TOW #26 Visual Political Cartoon

For TOW #26, I am doing a visual political cartoon that depicts a smiling graduating student taking a selfie, as a giant snake curls around him and opens his mouth, both to “smile” for the picture and also to be in position to strike at the graduating student and eat him. The snake has the huge letters “DEBT” on its scales, while the caption of this picture is “Graduation Selfie.” This political cartoon is commenting on the gigantic debt facing incoming college freshman. As soon as they graduate from high school, the debt-snake is ready to eat them alive. They maybe be happy and smiling now, but that debt will soon bring them unhappiness. This cartoon is a political commentary on the state of the nation’s education, so its audience is both the general public, students and their families, and the politicians of America. He is showing how dangerous debt is, how readily it has graduates in its grasp. The snake has the graduate so entangled that even the tip of its tail is on the student’s graduation cap. Something very effective in this is the juxtaposition of the graduate’s smiling face to the snake’s smiling face. They are both very happy, the student because he is out of high school and the snake because he will soon gobble the student alive. Another effect device is how the snake is not completely biting the graduate yet, nor is he just coming to the graduate. The student is fully in the snake’s grasp, he just hasn’t bit yet and that is very effective to show how student loans and debt comes around where the debt hasn’t completely taken over the student’s life, nor is it far away either. It is a constant presence, always looming until it is ready to bite. I thought this political cartoon is very effective, which might be why its so popular. The artist succeeded in getting his point across, and he made his cartoon so it would resonate in people’s minds and they wouldn’t forget it, whether they are faced with student loans or not.