Never Let Me Go ^2

The book Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro is discussed in the blog below!! Continue reading to be informed, and if you need a place to write comments, I got you COVERed.

Initially, my eye was drawn to the top right cover on Genesky's post of the boat because it had specifically shown a picture a particularly memorable scene in the book. I thought that it was cool that all the covers are differently designed because it shows how much room the book has for interpretation and design. The two covers below are the books that I intend to compare and contrast in the space below. :)

These two images are unique because I feel that the one on the right focuses on a certain scene. When I initially saw the right cover, I thought it was representing the scene where Kathy is listening to the tape and dancing around. Even though Kathy may not have been twirling as fast in the books description, this is the image that I pictured when reading the book. The cover on the left on the other hand, seems to be intended to show a diagram of the human body, referencing the people in Hailsham, and also show the creepiness of the woods of Hailsham.

Going more in depth...

The picture on the left reminds me of words including creepy, dark, scientific, and unknown. This is because the only color on the title is grey, there is an actual diagram of a body, and there are some faint trees in the background which looks like it has a smokey background. The picture on the right reminds me of words including bright, fun, energetic, happy, and adventurous. This is because the background is yellow, which I usually associate as a happy color, and there is a girl on the front who looks like she is dancing in circles to music.

If I hadn't read the novel, I would've thought the book on the left was a horror story theme about a bad/evil person who wouldn't "let go" of a human character. This perspective mainly comes from the dark colors and the uneven wording on the font full of different colors which reflects the not as proper or percise theme. I would've thought the book on the right was about a little girl who may have been having fun in the world and maybe lost a family member and didn't want them to "let her go". I think that the image on the left portrays how Hailsham actually is and the reality of the ethics of the subject showing the "below the surface" message, but the image on the right shows how the student in Hailsham thought before they knew any information, and the "above the surface" message.

Regarding the viewpoints of both the covers, the cover on the left is probably from the perspective of the reader because Hailsham seems like the horrible place that no one would want to be a part of by the end of the book from the information found out by the characters. The cover on the right is most likely in the perspective of Kathy when she was younger and didn't have any questions because in the book, the children had an unsaid societal rule to not discuss their future farther than they needed to.

Social construction is an aspect that can never be ignored when discussing a novel like "Never Let me Go" because the dystopian society is what shaped the lives of the main characters Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth. From the cover on the left, I could interpret that the society is closed off and reserved about their ideals. From the cover on the right, one might perceive the society as more friendly and open to ideas.

Illustrators who focus on the ethics and small details of a story probably creating the cover on the left because each letter is specifically spaced to create a certain tone about the novel. The readers are probably people who like to read horror stories, or scientific books because the cover has a diagram of a body on it. Illustrators who focus on the light of life and want to be more upbeat and positive probably created the cover on the right because the story is very dense, but the cover only focuses on a single aspect. I think the cover on the right was probably designed that way because it might appeal for more readers than a dark scary cover and to represent how Kathy felt when she was younger.

Personally, I like the cover on the left because I think a cover should truly portray what is happening in the novel. The diagram of the body is interesting and connects to the novel because the clones donate their organs (shown in the diagram). The cover on the left is also accurate and reminds me of the woods discussed in Hailsham. They were discussed in horror stories and even though the woods weren't a main subject in the scheme of the book, they were truly important because it caused the clones to be afraid of the outside world, to stick together, and to believe that Hailsham is safe. I believe that the cove reflects how the guardians controlled and brainwashed the clones' brains because they didn't truly know the purpose of their life until the ending.

Sincerely,

K-Dog