Political Cartoon Analysis Essay

The stimulus I have chosen is ‘Really Good Careers’ by Barry Deutsch a.k.an Ampersand; Barry Deutsch is a cartoonist who lives in Portland, Oregon in the United States of America; his cartoons appear in every issue of Dollars and Sense Magazine; he is better known for his graphic novel ‘Hereville’; published by Abrams in 2010. This cartoon was made in 2012 and the author drew this political cartoon (like all his other political cartoons) to raise awareness of issues that he cares about e.g. feminism, racism, poverty, immigration etc. The issue of equal pay in the workplace is being portrayed in this cartoon. Women are being portrayed negative way in this cartoon; with the author sarcastically stating that the woman in the cartoon has a chance of equal pay and equal opportunities in the workplace. This cartoon is clever because it states its point in a way that others wouldn’t. The language features demonstrated in the stimulus piece are Sarcasm and Irony; these language features portray women negitavely as a group that will most likely not get the equal opportunities and/or equal pay as their male colleagues with the same or similar job which is unduly ironic as we would think that since a male and a female do the same job they are supposed to be paid the same; however, that is sadly not the truth. This cartoon has a sarcastic element as one of the signs on the wall of the building says ‘an
The cartoon shows this message in a clever way using different types of language features and various visual features in an eye catching way to main target audience which was anyone of a working age or a person with a job. Barry Deutsch's cartoon 'really good careers' reached the purpose of what he wanted in a cartoon; to become relevant for years to come and to address important issues like immigration, poverty, racism and in this case; work