twas the night before christmas

[maxcellp]

Tab (Thomas Boldt), The Calgary Sun, 12/04/08

In this cartoon one can clearly see a mob of angry, anxious customers awating for the doors to the store to open. One of the two security guards is thinking to himself "TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS" the empasis of the bold capatalized words can imply that even though it is not yet Christmas but in fact the "night before" people are still lined up outside awaiting to be let in. The second security guard is pointing to his watch which in a sense can be interpreted as it is not yet Christmas so why should I let you in? This gesture is creating an angry riot outside which will only get worse as time progresses.

It is disapointing to say this but , the cartoon in much sense is very true. Nowadays it seems as though people care more about scoring that big sale rather than enjoying the sprirt of the holiday itself. Society believe it or not has placed this imaginary expectation on many Americans , whether it be having the newest pair of jordans that just came out of the latest Xbox game in many ways Americans feel the pressure to outshine the rest. Even if that means waiting in a line for over 3 hours just to be let into a store then so be it.

[anthonyb]

I agree with you that the Spirit of the Holidays has been commercialized and, in a way, de-spirited. The two salesmen represent the thousands of other marketers who have used Christmas and other holidays as advertisement "spring boards" to entice costomers into spending money on presents and gifts. This is what makes the holidays so appalling. Marketers make people feel that if they don't spend a certain amount of money or if they don't opportunistically attend a sale that they aren't doing their good deed for the holiday.

[Mr. Wells]

Description: 10
Interpretation: 4 Only implicitly described in your second paragraph; all interpretation of cartoon should be handled in the first paragraph
Knowledge of Topic: 6 A very basic knowledge of the topic is apparent; comma in first sentence of second paragraph comes before the "but"
Argument: 8 Could use elaboration with specific details
Reply to Classmate: 10 - 5 (too vs to) Please be mindful of this, as you continue to lose points to this and a couple of other common pet peeves

33/50