Cartoon 1: “Fire!”
1). The key elements in this political cartoon are the torch bearing hand of the Statue of Liberty, and a fearful looking man, who is labeled “Hysteria,” and is frantically climbing a ladder with a large bucket of water in his hand. The man represents the American people and the hysterical state they were in at the time when Joe McCarthy, the former Republican U.S. Senator, was going about accusing Americans of being communists. The torch literally represents the liberty of Americans.
2). Herblock, Washington Post’s chief editorial cartoonist, is trying to persuade that America’s liberty and freedom was threatened by the state of hysteria regarding Communism that Joe McCarthy helped created. Herblock persuades viewers by depicting the torch as a light of freedom for Americans, and “Hysteria” as the hysterical American people, who out of fear invoked by McCarthy, are going to squelch the torch’s flame, thus squelching their freedom.
3). This political cartoon is persuasive because of the clever way in which Herblock has labeled the man, and the symbolism that he has used where the man is ascending the ladder to put out the flame. The mass hysteria that was created by McCarthy was a threat to that freedom.
4). Anti-communists, who really do believe that there indeed were Americans during the 1950s who had become communists, and that McCarthy was doing the right thing and never intended to diminish American liberty would perhaps be offended by this political cartoon.
Cartoon 2: “Have a care, sir”
1). The key elements in this political cartoon are Joe McCarthy, who is wielding a butcher knife, and President Eisenhower, who looks scared and has a feather in his hand that he has pulled from a sword’s sheath. The butcher knife clutched in McCarthy’s hand represents McCarthyism, and the feather that President Eisenhower has yielded from the sword’s sheath represents his powerlessness in stopping McCarthy’s crusade.
2). Herblock is trying to persuade the readers about the aggressive, unfair tactics used by McCarthy during his Crusade, and about the tricky situation that President Eisenhower was stuck in, where he had no choice but to campaign beside McCarthy to avoid becoming a target himself. Herblock uses symbolic objects to persuade the viewer.
3). This political cartoon is indeed persuasive because of how Herblock has juxtaposed the expressions of the characters and the objects they are holding to nature of the circumstances at that time, when President Eisenhower was helpless against the ruthless yet influential McCarthy, so he could not defend him nor oppose him. The ruthless nature of McCarthy’s Crusade is also revealed by the quote at the top.
4). Joe McCarthy was an influential Senator, but at the same time he is also one of the most loathed American politicians. Thus, any of those who supported McCarthy in his Crusade, and those who did not know him for who he really was would have perhaps been offended by this political cartoon.
