The Only One Barred Out Analysis

Immigrants from all over the world make the journey to America for many different reasons but with one goal in common, a better life, and they have been doing so for centuries. What makes America what it is today is it’s diversity, a “melting pot” of cultures and traditions coming together as one. But this is not how the White Anglo Saxon Protestants from the 19th century (WASPs) viewed it. WASPs did everything in their power to keep immigrant groups like the “dirty Chinese” and “violent Irish Catholics” out, giving them negative stereotypes and creating laws to mark them as an inferior race. In the political cartoons “The Irish Declaration of Independence That We Are All familiar With” and “The Only One Barred Out” it is clear that the artists are portraying how
They immigrated to America to escape China’s overpopulation, imperialism, natural disasters and lack of jobs. Not only did WASPs label them as inferior but other immigrant groups despised them as well since they were willing to do labor for cheaper pay, taking all the available jobs. The scene in the political cartoon “The Only One Barred Out” exemplifies what Chinese immigrants went through during the 19th century when WASPs created the Chinese Exclusion Act. It shows a Chinese man sitting outside of a large door labeled “Golden Gate of Liberty” keeping him from coming into America. His skin is yellow, he is wearing a traditional Chinese outfit and his hair is in a queue. The immigrant is sitting on his luggage that label words like order, peace, industry and sobriety showing what he has to offer coming into America. The large gate has a sign that says, “Notice- communist, nihilist, socialist, fenian & hoodlum welcome but no admittance to Chinamen.” The expression on the Chinese immigrant’s face is that of disappointment with his face resting in his hand. (“The Only One Barred Out,” Frank Leslie's illustrated Newspaper,