How to Analyse a Cartoon PDF

### CARTOONS ❖ A cartoon is a humorous drawn picture; ❖ Cartoons can be light-hearted fun / reflect social trends / highlight serious issues; WHEN STUDYING CARTOONS LOOK AT: ❖ Body language: provides non-verbal clues/communication about their mood and attitude; this is seen through elements such a...

### CARTOONS ❖ A cartoon is a humorous drawn picture; ❖ Cartoons can be light-hearted fun / reflect social trends / highlight serious issues; WHEN STUDYING CARTOONS LOOK AT: ❖ Body language: provides non-verbal clues/communication about their mood and attitude; this is seen through elements such as: body pose, gestures, facial expression, and eye movements. ❖ Caricature: features or actions of a person are exaggerated e. Barack Obama may be drawn with big ears, long chin and big teeth. ❖ Intention: Is the cartoon meant to amuse, make a political statement, or ridicule someone (satire)? ❖ Speech bubble: Or a line between the speaker and the words to indicate who is speaking. Thought bubble: looks like clouds -- indicates unspoken thoughts. Caption: title, brief explanation or comment accompanying an illustration. ❖ Comic strip: sequences of drawings telling a humorous or adventurous story ❖ Frame: one drawing in a comic strip. ❖ Movement: indicated by means of vertical, curved and diagonal lines. Speedy action is indicated by streaky lines, or by the action going out of the frame. ❖ Punctuation: clever use is made of punctuation to create meaning. ❖ Stereotypes: An exaggerated preconceived generalisation about the typical behaviour, attitudes, dress, etc. of various types of people. ❖ Verbal clues: some parts of the drawing may be used to help the reader establish what the cartoon is about. ❖ Visual metaphor: in a metaphor two things are compared. In a visual metaphor, a picture stands for or represents something else. ❖ Irony: When one thing is said, but something else is meant. ❖ Parody: An imitation of a piece of writing used to ridicule the original or create a satirical point. ❖ Satire: Uses humour to make a serious point. It involves using wit, irony or sarcasm to highlight human vices or follies. WHEN ANALYSING A CARTOON, LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING ASPECTS: ACTIONS: ❖ What is happening in the cartoon? ❖ How is the action portrayed? CHARACTERS: ❖ What emotions are communicated through facial expressions? ❖ What actions and emotions are communicated through body language? ❖ What does the body language suggest about the relationships between characters? LANGUAGE: ❖ What words have been used? ❖ How has punctuation been used to suggest emotion? SETTING: ❖ Where and when is the cartoon set? ❖ What is the particular social context? STEREOTYPES / SYMBOLS: ❖ Has the cartoonist made use of stereotypes -- an over-generalized belief about a particular category of people e. all teenagers are rebels? ❖ Has the cartoonist used any symbols to represent something else? When ANALYSING cartoons and referring to the TECHNIQUES used by a cartoonist, look at these five elements: - Speech bubbles - Thought bubbles - Facial expressions - Body language - Movement lines - Onomatopoeia ### FACIAL EXPRESSIONS: ### WHEN USED AS A TECHNIQUE: A lack of speech bubbles, especially in a comic strip where people are interacting or having a conversation can be used to convey a message or a cartoon character's attitude/reaction to something or someone. Examples: - Indicating shock/surprise - Emphasising anger - Creating tension (as we wait for a spoken response) - Confusion ### THOUGHT BUBBLES: The introverted cousin of speech bubbles. These are usually in the shape of a cloud and contain words that are NOT spoken (thoughts). ### WHEN USED AS A TECHNIQUE: The presence of thought bubbles can indicate or show the following: - A character is very deep in thought/concentrating hard and is thus not speaking - Someone has a thought but does not want to say it aloud; they do not want others to know what they are thinking: - This could be an exclamation, or a 'secret' comment. e.: A character is annoyed with their classmate but will not voice their irritation (it stays in their thought bubble) as it will lead to more, unnecessary conflict. - It could also show the thought process behind what has been said, for example: the thoughts of a child before asking their parent for money. ### MOVEMENT LINES: These lines or squiggles indicate movement or a specific action. ### WHEN USED AS A TECHNIQUE: Movement lines are effective in showing the reader how the characters move and can highlight their movements and motives. Examples: - A powerful punch can be indicated by sharp movement lines around a hand and the person who is hit this will then show aggression, anger etc. - A hand that is waving desperately to get someone's attention in a crowd would possibly be surrounded by lots of movement lines to show their frantic gesture. ### ONOMATOPOEIA: Words that mimic a SOUND of an object or action e. 'pow', 'clink', 'slurp', 'boing,' 'crash.' They are usually outside speech bubbles and are accompanied by movement lines. WHEN USED AS A TECHNIQUE: - They can add to humour - They can indicate an action without anything having to be said ('crash' indicating items falling in another room, 'pow' indicating a punch) - Growing tensions (a character slurping their milkshake, while another character grows visibly annoyed) - Onomatopoeia words written in large, bold fonts can indicate louder sounds, whilst smaller fonts can indicate softer sounds These elements of a cartoon can also help when commenting on and identifying the message of a cartoon. EXAMPLES OF CARTOONIST MESSAGES: - Criticism of human nature - To highlight the unfairness of something - To make people question something - Showing how it is ironic that\... - To criticise systems or leaders (usually with satire)