When I first glanced at the header and graphics on the home page I had a feeling that it may have something to do with the Charlie Hebdo massacre of cartoonists that recently occurred in Paris.

As I began to analyze the picture and different meanings that it may portray I picked up that Charlie Brown’s character in the Peanuts series is usually a happy child who is usually hanging out with his friends and best pal Snoopy. When we are children it is almost like we do not have a reality or a care in the world. The new charlie posted on the page is viewed as an older, dirty, unhappy, middle-aged man who looks very disappointed and angry. This may be posted as the header and blog theme because of it accurately describes how a majority of the public views the Hebdo attacks. The cartoon, although not drawn as a reaction to the massacre it provokes a reaction out of the viewers to let them know how angry and hurt the public is about Hebdo tragedy. Charlie is famous as an innocent young child, his innocence is abruptly taken away because of the tragedy and horrors that age and time have placed upon him. These responsibilities of the real world leave him unhappy and disgruntled. This is shown in his face as his eyebrow is shrunken down into his eyes, and his frown is dramatically drawn.

The letters on the header are orange and in a bold font. This draws a viewers in, demanding their attention on the incident. Charlie is placed dead center in the middle of the header, it gives it sort of a disappointed or sad feeling.

The cartoonist may have chosen Charlie Brown as the choice for this display because his name is Charlie, the same as Charlie Hebdo. The cartoonist also may have picked Charlie Brown because he is a well known cartoon character who everyone seemed to love, and to see him portrayed as a sad angry old man may strike a cord with some peoples emotions, getting a reaction out of them about the massacre.

I believe that the choice of this final product was chosen for a composition course because composition courses are surrounded and based off of writing. Writing in a way is similar to drawing that cartoonists do for a living. Writing and cartooning are a way of freely expressing emotion. It very well could have been an attack on writers if not cartoonists. It could have also been chosen for a composition course because it is considered a controversial topic to write about. Controversial topics are good essay topics because there are so many views and takes on how or why the tragedy took place. It provokes a need to write and respond to the massacre.

My view has changed since I first saw the header of Charlie Brown, I wasn’t aware of all the terrorism and massacre that went along with it that changed my views. I believe the cartoonist did this to grab the viewers attention and draw attention to the Hebdo issue.