Herd Mentality...

This is a political cartoon that aims to highlight that citizens in the US are segregated

by their political beliefs. It’s purpose is to present Trump’s disruptive effect on society to the US citizens. By incorporation of meaningful symbols, distorted features and effective humor techniques, the cartoonist lays bare his/her biased perspective on the debatable issue, in the context of recent coronavirus cases.

Primarily, the visual narrative of the cartoon captures attention and aids in conveying

incisive criticism via graphics and symbols. In the cartoon, Trump, the president of the US, stands in the middle of a graveyard where people who died due to Covid-19 are buried. Trump, the targeted person in the cartoon, is depicted in a distorted way . He is reflected as an overweight, sulky person; thus he has a negative image. Trump is used as an icon to represent the aberration in the US; with his/her iconic style, the artist endeavours to raise awareness to the burning issue that yields to egregious amounts of deaths in the US. Trump’s mimics are exaggerated in a way that makes him appear like a clown; whereas the situation in the US is very grave, which creates an irony. Trump has a tie that is way too long and it lays under a tomb like a flow of blood. Trump’s necktie is used as a signifier to indicate that Trump’s misguided politics is the underlying reason behind the deaths of people in the US. In addition, tombstones are used as indexes to suggest the devastating number of deaths. Moreover, the names of the casualties being not stated on the tombstones and the scribbles that are present on them, suggests the trivialization of their deaths.

Secondly, the effectiveness of anchoring comes into prominence in the cartoon. In

Trump’s speech bubble he states, “EH.. THEY’RE ALL FROM BLUE STATES...THEY

DON'T COUNT... (Blue states are states where Trump couldn’t canvass the political

opinions of people such as NY, California, Ohio, and Iowa... ) His approach to Coronavirus deaths sharpens the sting of inequality in the US and diminishes the importance of sense of commonality. The artist demonstrates that Trump is the president of only his voters, whereas he is supposed to represent and protect every American citizen. Furthermore, on the bottle that Trump carries “Herd Mentality” is written. Herd mentality is the concept of sharing the same values and behaviours of a group we are involved with. During one of his speeches about the precautions taken to deal with the pandemic, accidentally Trump used the word “herd mentality” instead of herd immunity. By mistake, he uncovered that he relies on the herd mentality that is present in the US. The artist integrated the phrase to the cartoon on a bottle, suggesting that Trump is drinking something that steers him to take wrong actions. With this symbol, the artist exhibits his/her biased perspective on the issue by using irony as

a humour technique. He/She criticizes that Trump advocates herd mentality; ironically what corrupts the US is exactly the herd mentality.

In conclusion, the impact of deterioration of management in the US is displayed in the

cartoon. Through the use of humour and iconic style, the incisive criticism is effectively

constructed. The purpose is to criticize Trump’s attitude towards how American people are affected by Covid-19. With these messages presented in the cartoon, it is aimed to trigger citizens to take action against the misguided politics of the leaders that cause disruption to

societies.