In Hennessey and McConnell’s comic “The Constitution” the use of neutral colors, minimal text, and detailed but bleak pictures help tie the whole left page together in a way that makes the reader think about the constitution in regards to what is says and how it is portrayed. The elements used in this piece, however, leave one at a crossroad thinking “is this contrasting today’s constitutional shortcomings to the original dream of the doctrine?” or “has the Constitution actually provided a solid ground for America to function off of?”

The question of what the authors are trying to portray comes to mind in this passage, and one of the reasons for this is the use of extremely neutral colors that show little emotion. Being as bland as they are, the colors give insight to a possible sadness in visual tone. When looking at the illustrations, nothing really stands out or makes an impression. Instead it offers insight on how people feel about America today. From visual evidence one can conclude that the Constitution may not be as grand as the authors may have thought. One may think that it serves a purpose, which is to provide a guideline which the American people live under and how laws are made, interpreted, and executed. There are many different meanings that can be drawn from the color. It’s all about the mindset of the reader. After reading, I thought of the bleakness, but my classmates thought about the second example, which makes you think about the real purpose. The way one can tie these two things together is that with the combination of all three elements, the authors may be trying to show that although the Constitution lays the foundation of our country, it may be too easy to twist in one’s favor or vice versa. Either way you look at the color scheme, you think about one reason, and then another possible reason pops into your head that makes you completely turn your thinking around. That’s possibly what the authors wanted, and they used color very well to give a vague meaning with many interpretations.

In accordance with these interpretations one can also look at the nature of the pictures to gather meaning. The left side of the comic uses the first group of pictures as general depictions of the way the constitution is adapted and used in a “good” way, like militarization, power, etc. At the bottom of the page, however, there is a picture of a long voting line waiting to get to a ballot box. That references the time after reconstruction. If the reader looks even further, he/ she will notice that many of the voters in line are the same lighter shade, and only one person in the group is darker complected. This exemplifies the general meaning that the constitution may be contorted to appease some people, and disfavors others in some instances. Yet another correlation can be made with the picture of the old man at the social security office. One of the common problems we face with social security is that young people are paying into it, and the baby boomers, who heavily outnumber millennials take a greater amount than can be provided. The picture is unclear on what the authors are trying to portray, but because of the problems with Social Security, one can’t help but identify that as the problem. This occurs roughly halfway through the comic, which helps the reader clarify what is being discussed on paper. This is one of the many simple but confusing instances used in this portion of the comic, which uses the combination of minimal descriptions with bleak and minimal pictures to show the validity of the Constitution of today versus the Constitution of yesterday.

When looking at this comic, one can’t help but distinguish the lack of description the words provide, which can serve many purposes. The authors use the lack of words to make the reader think for himself. This is a critical part of the comic because a comic’s fundamental existence is on the basis of pictures. Sometimes comics have too many words, but this one takes core values of the constitution and simplifies them into short statements, which in turn strips a comic down into its quintessential meaning – the use of pictures to tell a story. This in turn helps the reader fully digest the meaning of the comic. Throughout the comic, the pictures have an evolution of the Constitution or rather an unraveling of the Constitution. In short, the pictures in “The Constitution” serve two purposes: to use bleakness to portray the actual meaning of the piece, and also to properly demonstrate its function, which is to serve the American people the fairest way possible.

In conclusion, the constitution uses three elements – use of neutral colors, minimalistic pictures, and minimalistic phrases to portray the new age meaning of the constitution and how it was perhaps meant to be interpreted, and how it was used in the olden days. This comic was put together fairly well and conveys its message in a meaningful and correct way. In America we have seen the Constitution, and many of America’s founding documents be under fire for many issues like gun control, taxation, gay rights, and many other things. This comic uses mild examples to help the reader tie the meaning in with the pictures, and realize the true point of the work.