"The Screening Process We Wish We Had" by Gary Varvel

      Protection and security of the people in our country has been a topic of controversy for quite some time and is clearly a very serious and relevant topic today.  This cartoon was from the Washington Times Newspaper created by Gary Varvel.  He has been a cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star for 16 years.  The audience for this cartoon is the US public.  In the visual text, "The Screening Process We Wish We Had", Gary Varvel uses juxtaposition of heart sizes and hyperbole of to argue that there is no easy answer to the issue of the security of America.  The cartoon expresses that America wishes that it had a machine that could measure the size of someone's heart.  With this machine it shows their ability to see that there is a man with a considerably smaller heart than the rest of the people in the line.  The juxtaposition of this man's heart size to the rest of the people in the line show how he must be more dangerous due to his small heart.  Varvel does this to show how the country wishes we could clearly tell the difference between someone who could hurt people and someone who is an average person.  Clearly, this is unable to happen so easily.  Varvel uses hyperbole to show how difficult finding a solution to the security issues in our country would be.  First, he exaggerates the size of the man's heart.  If someone is more inherently evil than another person or even has bad intentions, their heart would obviously not be smaller than a normal person's heart.  The author shows the difficulty of finding a solution to America's security issues through this exaggeration of the heart size.  Also, the hyperbole of the advancement of technology helps him to achieve his purpose.  It's evident to the audience that the machinery used in the cartoon is not realistic and probably will never be in the future.  Through the author's hyperbole of the technological advancements in the American security system, he shows the difficulty of finding a realistic solution to the country's security issues.  He argues the impossibility of finding a full-proof solution to this issue and leaves his audience considering the future of American security.  Although we wish that we could always be safe, and technology could improve our security, Varvel argues that we will never be able to be 100% protected.