Statement of Purpose

In choosing a comic, I wanted something that was I knew a little about. I looked up political cartoons, and I kept going back to this one with Dick Cheney. It had something that I could connect with personally. I remember hearing things about Dick Cheney and the torture that he allowed, and becoming furious. I have a connection with the comic, that goes far beyond its meaning. It is almost like I'm ashamed to admit that the comic is true. Dick Cheney denies that the U.S. does not torture, and later goes back and says that he's glad for what they did. There is a lot of conspiracy that goes along with this comic also, which draws my attention even closer to it. There are the die-hard Bush fans who back up anything that happened during the Bush era, and then there are the people that didn't exactly agree with everything that went on in the White House.

A title is the first thing that someone reads of a piece of art, literature, or multimedia element. It's the thing that draws us in, that catches our eye, making us want to read more. It's not necessarily the title that draws us into this piece, if we were just to read this title we might be curious as what Dick Cheney went to get a procedure for, but the title really doesn't have an affect here. Instead its the overall appearance of the comic itself. You see a drawing of Dick Cheney looking scared, embarrassed, almost sheepish, sitting on the doctors bed. While the doctor simply says, "Don't worry we don't torture!" At this moment we can only assume what is going through the mind of Dick Cheney. He once said that the U.S does not torture, and then turns back on his word saying that what he did was right and wouldn't do it any other way. So first he comforts the American public, saying that we do not torture, and then he goes on to say that we do, but only because it became legal. Which is also disputable, some say that it was simply a lawyer writing in his opinion that it was the right the thing to do, which does not make it a legal action, when it is a illegal action. Then there are the people that believe Dick Cheney, that he wouldn't do that if were not legalized first.

As discussed in class, different dialog can also affect the way we interpret the meaning of a comic. For instance, if the doctor were to say, "It's ok you don't have cancer." That would give the comic a whole different perspective. It would make the expression on Dick Cheney's face seem scared instead of ashamed. It might also make us wonder what is actually wrong with him. If it's not cancer, what is it? Also, the way that the word "torture" is bolded, almost is like the doctor is taunting Cheney. Just like you said, we don't torture either. Which gives it a funny approach to a not so funny topic. Facial expression also goes almost hand in hand with dialog. If a person is smiling, we assume their happy. We don't really know if that their happy, we just assume that they are, because when someone smiles that usually means that they are in a happy state of mind. We can see that by the looks of the Dick Cheney's face that he does not know what's going to happen. He also seems to be embarrassed, ashamed of what he has done. Hypocrisy is something that should not be done in politics, yet it happens all the time, and you can tell by the way the author drew Dick Cheney's expression that he feels like Cheney should be ashamed. We don't know if Dick Cheney really is ashamed that he tortured those people, but we can assume that the author wants us to think that he is ashamed.