Group names:

Satirical Illustrations Analysis

Pawel Kuczynski

Instructions:

● Box 1: Type your name

● Box 2: Type the name of the illustration and paste the actual illustration into the box
● Box 3: Individually identify the rhetorical situation (SPACE). Then, identify the specific rhetorical
choices/strategies used (CAT). Remember to support your answers with evidence from the illustration!
● Box 4: Write a clear thesis for the illustration. What choices/strategies contribute to the meaning and
purpose of the artist? Remember what you have learned about good versus better, and if necessary, use
the thesis template on slides 2-3 on canvas.

Student Name:

Illustration 1:

Rhetorical S:
Situation: P:
A:
C:
E:
C:
A:
T:

Thesis:

Student Name: Lenny Beddoes

Illustration 2:

Kuczynsky, Pawel. Solitude. March 13, 2020

Rhetorical S: Pawel Kuczynsky created this image, which is similar to his other illustrations.
Situation: His work focuses on global and personal issues, aiming to capture and present
them. He does this almost completely visually, the illustrations almost never have
text aside from the captions.
P: In this illustration, Pawel is showing how the activities we occupied ourselves
with during the initial COVID19 quarantine not only engaged us but further
isolated us as well. This is shown through the cacti the woman waters growing
into bars over her windows. She doesn’t appear distressed or trapped, but the
dark background behind her implies the loneliness and isolation of quarantine.
A: The audience is those in quarantine if not the whole world. Pawel often tackles
global issues in his illustrations, so this cartoon on the pandemic is likely aimed at
the whole world.
C: Pawel posted this illustration on March 13, 2020. This was as the COVID19
pandemic had begun to spread around the world and cause quarantines in many
countries.
E: The catalyst in making this illustration was the COVID19 pandemic, specifically
the isolation and loneliness that quarantine created, despite the hobbies many
diverted themselves with.
C: Pawel includes just the woman in the illustration, emphasized by the dark
room behind her. The plants she waters are cacti, which are sharp and rigid, as
opposed to other, softer plants.
A: Pawel makes an appeal to emotion through the caption and purpose,
“solitude” with the addition of the lonely woman give the illustration a depressing
mood.
T: By including the one woman and placing her in a dark, empty looking room,
Pawel creates a depressing tone. This is slightly contrasted by the bright green of
the plants and the activity of watering them.
Thesis: In Solitude Pawel Kuczynsky puts the loneliness and entrapment created by the
COVID19 quarantine on display by depicting the woman being literally trapped by
the plants she waters to pass time and by showing her literally alone in her home.

Student Name: Emma Cecil

Illustration 3:

Rhetorical S: Pawel Kuczynsky was born in Poland in 1976. He has won over 100 awards for
Situation: his satirical art that illustrates cultural, social, economic and political problems
that he sees in the world.
P: In this illustration Kuczynsky addresses the issues that electronics, more
specifically cell phones pose to society. He illustrates how phones can isolate
individuals from one another in a way where it makes it hard to interact with
others.
A: The intended audience for this illustration is those who spend a lot of time on
 electronic devices. The group can be any age and they could be hostile or friendly
depending on the type of person they are and their mentality toward cell phones
and their use.
C: The illustration was made at a time when almost everyone has a cell phone and
the phone can be used for many different things. They can be used to interact
with other people, to do a job and also just as a method of entertainment.
E: Individuals are getting so caught up in their phones that they aren’t realizing
the effects that it has on society and the negative impact that it can have on their
own lives. There is also the continuous demand for new and improved electronics
for people to spend their time on.
C: In the illustration a cell phone containing a single island with one person seated
on the island is repeated and continues on in the background. All of the lines
travel diagonally but they are closer to the horizontal line than vertical.
A: Most of the image is in cool colors that don’t have much contrast between one
another aside from the yellow of the sand that stands out against the blue that
illustrates the ocean.
T: On each island the only thing there is a palm tree and the person and it is the
basic illustration of someone stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean.
The person seated on the island looks sad, like they aren’t enjoying themself.

Thesis: In the illustration, Islands, made in 2015, Pawel Kuczynski uses repetition, lack of
contrast, and the separation of the repeated image to show the negative effects
that electronics are having on society and their ability to isolate individuals from
one another, in order to ultimately move the viewer to recognize the amount of
time that they might spend on their cell phone along with how that impacts their
personal life and the relationships that they have in their lives so that they can try
and improve the habits regarding their cell phone.

