Nate Beeler's Political Cartoon 'Help, We Re Drowning !'

Divided States of America “In a matter of hours, the dry, sunny town that I call home was transformed into a delta of rubble and debris, a generic Disaster Zone” (Knufken, 2013). This is how Drea Knufken described her neighborhood after a horrible flood that took place in September of 2013. In a time where people are so focused on social media, exaggerated news, and fighting over who’s lives matter more, it seems that it takes a major life altering even such as Hurricane Harvey to unite the United States. Nate Beeler’s political cartoon “Floodwaters” and Drea Knufken’s essay “Help, We’re Drowning!: Please Pay Attention to Our Disaster” both show people coming together to help in trying times. Ms. Knufken’s opens her essay by stating “As I

On one hand, the essay uses very descriptive language to portray this helplessness that the people of Colorado feel when their homes are halfway under water. The one thing they need is help from the outside world and Ms. Knufken shows that in their time of need people reach out to help. While writing her paper during the flood, it allows the reader to be transported into her shoes and imagine exactly what she is going through. Knufken writes “Six are dead. No, seven. I just read it in the news” (Knufken, 2013). Nate Beeler’s cartoon uses dull colors but a obnoxiously red newspaper stand. He does this to put emphasis on the newspaper headline. In doing so it draws the reader’s attention directly to the stand. In the last scene of the cartoon as stated before, the two families are reaching out to help the older couple out of the water and into the boat proudly waving the American flag, but only after the disunity is washed away by the flood. This shows that they only decided to help when the Hurricane was a bigger issue than their own personal issues. In being so persuasive, the two pieces use multiple rhetorical

The essay specifically uses pathos to make the reader feel bad for the people Colorado. She comments, “I wanted to help, but the rain wouldn’t stop. All I could do, all any of us could do was watch and wait, watch and wait” (Knufken, 2013). At the same time relief is put into the reader when they know that people are there to help when the rain stops. In the cartoon, pathos is less prominent however, it is still there. The older couple is up to their necks in flood water with what seems like no hope. It makes the reader feel helpless for them but then there is the families there to help save their lives. The most obvious rhetorical device in both the essay and the cartoon is kairos. This term kairos means right time and Nate Beeler and Drea Knufken use it perfectly. Beeler sees this massive storm affecting millions, the turmoil across the country and makes a stunning cartoon. Releasing it right in the middle of the storm. In Ms. Knufken’s case she writes and publishes her essay during the storm showing people everywhere her