The Washington Post Political Cartoon Analysis

Cartoons help the audience analyze the author’s ideas and messages in a visual aspect, rather than with words. This particular cartoon from The Washington Post contains both a visual message as well as written words with a message. In terms of the rhetoric triangle, these two aspects join together to help understand the subject that the speaker brings across as well as the speaker’s ideas and beliefs to the audience with the subject. In this cartoon, the author uses the senses of ethos, pathos, and logos to show their beliefs on the ideas Rosa Parks presented. In order to analyze the political cartoon, one must distinguish the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, where the cartoon first appeared along with its political leanings, and the interaction

of the written text and visual images.

Appealing to ethos, pathos, and logos requires the author to provide sense of emotions while providing statistical data in a credible and trustworthy manner. The cartoon and visual words provides the idea of ethos. In appealing to ethos for this particular subject, the reader must distinguish the credibility and trustworthiness in the author. The Washington Post published the political cartoon. America considers The Washington Post as the oldest daily newspaper. This newspaper won 47 Pulitzer Prizes to this day, the second highest number ever given to a newspaper. According to quora.com, The Washington Post readers appeal to unbiased reporting than in any other city newspapers. This shows the credibility in the Washington Post in terms of ethos. In order for the reader/viewer to view the

political cartoon in a clear, concise manner, the person who published the cartoon must be a source with credibility. The audience not only appeals to ethos, but to pathos as well. In the particular subject of Civil Rights and Rosa Parks, pathos becomes present when appealing to the emotion African Americans felt during the time period. Beginning as early as before the Revolutionary War, discrimination and racism grew in populations, especially in the United States. Following the Civil War, reconstruction initiated. The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) provided segregation to arise. But, in the early 1900’s, racism and discrimination against African Americans became widely prevalent. The lives of African Americans grew more difficult as segregation and violence arose. Whites called blacks “dirt”. Blacks obeyed to whites as power remained in the white population. In the political cartoon, pathos develops an emotional appeal towards Rosa Parks. She stands in front of the gates of heaven appealing to her reverence in her actions in the civil rights movements. Appealing to logos helps the audience analyze the political cartoon in a sense of logic. In appealing to logos, one must also acknowledge the counterargument against the author’s ideas. The political cartoon makes it obvious that the author thinks of Rosa Parks as an angel. The counterargument for this contains Rosa Parks’ actions as mistakes to society. But, this counterargument could not be supported easily. Rosa Parks, a woman, stood up for not only herself, but for her whole race. Throughout all of history, women became visible in lower aspects than men. As mentioned earlier, African American discrimination and racism widely spread. Rosa Parks, being a woman and an African American, made her task of standing up to her rights extremely difficult. But, did this stop her? Of course not. With the help of the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Rosa Parks not only stood up for her and all black civil rights, but also received the Eleanor Roosevelt Woman of Courage Award in 1984.
Rosa Parks, considered one of the most important Civil Rights Activists in all of history, changed the world for African Americans and whites.

The author of the cartoon focuses on Rosa Parks outside of the doors to heaven. But, what did Rosa Parks do to earn this position? After working as a seamstress all day on December 1st 1955, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus home. All buses in Montgomery required segregation on public transportation. Buses contained a line roughly in the middle to segregate whites from blacks. Whites, being the dominant race during this period, sat in front. Blacks filled seats in the back. On December 1st 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give her front seat to a white individual. She did such an act because she stated “I was not physically tired, but tired of giving in”. Rosa, along with many other African Americans, found segregation laws extremely unfair. Their political leanings include the belief in the same rights and freedom for all. “We should have been free and given the same opportunities,” stated Rosa Parks during an interview with Scholastic. Since Rosa would not give her seat to a white individual, the authorities arrested her and placed her in jail. Following this act began the Montgomery Bus Boycott where mostly African Americans and some whites refused to use the Montgomery Public Transportation in order to show feelings towards segregation. Rosa Parks held a position as a civil right activist hero all around and continues seen

in this manner to present day. This aspect shows the cartoonists’ agreement in Rosa Parks being considered a “hero” as she can be seen outside the gates of heaven rather than being outside the gates of hell. Discovering where Rosa Parks, the main cartoon in the picture, first appeared helps demonstrate what ideas the author tries to reach across in terms of the subject Civil Rights. Her actions remain heroic in the eyes of those who agreed with abolishing segregation laws.
Seeing the correlation and interaction between the written text and visual images helps the viewer/reader understand the beliefs of the author. In the cartoon, Rosa Parks comes face to face with an angel. This particular angel reads from a book outside what appears being the gates to heaven. Seeing as these gates lead to heaven rather than hell show the author’s beliefs in agreement to Rosa Parks standing up against the ideas of segregation. Not only do visual images prove the cartoonists’ beliefs, but written text does as well. In the political cartoon, the angel in front of the gates to heaven states to Rosa, “Rosa Parks… Yes, we have something in the front row for you…”. In a literal sense, the statement said by the angel shows the audience Rosa Parks has on society. Her courageousness and actions who promoted equality for all gained Rosa the position of receiving a front row seat. Also, in the figurative sense, Rosa “figuratively” receives a front row seat from the angel- such as, front row seat where only whites could sit on busses. She earned this seat with her willingness to stand up to what she believed right. One last written text seen in the political cartoon can be found in the lower right hand corner. It states, “We’ve been holding it open since 1955”. The written text in this short phrase conveys a very powerful message over the author’s beliefs. The front row seat given to Rosa Parks in heaven continued held open since 1955, the year Rosa Parks stood up for her civil rights. This shows the admiration given to Rosa because of the values she portrayed in not abandoning her seat in order to make a white happy. The interaction between written text and visual images help the reader understand the author and the subject. In this particular political cartoon, the author gives visual images and written text showing their strong belief in thinking Rosa Parks made wise decisions with her Civil Rights Movement actions. Without either visual images or written text, the reader could not examine the ideas in a full, concise manner.
In conclusion, in order to analyze the political cartoon, one must distinguish the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, where the cartoon first appeared along with its political leanings, and the interaction of the written text and visual images. Ethos can be distinguished when learning more about where this political cartoon came from, The Washington Post. Pathos may be appealed when appealing to the emotions felt towards African American racism and discrimination. Logos appeals when explaining why the counterargument to the author’s ideas seem false while providing strong evidence to support your answer. Knowing where the cartoon first appeared along with its political leanings gives the reader a clear picture as to why the author’s ideas and beliefs seem correct. The interaction of the written text and visual images provide yet again, the strong beliefs in thinking Rosa Parks made wise decisions with her Civil Rights Movements. The rhetorical triangle continued present as the reader, author, and subject all connected with one another in order to analyze the political cartoon.