A citizen in the United States has many rights, one of those being freedom of speech. So in turn, many Americans speak their minds about the government and politics in general on a daily basis, sometimes on the news in different formats like political cartoons. The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation by Hennessey and McConnell does just this, voicing an opinion on the state of the United States Constitution, specifically the laws that are discriminatory and why they are outdated using specific graphic tools like perspective, gaze, colors and costume. In the excerpt of The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell, many visual elements, like perspective, gaze, colors and costume, are important to creating the overall theme of the graphic novel, one of the most being the repeated theme of outdatedness. 

This theme is most relevant in the two middle panels on the second page of the graphic novel. The first scene depicts two different groups of people in a violent stance facing one another. One group is full of minority individuals like senior citizens, women and African Americans led by an angel like figure while the other group is all white men. The authors wrote this scene to show why certain updates, like removing slavery and allowing women to vote, were added to the Constitution, therefore making it up to date. The panel shows a wide view of the scene, probably to show all of the multiple elements that are happening at once. The perspective of the scene is of the reader because of this wide view to give the audience a greater understanding of the issue at hand. The group of minorities are in a brighter, yellow color while the group of white men are in a dark blue color to show that the men are in the dark to the bright future ahead of equal rights. This is a split complementary color scheme, which is true to the picture too because the two groups are split on their ideals. The characters’ gaze in this panel is focused completely on the other group. Because of this, the authors are showing that the characters felt very strongly about the issue at hand. The characters in the group of old men in this panel are wearing old fashioned clothes. The authors used costume to again show the theme of outdatedness from the men against new ideas. This panel completely encompasses the idea of outdatedness through perspective, color, gaze and costume.

The second panel goes hand in hand with the first. While the first shows a tense scene of American citizens fighting, the second shows a lot more unity. Each citizen is standing together, some with their hands over their hearts, while two officials reveal the American flag for everyone to honor. This panel is suggesting a future in which the Constitution is updated enough that each citizen has equal rights to their neighbor and each is equally protected by the government. There is also a wide view in this panel, again to show all of the elements that are happening at once, like how each different person looks. This is to again give the reader a wider perspective to show more of the scene. The color in this panel is different from the first though. The officials are in a blue-green color while the citizens are in a purple color. Perhaps these similar colors are to show that, unlike the very contrasting colors in the first panel, people are starting come together as a nation. The colors are pretty analogous, maybe picked by the authors to show the new found harmony between the two groups of people as opposed to the first panel. They may still disagree, the colors are still different, but purple and blue are very similar to the yellow and blue prior. The gaze in this panel is also different from the first. Instead of violent eye contact, each character is looking directly at the flag to symbolize unity among American citizens. The costume in this panel is more modern, 21st style clothing, perhaps to show the modern ways in which citizens of America now think compared to the past. This is probably the purpose of this part of the graphic because the authors wanted to make a point about the difference of time periods. Clothing in the past centuries has dramatically changed and it is one of the most recognizable physical traits that changed. Because of this, the authors probably chose clothing to represent change because it is more obvious than other changes.

These two panels completely represent the idea of changing the Constitution so it is more relevant to today’s society. The before and after scenes encompass what the authors were trying to say: all citizens can be included if Americans recognize others as individuals. Other panels in the graphic novel do depict this theme, but not as well as the panels described above. The reader might have assumed, after reading the first page of this excerpt, that the graphic novel would be about how wonderful the Constitution and American government in general is. Each happy scene with different words from the Preamble make the reader feel like everything is okay, with examples like an old man receiving social security and a group of many different kinds of people voting. This assumption is wrong, though, after looking at the panels described above. The authors added this in the beginning to show what a great country America is and could be with updates that have already been added, like women’s suffrage and the 13th Amendment. The entire graphic novel works with the motif of outdatedness. Each panel has great elements that lend themselves to the theme of the novel. 

Written by John Hennessey and Aaron McConnell, The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation uses the theme of outdatedness to show, through different visual elements, the ways in which the Constitution was updated to make America a better place for all of its citizens. The panels use specific elements like perspective, gaze, colors and costume to add to the theme of outdatedness. Political cartoons like The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation, will always be relevant in the American society because they give a voice to people who want to protest against unfair happenings in government and politics. 
