When it comes to evaluating and interpreting a visual text, there are a vast amount of variables that must be assessed. Different meanings can be established by concentrating on certain aspects of an image. Visual texts are very similar to written texts in which they continue to lead to various interpretations and views from different audiences. The cartoon that is being analyzed is one that has been drawn by a reporter in The Sacramento Bee, a news website based out of California. The image revolves around the Ebola outbreak and was published in 2014 when the outbreak took place. As you analyze the image the main element used to intrigue the audience was the presence of satire. Three other elements utilized by the author were symbols, color, and perspective. These three elements allow you to gain the meaning of the cartoon and understand what the author's purpose was for publishing his work.

Satire is an element used in many visual and written texts that helps portray irony and sarcasm in what the author emphasizes. It allows the image to appear exaggerated in order to ridicule the "American way". The main image of this cartoon is an American man that is portrayed as an overweight smoker who is worried about the Ebola disease and not the other unhealthy aspects in his life. The author chose to draw an excessive amount of fast food, a large beer can, and a long cigarette lit in his mouth around the man to show how unhealthy and harmful substances used by Americans' are and how immensely dangerous to our well- being they can be. When Ebola made an appearance in our country it was vastly acknowledged by all the news stations and states throughout the country. Even though a very small amount of people were affected the disease was a huge headliner during 2014. The cartoon uses satire to show how outrageous Ebola was acknowledged compared to the thousands of people that die yearly from substances used daily like cigarettes and alcohol. The Sacramento Bee had the purpose to show their audience how Ebola was not an immense issue compared to how harmful are everyday health circumstances are.

The Sacramento Bee is a news website based out of Sacramento, California and tends to allow their writers to not only write a news article on the news of the week, but also accompany the article or cartoon with their opinion. The element of perspective allows the interpretation of this article to become clearer as background information is discovered through who the artist is and what he represents. The fact that he was affiliated with this website allows the you to conclude that he was mostly a supporter of the democratic party. With this in mind, this political party is known to be involved with aiding American citizens in begining to undergo a healthier lifestyle . Michelle Obama, First woman at the time, also a democrat, is exceptionally proud of her efforts to make America a healthier country. The artist was most likely showing the audience that Ebola is not as big of a threat to our health as the other elements in our life that are used everyday. The Democratic Party has continuously supported and stressed the health issues in America and make it a prominent issue that needs to be transmuted.

The cartoon is portraying how unhealthy the United States are and how a deadly disease is not nearly as harmful as some of the other substances America tends to abuse that can cause us deadly sicknesses as well. As the cartoon is interpreted, the color of the image plays a vital role in what the writer is trying to portray. He uses black and white not only to show his thoughts in a relatively simple way, but also to reveal how obvious the issue is and how such a simple concept needs to be understood. Thousands of people are dying, but not from Ebola, they are dying from overly fatty fast foods, cigarettes that cause cancers, and alcohol that causes liver failures and alcohol poisoning. All of these are known facts, but the cartoonist shows these facts in black in white titles to show how all these diseases are causing vast amounts of death throughout the United States and they are not even acknowledged while Ebola causing under twenty deaths becomes a national headline. It can be concluded that the writer believes that Ebola is a critical issue that needed to be addressed but there are even more crucial aspects to America's health that need to be acknowledged as well.

When interpreting the cartoon, there are three minor headlines that are in reality major aspects to the image. These headlines state the deaths caused by obesity, tobacco, and alcohol.

Along with these headlines, the cartoonist incorporates symbols to address his main point of the cartoon. He uses fast food surrounding the man to show the causes of obesity, the cigarette in his mouth to show the causes of tobacco deaths, and a beer in his hand to show the causes of alcohol deaths. All of these exemplify the exact substances that are harmful to citizens in the United States and are the causes of the majority of deaths found within the country. The large title that states "Ebola"; however, does not have a symbol because of the rarity of the disease especially in the U.S. The cartoonist purposefully used these symbols in order to illustrate how important certain topics are in the country when they are not even addressed or acknowledged.

All of the elements used by the writer were specifically used and planned out in order to allow the audience to interpret the cartoon the way that it was portrayed to be. Political Cartoons can have a lot of background information that must be understood in order to successfully understand everything that is being displayed. With the help of certain elements such as satire, color, perspective, and symbols the writer is able to not only show certain important news headlines but also add his opinion to the work in order to make it unique.

