According to the bank analysts we see at the computer in the top left corner of the cartoon, an announcement is made that the Recession ended a year ago. Based on their charts and financial data, they relay cheerful information to the banker who is leaning over the hole in the ground to spread the "Good News" to an empty hole which represents the "public". Assuming there is a person in the hole, they are invisible because this scenario could be any one of us and a face is not needed for anyone seeing this cartoon to understand what has happened to people during the recession of the last year. The recession the banker is saying was over last year....
The hole itself represents how low people have spiraled downward due to the terrible economic climate. The cartoon does not depict a person who looks like they are ready to prosper or recover in any way. As in the cartoon, the person in the hole is unable to see their way to the top of the deep hole they have landed in to feel any relief or recovery from the recession being over.
Surrounding the hole, this cartoon shows various hints of the devastation that people have experienced in the past year, regardless of who says the recession is over. This person has probably lost a job and have been unable to meet their mortgage payments, thus losing their home to the bank. They are in financial ruin and are sinking further due to both job loss and losing their homes. There is a tire without a car, which says that perhaps their car may have been re-possesed by the bank . There is a broken door, a sink, which represents the terrible shape the house has probably fallen into and suffered because nobody is living in the home now and taking care of it. The foreclosure sign we see makes us understand that for many people who have lost everything, the recession is not over now or last year for this homeowner. We do not see a car or a home in the cartoon, or a person because the person is sinking further into financial ruin and has lost everything.
In this cartoon, easily recognizable is the irony of a report based on statistical financial data that the recession ended a year ago. The irony is the mess and bad shape that people are in and that their lives have been changed and may never repair to where they once were, regardless of the "good news". Tell the people who lost their jobs in the past year that the recession has been over for a year. So many people have lost everything they have and continue to be in severe financial trouble, without homes or jobs. This cartoon is almost a case of "too little, too late". In the past year, the banks may have recovered, some businesses may have recovered, the stock market may be back to normal. But don't try to tell this to the people who in the recession of the last year, has put them into a hole where they may never recover or be able to dig themselves out of.
This cartoon was created by Dan Wasserman of the Boston Globe on September 10, 2010.
Terence, this is good. I like your observation that “we do not see a car or a home in the cartoon.” I had not initially realized that those items were most likely sucked down into the hole. In addition, we do not see the face of the victim of the recession. His/her face would be irrelevant. Too many people have been affected to identify them individually. Good job.
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