English 200
3/5/2010
As we all know, vehicles are essential to American’s daily life, which follows with the driving safety problem. “Texting while driving”, which has caused and has been blamed for numerous deadly traffic accidents in the past few years, is obviously not a wise idea for drivers. Unfortunately people are not aware of the severity of this problem and many of them still do it, especially young drivers, the group for whom texting is part of normal, everyday communications, making texting while driving more likely. Aiming at this serious and nationwide issue, the political cartoon called “texting while driving”, whose author was Mike Luckovich, a former “Pulitzer Prize” award-winner for Editorial Cartooning, was published at Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2009.
This black and white cartoon is combined with two equal-sized pictures. On the left side, a man with glasses is sitting in a car holding a cell phone, and the texts “Im txtng while drvng,” within a dialog box at the top that shows what he is doing at the moment. There is another car right in front of him, suggesting there will be a car crash which was not noticed by the driver. From his appearance, we can say he is mid-aged, it showed this visual argument is not only targeting teenagers, but also at some careless adults, which expanded the audience rank. So the primary audience can be identified as relatively young-aged vehicle drivers, which is a smart choice to remind people who see it that—“it’s not just a matter of teens, it could have been you”. On the right side, there stands a tall and skinny man with a hidden face, shrouded in a long hooded cloak wielding a scythe. From this appearance, we can identify him as Grim Reaper, the man who brings death. He is also texting, but simply sent an acronym message “Lol” (meaning laughing out loudly). Reading from left to right, we can easily get the meaning of this cartoon --a man is texting while driving, and he got the message back from Death. It showed the claim and the reason of the visual argument at the same time with humor—do not text while driving, or you will be killed.
I think this is a very attractive and effective visual argument. It is superior in Pathos by its dramatic humor and Logos by its suggestive and obvious understandability. It did a great job on catching attentions by showing the connection between “texting while driving ” and death wittily, and sent the strong message “ don’t text while driving” to the primary audience—relatively young drivers. Later in this paper, I will stress on analyzing this cartoon’s simple understandability, profound contrast and humorousness on image, which are also the main successes of this visual argument.
First of all, the author Mike’s use of type, and layout made his visual argument straightforward and outstanding. Political cartoons are usually mini-narratives and sometimes without textual explanation, which makes understandability very important. To a cartoon with only a few texts like this, audience must read the caption to get a first quick look -- in this cartoon they are apparently SMS (short message service) “Im txting While drving” and “Lol”-- they are in sans serif fonts within two big, quadrate dialog boxes, which are quite well-marked. Then we know it is a texting scene without even reading the whole picture. In the meantime, the layout which consists of two same-sized pictures informs us that the two figures are equals in this situation. Additionally, the order and content of the texts obviously tell us the left man sent SMS first and the right one responded.
Secondly and most importantly, Mike’s use of images and color made his visual argument funny, vivid and profound. Let’s clear the logic and train of thought in this cartoon. According to the timeline, “texting while driving” on the left part was the beginning and the cause; meanwhile the color was mainly in white, which associates with light and life in western culture. However, Grim Reaper who signifies death, on the right part, was the response and also the consequence to the left part; in addition, the main color black also associates with darkness and death. If Mike created a multi-colored cartoon, the effect would be much more attenuated.
In addition, we can see, both the man and Grip Reaper are smiling, and the meaning and differences between their smiles indeed increased the irony and humor—they have nothing to do with their friendship. The former facial smile showed the man’s ignorance, the latter literal smile showed Grip Reaper’s vicious nature and his sneer at his human “friend”.
Furthermore, there’s a deeper thought which cannot be seen from the picture immediately, but helped to make the humor come to a climax. Meaning that, the man must know who the recipient is so that he could send SMS, which also means he knew he was sending a text message to the evil Grim Reaper, but he still did it—wasn’t he stupid? This actually coincides with the irony in reality, most drivers know how dangerous and improper it is to text at the wheel, but some of them still do it.
In brief, the suggestive images, especially the image of Grim Reaper, portrayed the issue of this visual argument dramatically and humorously. It gave the reader a grin of understanding and a shock of insight; it helped us as both good Logos and Pathos to get the essence of this cartoon, and it’s the key point of its success. Below is a small chart of the analysis of the image and color.
| Cause | Consequence | |
| Image |
| Grim Reaper respond with “Lol” (laugh out loud) |
| Color | Mainly white | Mainly black |
| Literal meanings |
|
|
| Underlying → funny irony | The man must text to someone he knows, which means he knew the recipient is Grim Reaper, which made him an idiot |
|
| Conclusion | Texting while driving → death |
| Claim | Don’t text while driving, because it kills |
Finally, I have to mention that, this visual argument used good Karios appeal at present. In the past weeks, the U.S. Federal government formally bans truckers and bus drivers from texting while driving, and so far 19 states have outlawed texting while driving, and 6 prohibit using hand-held cell phone while behind the wheel. The effect of this political cartoon can be more influential and instructive than it was before.
In conclusion, “Texting while driving” is a great example of visual argument. It did a very good job on getting attention from people who see it, and sends strong message to the primary audience—relatively young-aged vehicle drivers, letting them laugh and reflect to make the right choice. First, it perfectly reveals the potential danger of death by “texting-while-driving” in the use of well-marked type and layout, suggestive images, vivid contrast, and humoristic atmosphere, which made it superior in Pathos. Besides, the obvious understandability of the issue from the image showed the author’s good use of Logos. In addition, it also has a creditable resource—Atlanta Journal-Constitution and an authoritative author—a former “Pulitzer Prize” award-winner, which is a good use of Ethos. What’s more, this visual argument has a good Karios at present in consideration of the texting while driving ban in the states lately. These excellent features together, made it is an attractive and effective visual argument.
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From instructor: A
This is a very well written paper.While there are a couple of places where you expect the reader to do the work of making the connection between the example and the rhetorical elements, you still show a clear understanding of t he material.
Normally I would advise against charts, however yout chart is effective.
You analyzed this iamge at a deeper level than most would, making the irony easy to understand to the audience.
