Big Oil's Apetitre

During the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the price for a barrel of oil reached a record high. Curiously, the major companies also oil reported record-high profits in the wake of the hurricane. This became a source of friction for many consumers, who had trouble reconciling their gas prices with the oil company’s high profits. The consumer’s discontent, as well as the apparent aloofness of the major oil companies, made the topic of oil prices a major focus for satirists such as Vic Harville, who examines this issue from the apparent view of a consumer.

Vic Harville’s political cartoon is dominated by a large vulture, dressed as an executive and sitting at a desk. The name plate on the desk, as well as the tie the vulture is wearing, identifies the vulture as a caricature of big oil executives (or at least an entity meant to represent those who run the oil companies). The opulence of the executive’s dress (such as the dollar-sign cufflinks and gold buttons) and the dÐ"©cor of the office (comprised mostly of framed money, as well as a profit chart that is quite literally “off the charts”) give the impression of wealth, power and success. Harville’s decision to use a vulture to represent big oil companies is an attempt to liken the oil company’s profits following tragedy of hurricane Katrina to the way a vulture feeds off of the pain and suffering of other animals. When these images of wealth and opportunistic evil are juxtaposed, the satirist achieves the desired image: that oil companies are growing rich off of the suffering of their fellow Americans.

After the vulture, the speech bubble to the right is the next detail of the cartoon that attracts attention. “Sure we price gouge. How else can we maintain our record profits?” This line, from the mouth of big oil companies, is meant to convey that the oil companies are unremorseful for the prices they charge and how those prices affect their “prey,” in this case the consumer. The vulture’s phrase is supported by the chart on the wall behind the vulture. This chart appears to be showing big oil companies net asset value, which continually goes up, and eventually, it progresses off the top of the chart showing the large profits they gain. When a satirist puts words in their subject’s mouth, they often try to convey a tone that portrays that subjects attitude towards the issue. In this case the matter of fact tone of the executive shows that the oil companies both acknowledge the fact that they are tragedy profiteers, and that they don’t care. This apathy is meant to echo the apathy that consumers have been seeing from the oil companies as the gas prices climb higher and higher.

Subtlety is often a satirist’s most effective tool, and the television on the executive’s desk is possibly the most important part of this cartoon. The images in this cartoon excluding the television have effectively painted