Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

Teagan Bradway

Abstract

Most people view cartoons as mindless entertainment exclusively for children. They dismiss the genre as if it only contains zany and overzealous characters who deal with simple, predictable challenges, easily resolved by the end of the episode. The negative attitude towards cartoons—or seemingly anything animated—undermines the importance of the lessons and the themes many shows do impart on their viewers, regardless of their age. Shows like Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender cover a plethora of complex themes, but due to its status as an animated work, it has been disregarded as a show for children rather than being appreciated as a crucial piece of media that comments on important issues, including war, imperialism, human rights, and so many more. In fact, despite the show coming out twenty years ago, the themes are still incredibly relevant to current issues happening even today, some aspects of the show that seemed to follow the usual cartoon tropes can even be recontextualized and interpreted as relevant to newer topics such as changing family structures, LGBTQ+ identities, and so many more that perhaps weren’t around at the time of the show’s run.

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