Political Cartoons by Brandi

Political Cartoons





Political cartoons - You can find them in newspapers and online. They aren’t like regular cartoons, because they aren’t simply meant to entertain. They are created by artists who want to convey a political point. Sometimes they poke fun, sometime they are a source of inspiration, and sometimes they simply depict what is going on in the world today.


Political cartoons are an important part of political expression in the now. The artist is trying to show how they feel about a current event through art and humor. However, not all political cartoons are happy. Some have a somber feel. Take a look at the feeling conveyed in one after the September 11th attack.








Political cartoons can convey important political messages or mark history. In fact, some very famous political cartoons are still looked at today in classroom’s to explain history and how people felt about important events that we now call ‘history’. The image below is an example.


This political cartoon is hard to analyze, but it is actually about the Embargo Act of 1807. During Jefferson’s presidency he banned all trading on foreign ports, because of conflict with Great Britain. This caused an uproar for people, because it significantly hurt jobs and the American economy. This political cartoon showed how people felt about the Embargo Act. Ograbme is actually Embargo spelled backwards. The man who wants to trade goods is struggling, because the turtle, Ograbme, is holding him back. The other man is swearing and saying how this nicks the man.


This cartoon is actually something my peers and I analyzed in Mrs.Ward’s 8th Grade American History class, when learning about the Embargo Act during our study of Jefferson’s presidency. After our analysis, we begin working on a project learning about current day political cartoons and making our own political cartoon. The project is supposed to convey a political viewpoint. We hand drew our cartoons and then wrote a few paragraphs explaining what techniques we used in our cartoon. We also wrote about our viewpoints and what different parts of our cartoon symbolize.


I found this project to be really interesting, because of how it related to something going on in the real world. So maybe next time you see a political cartoon, in the newspaper, or even online you will think about what political message the author is trying to convey.





Interested in more? Here is the link to a political cartoonist website that 8th graders looked at in Mrs.Ward’s 8th grade class:


http://walthandelsman.com/editorial-cartoon/