Cool cartoon!!!
The cartoon person is in despair. They don't have a clear path, goal or meaning in life. They are all over the place. This is symbolised in the sign "The Life you lead" which points in opposing directions, implying contradictions within his current identity. These two arrows go into darkness - the obvious symbolism here that these lifestyle choices are negative ones. This juxtaposes with the arrow leading into the alleyway (spelling) of a bright light. This suggests that they should have walked the path less travelled and it is through such a decision that they may have found a clear sense of meaning and direction in life. The irony of the text is that the alleyway is bright lights. Stereotypically alleyways are darker, foreboding places but in this case it is enticing due to its brightness. This shows that one shouldn't just give up on things due to face value (face value of alleyway being scary and negative) but give it a try and one might be surprised by the light at the end of the tunnel of darkness. The persona is walking the dominant path of normality. They could have done, could have been so much more in their life. But due to their tradintionalist ways, they failed to capitalise on the opportunities that could have lead to a lifetime of happiness.
Techniques I found in the cartoon include focal point, juxtapostion, facial expressions, body expressions, written text (past and present tense); layout, size, shape and positioning of subject (person), shades (balck and white), irony etc (can't think of any more).
Interesting - the shadow coming of the boy is much larger than his actual body (can only see shadow of legs). This suggests that if the boy lived the life down the alleyway he would have been something 'bigger'.
I don't know! Don't trust me; I suck at english.