TOW #10- Visual (Debt)

College students today and those that have graduated college face enormous amounts of debt that restrict them from focusing solely on education.  Even some of the brightest students coming out of high school cannot afford to go on to college because of how expensive it is.  In a world where education is of the highest regard, debt is making students suffer and strangles them, which is portrayed in the image above.  Award winning cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch, Nate Beeler, utilises frightening connotations and modern day slang to portray the strangling effect of debt on students today.  Snaking its way around post graduate students is debt, which wants to pry its fangs into their wallets.
By using the snake to resemble debt, Beeler creates a frightening connotation of the word debt.  The intimidating snake brings everything but joy to the word "debt" which is written along the body of the reptile.  By using this negative connotation, the readers of The Columbus Dispatch think of the four lettered word as something that wants to bite them, giving an impactful message to go along with the visual.  Now that the mood of the drawing is established, Beeler uses the word "selfie" to draw in readers of all kinds.
The modern day slang brings a friendly approach to capturing the audience, as "selfie" is not exactly a sophisticated word that draws away readers who cannot understand it.  This friendly vibe that selfie creates balances the terrifying snake which Beeler does so effectively.
The use of frightening connotations and modern day slang attracts readers to see the portrayal of what debt is doing to college graduates.  It chokes them out of everything they learned, and, limits their abilities to actually do what they learned in college (hence the snake dragging down his left arm so he cannot use it).  Nate Beeler successfully shows the true shame behind universities and the debt they drown students in.