Huey Freeman American Hero Essay

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In “Huey Freeman: American Hero”, author John Nichols profiles creator of the comic strip The Boondocks, Aaron McGruder. He praises McGruder’s work on bringing up political, race and class problems in a comical way. Nichols identifies that by making the comic strip into a satire McGruder makes his readers understand the problems better; then if The Boondocks was just serious or just funny. Before beginning the essay, Nichols provides a strip of the comic to showcase what is to come ahead. Nichols starts off his essay by introducing Huey Freeman one of the main characters from McGruder’s comic strip The Boondocks. Nichols does this by inserting a quote that summarizes the installment of the television show The Boondocks rather than the comic strip. Nichols quotes Huey Freeman who said, “Ahem. In this time of war against Osama bin Laden and the oppressive Taliban regime, we are thankful that OUR leader isn’t the spoiled son of a powerful politician from a wealthy oil family who is supported by religious fundamentalists, operates through clandestine organizations, has no respect for the democratic electoral process, bombs innocents, and uses war to deny people their civil liberties. Amen.”(103, 2) By using this quote to begin the essay Nichols’ declares the quote to be the basis of the whole essay, while setting an irony as the tone. Nichols then …show more content…

He then compares The Boondocks to other controversial comic strips such as Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury, which once declared Nixon guilty for Watergate. Afterwards Nichols distinguishes the influences McGruder had growing up as a kid, well as the paths he took in college and in his early career to have such beliefs. Which leads Nichols discussing how McGruder feel he’s the only one saying the things that he say, for his comic strip is thought to be more controversial than Trudeau’s Doonesbury. Nichols quotes McGruder that is makes him a little