How can I analyze the political or the social cartoons?

Question

I have an essay about analyzing cartoons for my writing class, but unfortunately I have no idea how to analyze a cartoon, so can you pls help me. And the one who give me some useful advises i will happily give him the best answer to get the 10 points("_")

Answer 1

We used to have to do these all of the time in school. The first thing you want to do is explain the cartoon. ( I am going to use this one as an example: http://www.cagle.com/caglecards/main.asp?image=http://cagle.slate.msn.com/working/060917/cagle00.gif ) So you would describe the picture as an Arab man who has the pope telling him one thing and Muslims telling him something else. Then you would go into the controversy. What started the dispute? Why is each side mad? Then after you analyze the background, you should talk about what the picture is saying. What is the cartoonist trying to get across? Why did he choose this way (in the example he is playing on the angel and the devil symbolism showing that the Pope is right, even though Muslims are outraged. However, the Arab is listening more to the Muslim side. Then I would psychoanalyze why).

I hope this helps!