Purchase of Alaska Political Cartoon

MLA Format: 

"Alaska Government State Capital Juneau Governor Sean Parnell Alaska State Motto." Alaska Government State Capital Juneau Governor Sean Parnell Alaska State Motto. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

Analysis: 

This political cartoon addresses the issue of the purchase of Alaska; the United States buying Alaska from Russia. The cartoonists message on the issue is that the Americans payed Russia by signing a treaty (the wheelbarrow) and taking it "back" to America. I could image other people having a negative opinion on this cartoon because people could look at it as America just taking it from Russia, but as you can see in the top right hand corner the man with the bag of money symbolizing Russia being very happy with the money it gained from America buying Alaska. Some techniques this cartoonist used in making this political cartoon were symbolism and labeling. 

Symbolism makes this cartoon persuasive because the wheelbarrow symbolizes the treaty that America made with Russia to invest in Alaska to gain all the raw materials and useful things Alaska had. Labeling is a persuasive technique in this cartoon because the big ice bolder resting inside the wheelbarrow is labeled, Russian America. When we originally bought Alaska, it was called Russian America, this makes labeling important because it shows us that William Steward (man holding the rope in front of the wheelbarrow) and Andrew Johnson (man pushing the wheelbarrow from behind) are moving Russian America to a new land to be apart of. I agree with this cartoon because I agree that expanding our territories was a good thing at the time.