Cartoons Speak

Messages that are transferred through a simple picture, or a cartoon, can be either an eye opener or an insult. Depending on the artist and what their feelings about a situation are, is what the cartoon will illustrate and what story it will tell. A simple picture can tell a books story and argue better than a person in my opinion. Most of the drawings I have encountered have been political pictures illustrating whether someone is with or against something. Also, depending on the reader and their beliefs is whether the picture can be found offensive or not. One of the drawings that caught my eye right off the bat, was a drawing that had to do with immigration. This picture bothered me because of the message it was portraying and how it made other human beings look. In this picture there were two men who were posting the something that looked similar to each other. The two posters they were posting had the same picture with different writing. In both pictures there was a Hispanic man with a straw hat and he carried vegetables in a basket. On top of one of the pictures it said, “HELP WANTED,” and in the other poster over the same exact picture it said “WANTED.” Underneath the one with the “HELP WANTED” title it said, “Cheap, disposable labor: to keep our profit growing thru the roof,” and under the “WANTED” it said “For immediate deportation: to keep the help in their proper place.” By reading this, it gave me an understanding of where the author of the picture stood in this situation. To me, it felt as if the author of this drawing felt like immigrants come to this country only to take the jobs of Americans. There are many who believe this but I don’t. I believe that people come to this country to look for a better life and nobody should be labeled as an immigrant because we are all human beings. Anyone would want the best for their family and that is what these people are looking for. Aside from my beliefs, I also see where this author is heading. He claims in his picture that big businesses use immigrants to benefit themselves because they don’t get as much as much as an America. Of course some immigrants take less pay because that is the only way they will get hired. In this picture, the man that is putting up the picture that says “HELP WANTED” is wearing a shirt that says “BIG BIZ.” This picture offends me because it’s putting down immigrants and basically saying that they are taking American jobs from them. I also clearly shows that he wants them to get deported. I feel like sometimes people forget where they came from and that we are all immigrants. For better or for worse we are all human beings and deserve to be treated the same. To me this author is being highly disrespectful and being ignorant but to others he might be brilliants. Cartoons have a lot to say and give people a lot to think about.