Blog Post #10

All Photos:

The four photos, while not all exactly similar, contain very similar elements in which allow them to be reminiscent of one another. One way that this is demonstrated is that three of the four covers all feature some sort of a human being. The way that this similarity across three of the four photos is different however, is that one of the images is a photo from a camera, another is a painting, and the final is a drawing of a human body. The novel-covers are also similar in the way that the colors that they use are mostly neutral. This was most likely done in order to communicate to the reader that this will not be a happy story. The covers are also similar in the way that three of them contain scenes from nature on the front. One shows a human in a field, another a boat on a lake, and the final is a human body in front of a forest.

Compare and Contrast Two (Boat on the Lake and Girl in Field):

The first words that come to my mind for Girl in Field is loneliness and isolation. This would make sense in relation to Never Let Me Go because of the feelings of loneliness that would arise from the children coming to terms with the fact that they are clones with no purpose in life other than to die. For Boat on the Lake, the first word that comes to my mind is loneliness, as well. By showing the empty image of a boat by itself, the reader is struck with a sense of isolation. Again, this would be done to foreshadow the book ahead. If I had never read the novel, I would assume that the book was about a lonely girl from the Girl in Field novel cover. After having read the book, I know that this is somewhat true as the book is indeed about a girl who has to deal with loneliness and emotions. The Boat on the Lake cover is different as if I were to simply view the cover I would imagine that the body of water played an important role in the plot-line. After having read the book, I feel that this is simply not true. As a person who judges a book by its cover, I find this cover to be misleading, and therefore offensive. In the first novel cover, it is obvious that the girl is going to be the person who is portrayed. However, since we are looking in on her, I would not assume that she would be the narrator of this book. The other novel cover is different in the way that we are looking through the eyes of someone, perhaps a narrator. While we don’t know as much about the narrator’s identity, we know more about how the story will be told. These covers do little to touch on the cultural constructions of the novels. If anything, all they serve to do is inform the audience that many of the people in the book will experience loneliness within its pages. The covers are interesting because it seems like they are advertising the same book to different target markets. The first cover appears to be advertising to people who want to read a novel about the internal conflicts of a woman. This is done by showing a close-up image of a girl. The second novel cover appears to be advertising to people who want a book to discuss nature instead. This is done by photographing nature, thus highlighting this aspect of the novel.