Week 4 Reading Response Cartoons

In Everything’s an Argument; with Readings, Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, and Walters present five cartoons from the New Yorker Magazine. The main issue in the cartoons is communication between men and women. The kinds of people targeted by these cartoons appear to be working middle class heterosexual couples who appear to have traditional, possibly conservative values. The readers lives seem to be full of conflict in communication between men and women. Roz Chast’s cartoon shows conflict at home, and William Hamilton’s comic shows conflict at work. The intended audience values effective communication between men and women. Values such as traditional couples appear in two separate cartoons. Peter Steiner’s cartoon shows a traditional marriage in a church with a socio-linguist between the couple as they are getting married. Roz Chast’s cartoon shows a traditional couple, where the woman is the housewife with an apron on. People reading these cartoons are concerned with effective communication with the opposite sex. In Peter Steiner’s cartoon, the audience is expected to know who Debra Tannen is in order to understand the cartoon. They are also expected to know what is happening in Peter Steiner’s cartoon (a religious wedding ceremony). In all the cartoons, the men and woman are not understanding what the opposite sex is saying. Leo Cullum’s cartoon shows fear that man has when a woman says “We need to talk.” According to this cartoon, some men do not want to effectively communicate with women. William Hamilton’s carton shows men getting defensive at the woman’s question about asking directions. In conclusion, the cartoons are all about communication between men and women.