"The Millionaire" Reasoning

n “The Millionaire” the appeals to logos are definitely not as dominant and blatant as ethos and pathos, as the whole cartoon was based off of a fictional and exaggerated expression of American capitalism. There are however certain instances found in the cartoon still do stand out and add meaning to its understanding and effect. During the beginning of the cartoon, as the lady’s money was being divided out, her lawyer spewed a bunch of big numbers from his mouth. This is the depict to the audience the sheer amount of monetary assets the lady had to be handed down.

In addition to that, the narrator of the cartoon to an extent uses deductive reasoning to show the corruption in American capitalism. One premise being made since the beginning of the cartoon revolves around the idea that in a capitalist society one could do anything with money. With that said, the millionaire lady who suddenly passed away entrusted all of her assets to her unnamed bulldog, resulting in the bulldog becoming a millionaire. With all the money at its disposal, the bulldog then goes on living the life of a king, does anything he wants, and even as a mere bulldog, gets elected as Congressman. The final part of the reasoning appears at the very end of the cartoon. The final seconds show the bulldog stripped of all the money that he owns, thus leaving him as a mere animal with absolutely no power over anything. In other words, straying from the fictional setting of the cartoon, someone with absolutely no skill and power whatsoever can thrive and have power in a capitalist society if he/she had the dough.

Written by Zhifeng ( Jeffrey) Wan

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