Whats In an image

The first cover, the girl in the red shirt sitting alone, and the fourth cover, one of what appears to be a girl dancing in a blue dress with shortish brown hair, are unique of the four because they are the only two that have a full, and presumably alive, person on them. This creates a clear indication that the following story will revolve around a girl, and her living her life in some way. There is a contrast in the color scheme of the images as well as what they emotion of the central girl is, the first has black and many shades of green, with a pop of color with the red shirt of the girl, indicating something out of place, especially when considering that red is opposite of green on the color wheel. The fourth cover also shows a contrast in colors, but there is a blending of the two, indicating that the girl, although different, is in some way a part of this warm background.
Adding into the depiction of a person, the third cover also has what seems to be the outline of a person's torso, and the organs contained inside. This third one is unique out of all of them because of its overall dark tones in color, blue, black, and greys that all present a sort of ominous and almost mechanic feeling to them, that contrast what one might expect from a portrayal of something that indicates life. This one is to me the most intriguing and so I’ll go further into exploring it along with the first one in the following paragraphs. But to continue comparing the set of four, I have failed to mention the second cover, the one of a boat on what appears to be a lake shore. The only cover that has no imagery of humans, although it shares with the other three an element of isolation, as in each there is only one key figure to focus on. The contrasting images likely show the many ways that a reader could interpret the themes of this books, the fourth does best in showing Ishiguro's rather positive views, and the other three indicating the more sinister and lonely aspect presented with the books dystopian themes.
Now to look more closely at individual covers, I’ll first go to the one I’ve already broken down some of the parts of. The first novel is interesting a conveys to me a lonely girl sitting in a field, I assume this is Kathy H. our main character of the novel. This scene actually reminds me of one in the second part, where Kathy is describing how, unlike the veterans of the cottages, some of the people from Hailsham sat out in the fields to read, even when it was getting colder. I can clearly imagine this is Kathy sitting in the frost covered field, looking down at her book. Knowing this part of the book, it makes it clear that the bluish tones in the grass could indicate that frost from the cold weather Kathy describes. This would indicate to me the cover is trying to convey the calmness and level-headedness of Kathy throughout the story. The second cover that portrays a lot of meaning to me is the third one with the barbed wire outline of a human torso with the vital organs clearly present. My initial reaction to this is that it is referring to the donations that the characters of the book will and do make throughout the novel. This imagery would lead me to believe in a somewhat negative and scary element to the book, maybe it's about a serial killer or surgery in a prison? But having read the book I know this is portraying the fact that the clones, who were created for their donations, are trapped in their prescribed lives, as indicated by the barbed wire. I feel that this kind of interpretation of the book is overly negative, and does not properly convey Ishiguro's messages throughout the book. I believe this was probably made to intrigue fans of dystopian novels, who would be pulled in by a strange society. Ultimately the images are used in different ways, some to sell the book by capturing the audience's attention, and others convey the ultimate truths found within the novel.

Dark Side of Stories

Rhetorical Analysis for https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_duncan_the_dark_side_of_storytelling

"The Dark Side of Story Telling" is a TED talk given by Suzanna Duncan, this TED talk serves to highlight the ways in which storytelling in our daily life can have unintentional negative consequences. She explains that in a research study she had done of investment professionals to understand why the industries business model is broken. Her results showed her that stories were the leading cause, or is psychology terms, an attribution bias, which buts blame of positive things internally and negative externally. She then pulls in a personal example of her utilizing this attribution bias with her hobby of horse shows, where it negatively effects her because she is unable to internalize the criticisms of her trainer and thus fails to improve. She follows this with a reference to how a story created in a teenagers head lead to the largest act of domestic terrorism in America, and how this was due to all the fictional stories he told himself, and ultimately believed to be the truth. Transitioning to a lighter note, she addresses the audience and begins to tell the audience how they can avoid being negatively impacted by the daily fictions we tell ourselves, this is done through learning how to learn and lie detect. She goes on to explore how those two things mean to be able to recognize patterns in your stories and ultimately be able to reflect without the presence of the attribution bias.

Suzanna Duncan is the senior vice president of State Street's Center for Applied Research, lending her information the needed to create an ethos response to what she's delivering. The audience is able to use the established credibility and just from the introduction of her position to begin to have a bias in believing her superiority in the field which she will be having her discussion in, even though its notable that her superiority label has nothing to do with stories. With this established, the proceeding discussion of attribution bias already has an appeal to the logos of the audience, which goes further as she begins to dive into the examples, which spark understanding and relatability in the audience, thus appealing to their logical side, that yes, in fact, what she's saying does make sense.

Another aspect of these examples is how she uses pathos to envoke an emotional response from the audience by referencing an instance of massive loss of life. Pathos in this instance is useful for her argument because it creates not just a familiar connection but also an emotion one, strengthening her argument. Finally, the majority of the argument is presented near the end, where the audience is already brought in through the rhetorical devices and thus will be more susceptible to her suggestions. In watching this, I feel myself fully connecting to the message she is delivering. Her personal story leads me to think of my own and makes me feel a need to address this potentially negative situation which has now been clearly identified for me.