certain symbols that he or she might include one that isn't intended, in this instance, to be interpreted in a particular way? - You may come up with an interpretation that the cartoonist did not intend. Your interpretation is not necessarily wrong, as long as it makes sense. After all, this happens all the time in literature: A reader often comes up with his or her own interpretation of the text, one which might go way beyond the author's intent. This is critical analysis, and it applies to cartoons too.
- Cartoons often juxtapose references to two (or more) different issues or events to make their case. Assess how well they work together to make the cartoonist's point. Are the comparisons fair? What other item/event would you have used to make the same point? Is this a political decision or a craft decision?
- Sometimes the same items/situations are used in separate cartoons and by different cartoonists to make a variety of points. Cartoonists have their own language that is transferable between cartoons.
- Cartoons are the creator's"bully pulpit"—a unique place for the artist to express his or her opinion. Can you trust the artist's information to be accurate or fair if the cartoonist does not divorce his or her personal view from the cartoon? Or should you treat the cartoon like a newspaper editorial or op-ed piece?
- What is the cartoonist's responsibility to the reader?Should he or she provide information? Objective analysis? Or just a good laugh?
- Are there other aspects to political or historical cartoons that make them useful windows to the past? Why do we consider editorial cartoons "primary sources?"