The image on the right is intended to give insight to the book since it depicts the vital organs that are taken from the “donors.” The background is grey and lacks any other color, which gives off a more negative feeling to the viewer. The sketch of the body is minimal as well as the organs within it. The body is missing arms, a head, and the remainder of their body below the waist. It is possible the creator of the book cover does this with the intentions to show that the students at Hailsham are only important for these things, their identity is irrelevant. The book cover on the right has a boat that is floating in the water out on a vacant lake. I think the creator of this cover intended to remind the reader who has already read the book that Kathy is unable to find Hailsham so it reflects it by there being nothing around the one boat almost at shore. Between these two images, I can say that they both pull the same kind of emotions from the viewer. Each provokes a feeling of eerie loneliness, with the use of the dark colors and the absence of life. Each image also provides some insight into events in the book that are extremely important to the development of the plot. The difference though is that they both show very different parts of the book. If I had been someone who hadn’t read any of the novel yet, I would have assumed that from the depiction on the left it was about life, because of all of the vital organs shown. The picture on the right is more about the setting, so if I hadn’t read the book I would’ve assumed it would be about a relationship between two people and someone leaving, and the boat was the escape. The kind of people that would have to have made these book covers had to been deeply affected by the darker aspects of the novel, which is what inspired them to create them. Same goes for the readers, those who are attracted to darker novels would automatically be pulled to it by the dark colors, the loneliness feeling it gave off, and the title of “Never Let Me Go” accompanied by the feeling the other aspects of the cover that informs the reader this novel is not a happy love story.
I feel that the cover with the barbed wire and dark background actually portrays death. The artist seems to communicate this by wrapping vital organs, things crucial to human life, in barbed wire.
ReplyDeleteBe sure you read the prompts for each post carefully; your response here achieves some of the criteria, but not all. Additionally, think about specific terms to use before jumping into your interpretation/analysis.
ReplyDeleteHey Syd, I also looked further at both of these covers! I agree with a lot of your comments about each cover and agree that the cover with the boat could symbolize Kathy's inability to find Hailsham. While they both display a negative mood to me, I think they are very important to the story of Never Let Me Go and the messages it presents about hardships in life.
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