TOW7- visual text

When browsing the internet, I found a cartoon that sends a strong message about gun control. The author, Tom Toles, runs his own blog and is a paid cartoonist for the Washington Post. In this particular cartoon, Toles targets voters through his appeals to logos and pathos in order to get his audience to push for establishing more gun control.

Toles appeals to logos through the logical structure of the cartoon. There is a meter depicting the amount of support the public holds for gun control. As a person paints a higher level of support, he uses “blood” as paint. This sends the clear message that as more people are killed and more blood is shed, public support for gun control increases. Logically, this means that if the public took a proactive approach and voted for more gun control earlier, then less people would be killed. The logical structure of his cartoon appeals to logos by allowing the audience to clearly understand his message. Toles’ appeal to pathos is through the use of the word “blood” on the bucket of “paint.” The use of blood to paint on the level of support for gun control is extremely effective in appealing to the emotions of his audience. It shows that it will take many more deaths before the public fully realizes that more gun control is needed, which will ultimately push his audience to take action now. Toles’ appeals to pathos and logos effectively communicate his message and push his audience to take action now.