Halloween's Impact on Visual Politics

Halloween is closely approaching, and October in general seems to be focused entirely on Halloween itself. The holiday has been known for dressing up and scaring people, or the day where the spirits rise from the grave, even about candy in general with trick-or-treating. Since this holiday is coming near, I became interested in the visual impact of this holiday. 

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 The image shown here I thought was extremely funny and obviously was a satire. The little old lady is passing out candy on Halloween, which are displayed with bright colors. The adorable little children are dressed up as clowns for their halloween costume, extending their bags for candy. The speech bubble represents the little old lady's voice, and she is stating that the children are dressed up like politicians. This is humorous because it's stating that basically the politicians within the government are clowns. Clowns themselves are often associated with humor, and with doing silly things. So by comparing a politician to a clown the image states that the government can't really do much other than be silly and acting foolish. With modern politics this could be the case, depending on who the viewer is. This image is obviously meant to be funny, and I feel as though it isn't representing any specific people within the government so the image itself can't cause offense to anyone in particular. The colors used within the image are bright and colorful, making the image pop and catch the eye of the viewer. The image is drawn in more detail, possibly to enhance the clowns and make them extra colorful, since that is also a generalization with clowns.

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This second image has a different message entirely than the first, however it still has to deal with the idea of associating halloween with political cartoons. This image refers to global warming, and the fact that this fall is supposed to be extra cold and since there was a recent snowstorm. This reflects on the modern fear of global warming, and represents this through the creature of Frankenstein. Frankenstein is a modern character who is known for halloween and often represented in many children's costumes. He is a creature to be feared, because he is a monster. This associates global warming with a monster, even though it isn't a being. The little old lady seems to represent someone who is easily scared which could relate to the entire populace, since they are frightened by the idea of global warming. Also this brings in a bit of humor because the older generation are known and made fun of for enjoying watching the weather. The monster of global warming is intruding into her house and she chooses to ignore his supposed scariness by asking him to shut the door because it's cold. She's comfortable in her home, and wearing long clothing because it is colder weather. The bold red print of the "AAAAGH!" draws attention to the fact that the monster is supposed to be scary, though he is not.
Halloween has impacted these two different topics within the political world, the simple topic of politicians acting like clowns as well as global warming. This can show how a simple holiday can impact the political world.