Analyzing Gary Varvel's Green New Deal Editorial Cartoon
This paper analyzes Gary Varvel's 2019 political cartoon "The Socialist States of the Green New Deal," published on the Washington Times website. The analysis examines how Varvel combines visual imagery and printed text to construct a satirical argument against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal legislation. The paper explores specific visual elements—including high-speed rail lines extending to Hawaii and Alaska, a blushing cow, departing yachts labeled "The Rich," and a Navy aircraft carrier converted to sail power—as rhetorical devices that convey the cartoonist's claim that the bill is impractical, naïve, and detached from reality. The intended conservative and libertarian audience, the interplay between image and label, and the Dr. Seuss-inspired exaggeration style are all considered in evaluating the cartoon's persuasive effectiveness.
- Overview of the Cartoon: Description of Varvel's cartoon and its central argument
- The High-Speed Rail Imagery: Analysis of the rail-to-Hawaii and Alaska visual
- How Words and Images Work Together: Labels and images reinforce each other rhetorically
- Visual Persuasion Without Words: What imagery alone conveys to the viewer
- Text Labels and Their Rhetorical Function: How specific text labels sharpen satirical points
- Argument Clarity and Audience: Intended audience, premises, and persuasive goals
- Conclusion: Summary of cartoon's satirical effectiveness
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What makes this paper effective
- The analysis moves systematically through specific visual and textual elements of the cartoon rather than making vague general claims, grounding each rhetorical point in a concrete example from the image.
- The paper distinguishes clearly between what imagery accomplishes on its own versus what the printed labels add, demonstrating an understanding of multimodal rhetoric.
- The student correctly identifies the intended audience (conservatives and libertarians) and explains how the cartoon functions as affirmation rather than persuasion toward new views, showing awareness of audience-purpose relationships.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates rhetorical artifact analysis: selecting specific elements of a visual text, identifying the argumentative claim each element supports, and explaining the persuasive mechanism at work. The student uses the cow, the rail lines, the departing yachts, and the wrecking ball in sequence to build a cumulative case about how the cartoon's satire functions — rather than simply describing what is seen.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a full description of the cartoon and its central argument, then zooms in on the most prominent visual element (the rail lines) before alternating between image-only analysis and word-image interaction analysis. It closes by evaluating the cartoon's clarity, audience fit, and overall persuasive effectiveness. This structure moves logically from description to interpretation to evaluation — a classic rhetorical analysis arc suitable for undergraduate composition courses.
Overview of the Cartoon
In a cartoon posted on the Washington Times website entitled "The Socialist States of the Green New Deal" by Gary Varvel (2019), freshman representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is depicted, arms outstretched, standing in the middle of a map of the United States. All around her are highlights of her Green New Deal bill, with visualizations of how her proposals would impact America. One can see a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier using sails instead of fuel for power. An arrow points away from the States, and two large yachts sail off for other shores with the inscription below identifying them as "The Rich" leaving the U.S. Large signs read "Free Stuff" and "No Fly Zone," indicating how different the American landscape is to become were the Green New Deal to be implemented.
The argument being presented in the cartoon is that AOC's bill is not only completely antithetical to everything American, but also completely impractical, unrealistic, and—like something one might expect to find in a Dr. Seuss book—totally silly.
The High-Speed Rail Imagery
Varvel really emphasizes the silliness of AOC's bill by showing two tracks of high-speed rail—one going all the way up to Alaska and the other going all the way out to Hawaii. The tracks careen out from behind AOC in the middle of the U.S. and shoot off into the Pacific like Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat. The rail has no regard for physics: it just goes for it, propelled onward by high hopes and dreams.
The rail is a reference to AOC's plan to overhaul and revolutionize land travel by installing high-speed rail lines—a plan California's governor had already rejected because it would cost too much money and be impractical, geographically speaking (Klein, 2019). Nonetheless, AOC is shown here promoting it as part of her Green New Deal, which, Varvel indicates, is just one of the reasons AOC comes across as naïve.
References
Klein, P. (2019). Gavin Newsom ditching California high-speed rail shows why 'Green New Deal' is doomed. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/gavin-newsom-ditching-california-high-speed-rail-shows-why-green-new-deal-is-doomed
Lean, G. (2006). Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cow-emissions-more-damaging-to-planet-than-co2-from-cars-427843.html https://www.washingtontimes.com/cartoons/
Varvel, G. (2019). The socialist states of the green new deal. Retrieved from
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