"Join, or Die"

       "Join, or Die" is a well-known political cartoon created by Benjamin Franklin, and first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. “Join, or Die” is a woodcut showing a snake severed into eighths, with each segment labeled with the initials of a British American colony. The cartoon appeared along with Franklin's editorial about the "disunited state" of the colonies to display the importance of colonial unity. Not on did this cartoon represent colonial unity, but during the American Revolution, it became a symbol of colonial freedom. As mentioned, the author of this cartoon is Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He earned the title of "The First American" for his early and unrelenting campaigning for colonial unity. The context of this cartoon can be examined by looking at some American history. The cartoon took on two different roles: one during the Seven Years’ War and another during the American Revolution. I am going to focus on the Seven Years’ War because that is what prompted the original illustration. At the time this cartoon was published, the colonists were divided on the issue of whether or not to fight the French and their Indian allies for control of the land west of the Appalachian Mountains. Later, this came to be known as the French and Indian War. The Americans had revealed an astonishing lack of unity. Even the Indians had laughed at the inability of the colonists to pull together. Therefore, the purpose of this cartoon was to show colonists the need for an organized action against the outside threat. Consequently, it is only logical that the audience of this cartoon is the American colonists. They were the main characters of not only this event, but of this time period. Additionally, they were certainly the ones in need of the unification. Although there are several rhetorical elements used in this political cartoon, the two I am going to elaborate on are the appeal to pathos and the use of a metaphor. The goal of pathos is to generate emotions in the audience; death is an obvious subject that will spark some sort of internal emotion. Franklin is using death as an emotional appeal to reach the overall objective of his cartoon. He is basically saying that if the colonists do not unify, they will die. Harsh, but it will definitely make people pay attention to what Franklin is trying to say. A metaphor is another rhetorical device used in this cartoon. As seen, Franklin chose a snake to show the separation amongst the colonies. He could have chose any animal to display his point, so why a snake? Well, during that era, there was a superstition that a snake that had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset. This is metaphorical to the colonies. Franklin is basically saying that although the colonies are separated now, they still have hope of reuniting to fight against the common enemy. I do think Franklin accomplished his purpose through this cartoon. He chose strong words and uses a clear and direct image to convey his message to the colonist that they must reignite their sense of unification. He presents his point clear and concise making it easy to understand the point. Overall, Franklin makes everything in this cartoon very meaningful, making his purpose jump off the page.