Reference no: EM133987480

Assignment:

This week we talked about the use of satire to highlight societal issues in The Enlightenment I.. For this assignment, find a minimum of three editorial cartoons that attacks a contemporary social problem or institution.

• Discuss what the cartoon is satirizing, and how it is satirizing the issue.
• Who does it appeal to?
• Is the satire correct? (Fact-check your editorial. This is especially important if you choose something political. Often times political satire appeals to a certain base by incorporating notions that are believed by that base, but may not be completely accurate. When you fact-check, use non-biased sources - no cable news sources! Factcheck.org or something like that is a good place to start.)
• Is it effective?

After answering these questions for your cartoons you choose, answer the following more general questions:

• Is humor an effective tool to critique an issue? Why or why not?
• What other types of satire are there? Are they effective?
• This week the visual satires that we looked at were Hogarth's Gin Lane and Marriage a la Mode. Compare the cartoons you chose to one of these pieces of satire. What tools were similar?
• This week your required reading included the literary satire of Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. Are cartoons like these as effective as these literary satires? Why or why not?

You can use any editorial cartoons to address contemporary issues. If you're not sure where to start, you can look at The New Yorker online, usnews.com, or theweek.com as they all have an editorial cartoon section. Googling editorial cartoons will also give you a wide array to choose from.