Ap Lang

November 1, 1962

Cuban Missile Crises

The cartoonist of this interesting political cartoon tries to illustrate the dangers of the Cuban missile crises back in the 60’s. The cartoonist does so by illustrating J.F.K with Nikita Khrushchev trying to not let out a monster, which symbolizes “Nuclear War”, from underneath them. The irony of this piece comes from the caption “Let’s get a lock for this thing”, this is because of the fact that both parties (JFK representing the United States and Khrushchev - Russia) are the ones who started the mess in the first place, and now have to work together and to lock up the issue. The cartoonist of this piece does an excellent job conveying what they’re trying to say, with some humor satire and irony all poking fun of the two nations mostly because they have to make amends and work together to prevent a disaster.

June 17, 1965

The Vietnam problem (sending too many troops)

In this political cartoon we are shown President Johnson riding up an escalator, which ironically has stopped moving. This escalator is labeled as the “Vietnam escalator”. The purpose of the cartoon is to highlight the fact that America has been highly involved in the war by sending thousands of soldiers overseas every day, but oddly enough hasn’t been able to make ends meet. Which is brought up in the caption which reads “Our position hasn’t changed at all”. The artist uses satire to ridicule the situation and the United States government. This cartoon at first glance is not effective to a spectator from today but for a person that knew what was happening around them and lived during this time period the cartoon is more than conveying.

October 29, 1954

The dangers of cigarette smoking

As the findings and research expands during the 1950s it is discovered that the cause of many Americans could be linked with smoking. The cartoonist of this particular piece uses analogies and symbolism to convey his/her point. A” box cigarettes” in the cartoon...