Blog #10 (1.29.19)

At first glance the four book covers shown below seem, to me at least, to be poor demonstrations of Never Let Me Go. If I were to envision a book cover for this novel, it would display four black figures that all appear to be very similar, if not identical to one another. The figures would be standing together all pointing some sort of light at one central object. I know this might seem very odd but to me this seems like the perfect portrait to depict the main ideas of the book. To start, the four, similar black figures would represent the characters in the book. Them all being the same or very close to the same would portray the idea of conformity. Conformity was a reoccurring theme within the book, dominantly showcased at the beginning of the novel, between Kathy and Ruth. "I wasn't exactly the wilting type myself, but I suppose it was really because of Ruth we got in there as often as we did," (Ishiguro 1) this is a quote from the third page of the novel where Kathy can be seen altering her personal morale to fit in with Ruth. 

Anyway, I mentioned that all four of the figures would all be shining a light on one central object. This object would also be blacked out, so the reader would be unable to blatantly tell what is it, leaving it open to individual interpretation. It could represent the characters in the novel searching to understand their fate, or maybe the object is something they have all been looking for, maybe freedom? The four looking together could also draw in the concept of relationships, seeing as that is a very important aspect of the book. 

This cover consists of a seemingly young girl sitting in a field of grass and nature, looking downward, away from the audience. One would assume that the girl represents Kathy, seeing as how she is the main character of the novel. As I have previously stated, this seemed to be a very strange cover because it does not immediately relate to the book, in my opinion. With that being said, after further analyze and a little bit of research, it became obvious how the artist intended this to look. The young girl is surrounded by greenery which is said to be the color of life. The color green is also associated with meanings of growth and safety. All of which can be directly related to the story of Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, and their time in Hailsham. Never Let Me Go centers around the concept of life. As the plot is developed, the reader is thrown a curve ball when it is announced that they are all clones. Their purpose life becomes inevitably more clear when this plot twist happens. Each of the characters grow in regards to different aspects, Tommy finds various ways to cope with being a donor (rather than throwing tantrums), Ruth settles on the idea that she will die from these donations, and Kathy realizes that their lives were destined to be either carers or donors and not to fall in love. This book cover, with its piercing green elements alongside the girl looking downward, portray these elements of the story quite well.

This cover is probably the best depiction of the novel as a whole and I is the one the caught my eye the most when first looking at each of the four. In the 19th chapter of the book, the reader knows that each of them are organ donors and will die very soon. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy decide to visit an abandoned boat, which is the significant element pictured in this cover. It is at this point in the novel where the three best friends have an emotional heart to heart with one another and face some of their biggest fears. The boat in this symbolizes both a broken life and mystery. Hailsham is a place where your fate is decided for you, no matter the aspirations you have, but also has many questions that are brought up as well. Where do the donors come from? What does the "normal" society think of such a place? Where do all of the bodies go once they have passed? How do the get away with cloning people, and do the original people they clone from know they are being cloned? Hailsham is proven to be a place where lives dreams are broken yet somehow always manage to be mended back together. I think this book cover does a good job showing this idea, both by use of the boat but also by surrounding the boat with an ominous setting and dark colors which brings the idea of mystery to light. 

Okay, so I might have to take back what I said at the beginning about these book covers not having much relevance to the book, this one and the previous one both seem to be very good demonstrations. I am working on this with Andrea (shoutout to her! love her:)) and we were talking about what this was because I honestly did not have a clue. I really thought it was just a lightbulb and could not figure out what it meant. Andrea then went on to point how that it was organs which represented the doners. So my "speak first, think after," self popped out and said "Oh so its a heart!" Andrea proceeded to give me "the look" and continued to tell me that it was lungs and the rest of the organs within the chest and abdomen area. Due to my comment about the heart, we realized that there was not a heart depicted in this image. This is very interesting because, to me, it encourages the thought that Kathy, along with all other clones, live a life with no true emotional ties. Each of their fates is predetermined, preventing love and true living of life to occur. They are given set paths in life which inevitably end in organ donation, making it very ironic, yet fitting that no heart appears to be depicted within the book cover. 

Now, this cover is the most confusing to me. Not going to lie it has taken a lot of staring at it to try and make the slightest connection to the book. So, I think that maybe this image of a girl is attempting to show the oblivion that Hailsham's youth live in. The girl seems to be by herself enjoying that freedom not really understanding the true meaning of life. This is a good example of the mindset that Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy all lived in. They were never taught what their future was going to be, even though it had long been determined before they were ever born (created maybe? idk clone terminology). It seems to portrayed the type of carefree lives they all lived as small children and the amount of unknown that surrounds Hailsham. That is really all I could pull from this cover, which is why I originally stated that all of these lacked relevance. 

After further analyzing each individually I have noticed that they all seem to revolve around the effects that Hailsham has had on the lives of those who live in that society. 

The two that intrigued me the most were the second and third ones. These were the ones that shocked me the most by the unique choice of the included images. A boat.... haha what? That just was not the first thing that popped into my mind when envisioning a cover for the novel. With that being said, neither was the whatever you would call it that is shown in the third book cover. All of that set aside, I think that these two best portray the overall gist of the novel. Both of them have a darker setting, which is interesting because the book never gave me a whole ton of dark vibes. However, each of them do so in a different way. One shows this darkness through the setting behind the boat. The boat is overall the main point of scenery in that cover but the darkness is still present in the background. The third book cover is all darkness. Every aspect of that cover is in a dark tone. This could be due to the underlying dark nature behind the idea of Hailsham. Think about it, a place where children grow up and flounder through life being all happy-go-lucky and will one day be told that all of their lives was a lie and they were basically being raised like a pig for slaughter (Harry Potter reference, really hope someone got that). It is honestly horribly sad to think about. 

All in all, I think that each of the 4 book covers somehow depicted elements from the novel Never Let Me Go, some more than others. If I had to pick a favorite one though, I would go with the third one just because of the complexity behind the whole thing. Also, after reading fellow students blog posts, that one was most differing in interpretation.