"How do you analyze a Political Cartoon?"

Before I opened the guide I had learned, in class, that an easy way to indentify the meaning of the cartoon was to look at the picture as whole and the details. By reading the words on the picture you could also figure out the two contrasting points that the cartoonist was trying to make. We understood that most cartoons point out the irony in a situation by using visual cues, and specific phrases. The guide that I opened on the Library of Congress pointed one more major theme to look for in the cartoons: the exaggeration of certain attributes like facial features or objects key to the meaning of the cartoon. Using the knowledge I had before the guide and new information from the guide I will look at political cartoons as a visual representation of literary elements like irony. It follow in steps like 1)observe cartoon as a whole 2) look at fine details (i.e. exaggeration, irony, etc.) 3)use prior knowledge and hypothesize what the meaning is and 4) finalize a theory on the meaning.

The picture shows the contrast between Cuba and the Philippines when America tried to civilize both countries and give independence to the. The Cubans are given independence (the pie) by the US because eventually they gave up and let the US take control and reorganize their country. The Filipinos on the other hand fought the Americans for a while before finally giving in. I came to this conclusion based on prior knowledge I had the contrast the cartoonist portrayed by exaggerating the different facial features of the two characters.

This image represent the bombardment the US recieved when they attempted to civilize the Filipinos. The man sitting to the side is the revolutionary leader Guinaldo who had gained a mass following from the population (the insects swarming Uncle Sam). This was fairly easy to deduce given the knowledge I had from reading the textbook on the Philippine war that America started. 

This image captures the aggression of the US Army to fight off Spain and take away the "Spanish Misrule" from Cuba. But American President McKinley is pulling back and portrayed as a coward to the situation. I deduced this from looking at the picture and seeing the obvious conflict over Cuba, between Spain(the vulture) and the US (Uncle Sam), but there was an internal conflict between Uncle Sam and President seen in McKinley pulling away from the war, against imperialism.