Matt Sanjur

10/23/14
Pd 8
Visual Rhetoric Analysis
Many techniques were used in the political cartoon After the Attacks
by Corky Trinidad that clearly presented an argument. Techniques that
include detail, the text that is presented, and the characters used. From first
gazing upon the cartoon, you can see a large man yelling and looking down
at a woman with traditional Muslim clothing. From there you can already tell
who the oppressor is and that is the large man. Looking into detail, you can
tell the man is American, noticing he is wearing very patriotic attire; a
baseball cap with the American flag on it, a plain white tee with the words
USA! and in red white and blue colors printed around his whole tee, and he
is also holding an American flag in his hand. As you look at the woman in
detail, you see her wearing simple traditional Muslim attire, holding papers
and not even as near, or at all, looking patriotic as the man looks. Looking at
their facial expressions, you can obviously tell the man is very angry; in fact
he is yelling at her and the woman has on an almost frightened face. Looking
at the speech bubbles, the man is saying Yuh Muslims and Arabs should go
back to where yuh from! and the woman is saying But were from Iowa..?
After analyzing these key points about this cartoon you can easily see the
message Trinidad is trying to present to the us, that this is what todays

racial prejudice looks like and it needs to stop. This is relevant as for the title
being named in regard to after the 9/11 attacks, and how many Americans
were portraying Arab Muslims as; as crazy terrorists who will kill and even
commit suicide in the name of Allah, which is factually wrong. This type of
portrayal is shown in the man, 100% for America, and 100% against
terrorists, but with Muslims in mind when said terrorist is mentioned. He also
pronounces you with yuh so it is implied that the American, or Americans
this man is representing are uneducated and probably too uneducated to
understand the problem. The Muslim woman is represented as all the
Muslims who live and have been living in America most likely long before the
attacks, in this example, she lives in Iowa. This is saying how just because a
group of people who happened to be Muslim and also happened to be Arab
committed an act of terrorism, doesnt mean that every single other Arab
Muslim is as extremist and as crazy as them. This relates back to World War
2 after the Pearl Harbor attacks; after they happened, every single Japanese
resident living in America were forced to vacate their homes and be sent to
live in Internment camps solely because of suspicion that one of them could
have been Japanese spies. This is another example of racial prejudice and in
this political cartoon you can easily see how it is still very much alive and in a
sense embarrasses the American people in this way and that this prejudice
needs to go away.