Snoopy and Doonesbury

2. What main argument does Schulz make about writing, editors, and revision? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation?

            Charles Schulz, in his peanuts comic, is trying to make a point about writing, editors, and revision.  Snoopy in this particular comic seems to think that he does not need to revise his piece at all and that is simply wonderful on its own.  The editors keep sending it back, though, and so they obviously think different.  I am sure Schulz faced much criticism and had a lot of trouble publishing his comics at first.  He kept pushing it though, and most likely revised some of the pieces at least a little, and finally was published.  Perhaps, though, Schulz barely changed anything from the original comics and simply did not give up on them.  If that is the case than maybe this comic about Snoopy trying to get published is saying that you should not give up, and you should keep on pushing.  Although Snoopy also has a bit of a skewed idea of what getting published really means.  He seems to think it will make him rich and famous, as was the case for his creator.  This is very hard to do.

1. According to Trudeau, what is wrong with the American higher education system? What visual and written evidence supports his argument? How does Trudeau make use of the conventions of comics to support his argument?

Trudeau believes that the American higher education system is, as stated on page 180, “dumbing down” the college curriculum.  The comic strongly supports this notion.  At one point a character in the comic says, “Hell, we offer two courses on ‘The Simpsons’.”  This is in a support of the characters argument that the courses are not too difficult in fact they are too easy. The man this character is talking to is explaining all of the complaints they are getting about the courses not being student friendly enough.  The main character of the comic is present (Doonesbury, I assume is who that is), and this helps for the audience to connect with the comic.  The readers are familiar with the main character, and so having him appear in the beginning and the end possibly helps to make the comic more entertaining, and maybe even more insightful.