Political Cartoons

Political Cartoons are typically used as propaganda to sway the audiences point of view on a social, political, or economic topic. Political cartoons can sometimes be confusing. Most use symbols to represent large concepts or ideas and irony to capture the audience's attention.When reading political cartoons to interpret their meanings there are a few fast tips to remember.

1. The first step is to determine the subject of the cartoon. This can be done by reading the caption and recognizing the larger symbols.
   * Note: Cartoonists tend to place a larger emphasis on the subject of the cartoons

2. Once you've determined the subject, the next step is to determine the author's point of view. Is the cartoonist trying to sway the audience's opinion to the positive point of view, or negative point of view?
3. After determining the subject and point of view, you have enough information to interpret the main idea of the cartoon. Combine the information you've gathered and add in your previous historical knowledge and you're ready to go!



Scroll Over the following political cartoon to get a closer look!





Upon further examination you can see that: The subject of the cartoon is the state of the U.S. economy The point of view of the cartoon is negative towards the Federal Reserve. The main idea of the cartoon is the US Federal Reserve is more concerned about big business, such as bankers and Wall Street, than the average American Citizens.

 



 

 

Page 1 of 1