Student Name: Jabriel Anderson

Illustration 4:

Rhetorical S: The author of this comic is Pawel Kuczynski, Polish political artist most
Situation: known for his works that discuss issues with modern society, such as
smartphones and the internet. In his lifetime he has won over 100 awards for
his art.
P: Kuczynski’s purpose of creating this comic is to demonstrate society’s
involvement and encouragement of smartphones and their ostracization of
anyone who does not use one.
A: The specific audience for this comic is the general public, as a majority of
said public use smartphones.
C: At the time of this comic’s publication, smartphones were, and still are
widely used by most people of the world, as even those who can’t afford basic
household appliances or even a house itself still manage to have and use one
of these devices. Also, climate change has been on a rapid incline since before
this comic’s release to the masses.
E: The importance of the point that Kuczynski is making is so people who
regularly use their mobile devices can realize that society is encouraging
everyone to look down at these boxes of light to avoid people realizing the
beauties and problems of the world around them. The only reason applicable
for why they would be doing this is because they plan to continue expanding
without resistance.
C: Kuczinsky chooses to use a lawn-mowing example for this comic due to the
common practice of lawn mowing to be to cut down those who stand out from
the rest. The words “cut down” are not meant to be used in a literal sense,
 however, as it figuratively is associated with the ability to “cut down”
someone’s feelings, used in a negative connotation. Another rather niche
choice is his use of monotone colors. These will be discussed later.
A: Kuczinski’s emotional appeal to the audience is by both leaving the
conclusion to the audience as well as blatantly giving the answer through the
audience with clues. This is seen in the example of the lawn mower, with the
person using having no signs of stopping.
T: The tone of this comic is rather bleak and/or sad, and this can be proved
through not only the obviously depressing image of people being mowed
down as if they were a blade of grass, but also the monotone colors discussed
in the choices.

Thesis: In the political comic titled “Cut Down”, Pawel Kuczinsky uses metaphors,
repetition, and lack of color to demonstrate to the general smartphone-using
public society’s encouragement of smart phones and how they not only ignore
those who move beyond their mobile device, but specifically belittle and
disparage them for their choice.

Student Name:

Illustration 5:

Rhetorical S:
Situation: P:
A:
C:
E:
C:
A:
T:

Thesis:

Student Name: Sohil

Illustration 6:

Pawel Kuczynski Mouse June 27, 2019

Rhetorical S: The speaker/artist who made this was Pawel Kuczynski

Situation: P: The purpose of this art is to show how even when their own species is
dying, instead of running away for their own lives or even trying to help the
mouse they would rather take pictures and put it online or on the internet.
This is analyzing humans as we often do the same thing where we take
pictures instead of doing anything useful about the situation.
A: The audience could be news reporters or people who are clout chasers
because it goes to show they don’t care about their fellow mouse and they
just want to make money off of it.
C: A good example of the context for this was the Sudan reporter, What he
did was take photos and in the end it was to raise awareness but when in
Sudan they had a policy to specifically not help as it is a rule so they’re taking
pictures of terrible things but not doing anything about it.
E: News of recent time as they constantly bombard us with terrible photos of
disease and famine, however when it comes down to it the press are doing it
more for the money than the moral because they don’t do anything useful
towards the situation other than take pictures of it.
C: He chooses to give the mouse press jackets in order to highlight them as
such for the audience, he then puts the cat just staring at the mice taking
pictures of the mouse in it’s mouth seemingly confused itself on their choices.
He is choosing to make the cat seem confused in order to really show how
bizarre it is.
 A: It’s appealing towards bettering society towards actually doing something
in a society rather than just taking pictures of it. It’s appealing to pathos by
showing an awful image of a dead mouse in a cat and showing how the fellow
mice are just taking pictures of it.
T: The tone is very dark and hellish if you think about it, the mouse is dead
and yet it’s fellow mice don’t care and continue to take pictures anyway
showing how life is unfair and nobody really does anything about anything.

Thesis: This picture demonstrates our society in these mice because of their undying
want to photograph things for money and “awareness” when nothing useful is
even being done and you can see the cat is confused by this too.

Final Step:

Choose ONE thesis to expand on in a body paragraph. Together, use the suggestions on slides 4-6 on canvas to
analyze ONE of the choices/strategies.
● How does the particular choice/strategy contribute to the meaning and purpose of the artist?
● Slides 10-11 can help with transitions and rhetorical verbs. Please put the group illustration, thesis,
and body paragraph on the last page of the document.
Group
Illustration:

Thesis: In the illustration, Islands, made in 2015, Pawel Kuczynski uses repetition, lack of
contrast, and the separation of the repeated image to show the negative effects
that electronics are having on society and their ability to isolate individuals from
one another, in order to ultimately move the viewer to recognize the amount of
time that they might spend on their cell phone along with how that impacts their
personal life and the relationships that they have in their lives so that they can
try and improve the habits regarding their cell phone.

Body Paragraph: Kuczynsky repeats the image of individuals on islands because of their phone in
order to show that excessive phone usage causes them to drift apart from others
and the amount of people that it impacts. In the image, everyone is on their own
“phone island”, separated from the others. Each person is also on their phone, on
said phones, further emphasizing the excessive technology use. They refuse to
talk to each other without their phones and their entire environment only
consists of their phones. This refusion can also be represented by a common
thought of people who overuse their devices, that being their understanding of
their situation as being “alone”, although they really aren’t, rather the opposite.