While creating political cartoons the author is usually trying to accomplish one thing—persuade his or her audience of one's opinion. In order to be successful at persuading the audience there needs to be multiple elements present in the cartoon. Gary Varvel does an excellent job at utilizing each of these elements. In the political cartoon "Whose Side Are You On?" (Varvel) the author, Gary Varvel, does an outstanding job at persuading his audience of his political view by using the elements of color, the rhetorical triangle, and dialog. One of the most important components of cartoons is the use colors. When a person is going through a magazine or newspaper, one of the first things that will grab his or her attention are the colors. Varvel is colors in that aspect, but he also uses them to further persuade his audience of his political view (Republicans feel betrayed and bewildered by Trump's decision to negotiate a debt deal with Democrats). In his political cartoon, Varvel utilizes the colors to show the audience that the teams are clearly on two very different sides and have nothing in common. …show more content…
In order to have a sound argument, one has to include all three of parts of the triangle. When establishing his ethos, Varvel set up a very satirical tone. This is very common with political cartoons. By setting up that tone, the author also implements the pathos part of the rhetorical triangle. The sarcastic tone of the cartoon will either enrage the reader or it will cause the reader to chuckle. Either reaction is okay because at least the author is causing the audience to feel some kind of emotion. Finally, Varvel used logos by equating the two political parties to football teams. It is common knowledge that if a player of one team is talking to a player of another team it is unethical. The audience is also able to pick up on the how unethical this act is by the