How do you analyze a political cartoon?

I think that to analyze a political cartoon in order to understand the message that the cartoonist was hoping to convey, you have to first look at the picture to see what the characters are or what they're doing. Then you have to read the words if there are any to get context as to what the cartoon is referring to.

The guide I found online says to describe what you see, the people or objects shown, what words you see, what might be used as a symbol, what might refer to another work of art or other details. Then look at what's happening in the cartoon, what's happening in the world at the time it was made, who was the audience, what is the issue the cartoon is about, what is the cartoonists opinion and how does he persuade the audience. The question the cartoon to lead to more observations and reflection. After reading this, I already knew the majority of the information but I did learn to think about the cartoonists opinion or the audience targeted and to ask more questions in the end.

Going forward, looking at cartoons I will look at political cartoons the way the guide told me to in order to gain a full understanding of the message the cartoonist is trying to get across. The guide I will use is the Teacher's Guide: Analyzing Political Cartoons from the Library of Congress. It explains from a teaching point of view how to Observe, Reflect, and Question a cartoon to fully understand it.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Political_Cartoons.pdf

https://sites.tufts.edu/fletchergender/2016/04/02/us-cuba-relations-political-cartoons-in-the-spanish-american-war/

In this cartoon, you see uncle sam protecting a young woman who is representing Cuba from the villain in black who represents Spain. We know this is Uncle Same because his belt says US, The woman's says cuba with the flag, and the villain's hat says Spain. The woman is on her knees to show that she is begging america for help, she is wearing white to symbolize her innocence and is barefoot to show her poverty. The cartoonist is against Spain and is targeting Americans to see how great our country is and Cubans to look up to American's as their protectors.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.28600/

This picture shows John Bull at an entrance labeled "India" and Uncle sam at an entrance labeled "Philippines", and these men are inviting men labeled "Germany, Russia, France, Italy, and Austria" to enter. These men are carrying boxes and packages of products to represent the new export and trade there. As part of the treaty that ended the Spanish-American war Us took possession of the philippines and for some Americans, imperialist expansion was a moral duty and necessary for America to achieve maturity as a nation. The cartoonist supports that idea and targeted this carton towards american who may disagree with his ideas.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94052989/1893-01-29/ed-1/seq-1/

In this cartoon, Uncle sam is patiently waiting for thee "ripe fruit" of Hawaii to fall into his possession/ hat. He is shown sitting down with his legs crossed to show how easy this was for him to

annex Hawaii. The cartoonist labeled fruit as countries and symbolized America taking Hawaii. You see a man in the background shaking his fist as if to say that this was wrong and forcefully bringing a country into your control is unfair and harsh.