In an age where it seems that the news is constantly and exhaustively inundated with stories of unjustified police brutality, the above image provides a striking summation of how many American citizens view police. This visual is a cartoon drawn by political cartoonist Art Spiegelman for the respectable New Yorker magazine. The cartoon, which also happened to be the cover art for the issue that it was featured in, was drawn in response to the excessive shooting (41 times) of Amadou Diallo, an innocent unarmed Guinean immigrant, in 1999. The cartoon created waves among The New Yorker's readers, and Spiegelman received many threats for his drawing. The cartoon, whether controversial or not, undoubtedly provides a striking image for its audience: the generally ignorant (or so they seem to the author) American public. The cartoon depicts a police officer preparing to fire his weapon at a shooting gallery that reads "41 shots, 19 cents". Through the cartoon's sugary sweet pop art style and dark subject, Spiegelman is able to completely convey his purpose to the reader. His purpose is to reveal to the unknowing reader a recurring yet unspoken trend among American police officers: the excessive and unnecessary violence that is often reserved for black Americans. He relays this purpose to the reader through a dark metaphor in which the shooting of Diallo is compared to a carnival shooting gallery. This image appeals to pathos in the reader, as the idea of the shooting gallery invokes images of the officer gleefully playing target practice with a person whom they view as subhuman. The metaphor is effective in its goal of painting the officer as the overzealous and violent attacker of an innocent who is depicted as a non-threatening "target". Whether grotesque and immoral or not, this cartoon effectively conveys to the reader its intended message through appealing to emotions of anger and disbelief in its audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment