Life — December 1933 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Cartoon Analysis This Richard Decker cartoon satirizes Prohibition enforcement. A woman labeled "REPEAL" stands at her doorway, looking upward hopefully. Two law enforcement figures—one wearing a "BLUE NOSE" band (slang for an overzealous moralist) and another labeled "18TH AMENDMENT"—approach menacingly in snowy conditions. The joke plays on the woman's caption: "and never darken my door again!" She's wishing these Prohibition enforcers away. "Blue nose" mocks self-righteous temperance advocates, while the 18th Amendment reference identifies the constitutional basis for Prohibition. The cartoon reflects public frustration with Prohibition enforcement during the 1920s-early 1930s, when many Americans viewed the law as intrusive government overreach and supported its repeal—which occurred in 1933.