Thursday, January 31, 2019

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.

9 comments:

  1. Hey Mae, I liked you blog post. A suggestion that I would make concerning organization is to make that long paragraph, or looks like a long paragraph on my screen, into separate paragraphs with indentation of the paragraph, indentation are important to show the beginning of a new idea and a separate idea from the previous idea. Also, another suggestion that I would make is to first begin with talking and analyzing each of the book covers individually and then go into further detail when you compare and contrast 2 book covers, also it would be a good idea to go a little more in depth with your analysis. Their are a few grammatical errors, such as "The first novel is interesting a conveys to me" needs to be reworded or add a comma after interesting and change a to it, but that can be easily fixed. Overall, a few suggestions, but good job.

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  2. Hey Mae, I thought your blog post was very interesting. I thought the analysis of the covers was well explained. Although a suggestion I would make is that you could try to give more examples to broaden the explanation of the titles; overall well done. :)

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  3. Hey Mae! I think you did a very good job with your blog post. I really liked your discussion of color, specifically, with the contrast of red and green seen in the first cover. I also liked your thoughts on why the third cover was created, to intrigue audiences who like dystopian novels. I do think that this could have been more organized. Maybe, analyze each image, then compare and contrast them. This would have set a good foundation for your analysis. Also, for the first cover, I thought it was portraying isolationism and the alienation of Kathy. Maybe you could have explored this to give your analysis more depth. Overall, good job!

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  4. Hey Mae!

    You do a really nice job of leading your reader through your argument and analysis. I do wish there was a bit more with specifics in the coves themselves- don't skip over that just to get to your analysis. See below for further feedback from the blog post rubric.

    - Postings provide comprehensive insight, understanding, and reflective thought about the topic (4)
    - Postings present a specific viewpoint that is substantiated by supporting examples (3)
    - Postings are generally well written with some attempts made to stimulate dialogue and commentary (3)
    - Postings are written in a style that is appealing and appropriate for the intended audience and a consistent voice is evident throughout (4)
    - Postings reflect a bit of the author’s personality through word choices that attempt to bring the topic to life (3)
    - All images, media and text created by others display appropriate copyright permissions and accurate citations (4)
    - Written responses are largely free of grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. The style of writing generally facilitates communication (3)
    24/28

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  5. Hey Mae, I really like this blog post! You did a very good job analyzing the covers regarding their colors, imagery, and themes. I liked how you chose to compare the first and third covers, as they contrasted a lot. I thought your analysis of the third cover was really good and the idea that they are trapped in their prescribed lives was a clear connection that I didn't make. I also liked how you connected the first cover to the cottages in the novel, as I also didn't consider that!

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  6. Hey girly I really like what you did with this post. I think that your choice of the first and last cover are really good, and your explanation of how it provides insight on the story line of the book is really good. I also like that point you made about the covers uncovering different truths within the novel. My favrotie one is the third one btw!!!

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  7. Hey Mae! I really like how you said that the different covers showed a part of the story. However, I would have liked if you had added more description of each cover. Overall the analysis was good!

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  8. Hey Mae, I liked your blog post a lot. I especially liked how you connected the third cover's ominous mood to its cool color scheme. You clearly looked at these covers with a really fine attention to detail. However, I think formatting the text into paragraphs would make it easier to read.

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  9. Hey Mae, I loved your post! I really loved your analysis of the covers and how well written the post was as a whole. I do think that adding more description of each individual cover would be helpful for the reader, but overall the post was really good. Keep up the great writing dude it was awesome!

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