The Elephant In The Room Analysis

"The Elephant In The Room"

This political caricature has been published on November 17, 2014 in THE NEW YORKER magazine (Appendix 1, Fig. 5). It depicts a part of a large, oval room (Fig. 5). The yellow-brown striped wall is framed at the top and the bottom by a white border which fluidly goes over into the white ceiling (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: "The Elephant in the Room". Digital image. THE NEW YORKER Archive.

A double set of wall height windows can be seen at the far back of the room; the windows are framed by red curtains (Fig. 5). A Flag stands directly in front of the red curtain (Fig. 5). The floor is covered by another oval carpet, with an oval pattern at the center (Fig. 5). A small, dark skinned man sits at a desk in the back of the room, in front of this desk is a small table, two couches with striped pillows, and two more small tables with lamps on top (Fig. 5). There are small bowls with multi colored objects positioned on the central table, as well as on one of the smaller tables (Fig. 5). There is an large, grey elephant present in the room; the animal sits on one of the couches and seems to look towards the viewer (Fig. 5).

The primary artistic device present in the image is that of size and exaggeration. The room seems small, and the only person in the room even smaller, than the animal present in the forefront of the image. The elephant is a embodiment of a concept inside the image, but it is also a symbol that at least partially belongs to the artistic