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Renewable Energy: Visual Rhetorical Analysis of Alternative Energy Roulette

Carlos A Vega
The University of Texas El Paso








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Renewable energy has been a major topic for all governments around the world for years.
Some countries have already been implementing renewable energy in their countries. The United
States has been executing projects for the research and expansion of renewable energy. There are
many reasons why America is developing the use of renewable energy. It is mainly because
fossil fuels are finite resources and at one point or another they are going to run dry or they are
going to become too expensive for daily use. Another reason for developing renewable energy is
that the world can save around one hundred eighty billion dollars by changing seventy percent of
the electricity production to renewable sources. The genre chosen is a visual genre, which is a
political cartoon, named Alternative Energy Roulette (Ramirez, 2011). The political cartoon
shows the President Barack Obama of the United States with a depressing facial expression,
pointing a red gas nozzle to his head with his fingers on the lever. The gas pump nozzle has the
words gas prices and a red arrow pointing up to create humor with the reader. The visual genre
has a deeper message hidden for the audience to discover, but delivers it in a humorous way.
Purpose
The purpose of the political cartoon is to create awareness of the intended investment in
development of renewable energy by the President Barack Obama. Another purpose is to
convince the state governments to provide renewable energy state laws. This is all identified by
the illustration of President Obama pointing the nozzle to his head, the words gas prices and
the arrow pointing up on the nozzle. The term roulette represents the struggle with the constant
raises on the gas prices coming from the Middle East, the ongoing conflict concerning
implementation of renewable energy, and how all this might affect the United States. The
delivery of the political cartoon is intended to create humor and awareness among the audience.
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Audience
The political cartoon's audience is concentrated in the federal government and citizens of
the United States, not only El Paso. The political cartoon uses specialized vocabulary using
illustrations to send a message and create a wider audience. The visual genre's audience is
identified in the political cartoon by the representation of President Barrack Obama of the United
States of America and where the cartoon was published and the artist. The audience is mainly
the readers of creators.com an American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated
columns. Creators.com represents the most talented writers and artists in the world. Their talent
has won Pulitzer prizes, Reuben awards, and many other recognitions. The audience also
includes the followers of Michael Ramirez, a two-time Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist for
Investors Business Daily. However, what the audience wants to know is how the government is
implementing renewable energy and how it is going to help them.
Logos
The political cartoon logos can be found in the symbols representing a real situation such
as, the color on President Obama's tie and the structure in the cartoon. One aspect of logos found
in the political cartoon is the gas nozzle which has writing saying gas prices with an arrow
pointing up simulating the raises on gas prices in the Middle East. Another is the facial
expression of the President Obama representing the struggles of the President Obama developing
renewable energy to minimize the dependencies of fossil fuels from the Middle East. The color
red on the tie also gives logic to the political cartoon because in the United States, when a person
is holding the presidential office, they are supposed to wear red ties which represent power. The
structure of the political cartoon creates an idea and gives a hidden message indirectly, but it can
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be confusing for people that are not informed of the problem. The political cartoons structure is
more informal, and intends to give a quick message to the audience through the use of
illustrations without too many words scattered over the cartoon. However, this may affect the
logic in the article because the audience that is not well informed with the situation will not be
able to understand the point of the cartoon.
Ethos
The political cartoon has a few examples of ethos. It does have the Michael Ramirez
signature a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and the co-editor of the Investor's
Business Daily editorial page. He is also a contributor to USA Today and The Weekly Standard,
and his work has a subscription and distribution of over five hundred and fifty newspapers and
magazines through Creators Syndicate; this gives the cartoon credibility. The publisher
creator.com is the American independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns,
which also helps the credibility of the cartoon. The readers that follow Creators trust whatever is
posted in their website, so it helps the artist create more ethos. The political cartoon artist directs
more of his attention towards evoking emotions to the reader like humor. However, he does not
establish credibility of his work on his cartoon because he does not provide any of his
background information. This affects his message with audience members that do not know his
work. Those that do not know the accomplishments of Ramirez as an illustrator or his work may
not believe his opinion or message.
Pathos
The political cartoon evokes an emotional response of curiosity, confusion, awareness,
and comedy. The visual genre creates pathos of humor to the reader with an image of President
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Barack Obama pointing a gas nozzle into his head and his facial expression; for some readers, it
is comical. It creates a sense of curiosity and confusion for the reader who does not know about
the situation. The genre has other communication features to create pathos like the colors used in
the nozzle and the arrow, and the cartoon of the president of the United States. The color red
used in the nozzle represents the danger of the power of the distributors of oil over America and
the arrow pointing up signifies the high gas prices to create awareness of the possible
consequences for any conflict. The president's facial expression represents depression, and his
action of holding the nozzle to his head as if it were a gun represents loss of hope.
Conclusion
The cartoon was made mainly to inform on the alternative energy situation through
representations to create humor and logic. The artist was successful in his task and purpose in
creating awareness of the situation connecting the audience with President Obama's problem.
However, it lacks establishing credibility with his audience. The illustration needs more
representation of the message that the artist is trying to convey to his audience. For that reason, it
was not too effective in communicating the message to the readers who might not be well
informed about the situation. The reader who does not know the context of the conflict may not
understand the real message. In fact, the audience may perceive the wrong message; for example,
that President Obama is raising the gas prices. The political cartoon has its strengths and
weaknesses. The author did the best he could to represent his message with his cartoon without
the use of many words. The cartoon may not be as clear or detailed as an article, but still, the
artist does accomplish the purpose of informing a situation with the use of illustration to his
primary audience through the subscription and distribution of Creators Syndicate.
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References
Ramirez, M. (2011, January 17). Alternative energy roulette. Retrieved from
http://www.investmentpostcards.com/2011/01/19/laugh-out-loud-alternative-energy-
roulette/














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