TOW #15: Ideas Are Bulletproof

In this particular cartoon, Walker Bragman depicts one of the terrorist shooters, involved in the January 7th, Massacre in Paris. The French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, had published some cartoons depicting Muhammad, one of the most popular figures of the Muslim religion, which resulted in upsetting much of the Muslim population. It led to a shooting during one of the paper's editorial meetings, killing 12 people. When word got out of what had happened, people all over the globe were infuriated, claiming that the newspaper had the right of free speech and could publish whatever they prefer. In this cartoon, Walker Bragman uses monochromatic coloring and bold words and pictures to illustrate the idea that everyone has the right to free speech and that no ideas should be silenced. Bragman uses black and white throughout the entire cartoon, except for the puddle of blood the terrorist is standing on. This strategy also added a bit of pathos because it indicates violence and fear. This utilization of specific coloring adds emphasis on the intense effect of the shooters and highlights the violence that was caused by this issue of not respecting the newspapers rights.  At the top of the cartoon, he wrote in bold lettering, "ideas are bullet proof", meaning that no one has the right to harm or kill someone because of their ideas, and that ideas and words have much more power over guns and violence. This idea is also shown when Bragman illustrated a large pencil overpowering erasing the terrorists gun. This symbol was very powerful and helped get his central idea across. I believe that Walker Bragman achieved his purpose. I came across this cartoon before I really knew a lot of about what had happened, and then after reading up on it, this cartoon helped emphasis what is really important and how unfair these violent acts were. This is one of the most interesting cartoons I have ever seen and I believe that it really has a powerful effect.