Political cartoons have always shed light on various opinions of different political issues the country has been or is faced with. In this case, the second set of political cartoons regarding Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving deals with immigration, assimilation, and citizenship within the United States. This set of political cartoons utilizes symbolism, irony, and labeling in order to depict the reality vs. portrayal of thanksgiving and the patterns of immigration throughout the 19th and 20th century.
First of all, the set of cartoons uses irony in order to illustrate the differences between the reality of the First Thanksgiving and what people have made it stand for. The portrayal of the First Thanksgiving in the first cartoon symbolizes a sense of community and equality where everyone is happily feasting. On the other hand, the second cartoon symbolizes the reality of the First Thanksgiving as a day when the Native Americans invited the Whites to feast with…show more content… Overall, the first cartoon portrays U.S. immigration as an easy process and welcomed equality while the second cartoon depicts the reality of U.S. immigration as a prejudice movement where the economic pyramid existed with great clarity. In the first cartoon, we can see the portrayal of immigration patterns in the way the United States wanted people to view it. For example, we see the portrait of three presidents such as Washington, Lincoln, and Grant which were all former presidents that did something beneficial to all the minorities that moved to America. All three portraits along with the statues of Liberty and Justice serve as symbolism because they all represent the American Dream that one could succeed in USA in an equal playing field. All of them represent a sense of securement that the new immigrants would be helped to reach their goals. In reality, most of the time, this was not the