According to Mort Gerberg “Cartoons are the most powerful, the pithiest form of communication, used everywhere and in many forms. In the above picture is a 994 unseen words; I use that phrase because we are used to the saying a picture is worth a thousand words and since there are 6 words in the photo I adjusted the 1000. Now back to my photo, the illustrator whom remains unknown sketched out a photo of a high school graduation with seven students, three women and four men. As I acknowledge that, it tells the viewer that more males are enrolled in high school than females and since the male is in the front of the line it allows us to believe males are usually at the top of the class. On the contrary there are more male drop outs in the photo that then females, that ratio is 2/1. This ratio gets us to believe that men have the whits but they lack the motivation to fully utilize their smarts. The fact that the men do not have feet or shoes in the drawing like the females do, is an observation I made that backed up my previous statement about how the males are not motivated on their own, they need a push or a leader to follow. On the other hand there is one woman to every two men that graduate. The women have shoes which illustrates that they make their own decisions and walk on their own two feet. The challenge is the same for both genders, it is the same work and teachers that they deal with but only the strong survive, and in this instance it is only the highly motivated. The illustrator uses creativity with their idea to eliminate but yet still include the drop outs in the photo by outlining them. The effect of the outline gives us the idea that they are there but not completely because they do not get the full sketch that the others did. The illustrator’s humor comes in the way he drew these cartoons up. The cartoons used look much older that high school students. I can easily confuse them for mothers and grandmothers, which leads me to the next conclusion drawn from this photo; more and more older people are going back to high school to get their G.E.D, also known as a diploma. This makes a valid conclusion due to the fact that the economy is so bad many people did go back to school to complete what they left behind. The diploma in the right of the photo along with the gowns that the people are wearing and the noticeable sign that reads “High School Graduation” is what shows us the social function in which it was taking place. This add was most likely used in a high school newspaper or article that discussed dropout rates and men versus women in the education. The illustrator most likely put this in a school newpaper to open the eyes of the sometimes stubborn and ignorant high school students and get them to realize that the person sitting to the left and right of you just might not be graduating and if you are to the right or left of someone it may be you who is not graduating.
Oh dear. This cartoon really speaks to me. It is very, very true and upsetting. This cartoon even though it only shows 6 words it is missing the other 994 words; it sure says a lot more than that. This crazy fact is very scary to think that 50% of students drop out of high school. I never realized how high it is, I always knew it was dangerously high but never that bad. The picture tells me and says so much without even trying to say anything. I had a feeling that the number was higher for guys than for girls.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed your break down of the picture as well. You went into great detail with with what the little things mean. Like the whole meaning for the girls wearing shoes and the guys, the drop out ones, are not. I really did not notice it until I read it in your actual blog too.
I must admit that I do not look at political cartoons frequently. However after completing this week’s prompt I was shocked to find that many are offensive. Take for example the cartoon that you posted. Upon first looking at it, one can tells the viewer that more males are enrolled in high school than females and since the male is in the front of the line it allows us to believe males are usually at the top of the class. I agree with your point, when you talk about the contrary, there are more male drop outs in the photo that then females, that ratio is 2/1.. I saw this part of the cartoon as being discriminate against the female. It clearly show us the drop-out rate, as you can see male drop out more than female.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I disagreed with your statement, “This ratio gets us to believe that men have the whits but they lack the motivation to fully utilize their smarts. The fact that the men do not have feet or shoes in the drawing like the females do, is an observation I made that backed up my previous statement about how the males are not motivated on their own, they need a push or a leader to follow.” I’m not sure you talking about U.S high school, because if you talk about the world it would be another fact. Or I mean different perspective. America doesn’t have honor student compared to other country such as India or china. But we have higher education. Most of male in high school doesn’t realize how important education is until they get to college. Therefore, the drop rate could be low dude to that high school performance or could be affected from their parent.