Analysis Of Robert Ariail's Role-Swapped Characters

Robert Ariail’s role-swapped characters depict the fallacies of social security and medicare as the baby is the one who must accept two new mouths to feed while the grandparents are the ones who are helpless to feed themselves. The grandparents lie in one basket each, labeled “Social Security” and “Medicare,” and wail on the doorstep of the baby. This may appear satirical at first, but it is actually sad and people will empathize with the baby if they view the cartoon logically. The artist’s point lies in his usage of logos: the grandparents must take care of the baby; however, in the comic, the baby, who can hardly take care of himself, must also accept responsibility for the grandparents. This swapping of roles is ironic. If the grandparents
represent social security and medicare, then the baby must represent the citizens. Citizens cannot survive without benefits from the government (hence, the baby) but at the same time, those benefits become a burden to them. The citizens who rely on social security and medicare to survive ironically become even more helpless trying to pay for them. The pitch black sky signaling the dead of night magnifies this sense of futility, for one receives no help from the silent citizens of the night. The cartoonist conveys visually that while the benefits offered by social security and medicare are necessary, both ultimately become too large a burden or cost to actually help; in fact, they may even be detrimental to citizens. The cartoon is effective in portraying this because there is obviously no way for a baby to take care of two old people. It persuades viewers to think that citizens will never be able to handle the overall cost of social security and medicare.