Never Let Me Go…More like Never Judge A Book By its COVER??? ;)

A phrase that has been ingrained in us since we were children, “Never judge a book by its cover,”.  Although this literally applies to the analysis of the book covers that I will be doing (except I WILL be judging these covers...which is that different than judging the actual contents of the book...by the cover?? confusing…), it also applies to relationships and other things that stand in metaphorically for the “book” being discussed.  For instance, you’re not supposed to judge a person based on their outward appearance and yet this is something that we do subconsciously ALL. THE. TIME. And I know I’m at fault for it too, just the other day I was doing some IB work at the local Starbucks and a man walked in wearing boots, a hat, a checkered shirt, and chewing loudly on a long stick that resembled a toothpick.  I immediately was judging him because he most definitely did not fit in that little cozy atmosphere of people in sweaters sipping hot chocolate or warm tea/coffee. But in reality, I had no idea what the personality of this man was like and I was judging him solely off of his appearance.

OK! Now that I got that short little anecdote out of the way…

All 4 images:

 

The man that strolled into Starbucks the other afternoon most likely dressed that way because he liked those clothes or maybe he lived in a rural area where boots were necessary for work, but nonetheless his outfit revealed aspects of his character.  This is similar to the book covers. All four of these covers were created with the purpose of showcasing an aspect of the inner contents of the book.

WIth a brief glance at the covers one can see that they all contain cool tones- i.e. greens, yellows, soft oranges, and blues.  This is one unifying aspect of all the covers that my eye was drawn to right off the bat (maybe because I’m trained in IB Art...Mady if you’re reading this I know you cringed a lil bit).  But upon further investigation I noticed that all 4 covers also contain some sort of element of man. For example, in the cover on the far left, there is a girl sitting in a nature scene. Then in the second cover when moving left to right there is a boat that appears to be resting on a shore (and boats were created by….you guessed it- humans).  In the third image there is an outline of organs that are located in the chest/stomach area of people. Finally, the last cover depicts a somewhat blurred girl who appears to have been turning or in motion of some kind.

However, the covers do all differ with how they portray the human figure.  Like I briefly discussed in the paragraph above, the first cover on the left shows a girl sitting looking at something pensively.  However the last cover demonstrates the exact opposite of being still with a girl that is becoming blurry because she is moving. The cover second from the left demonstrates more of the things mankind creates rather than the human figure while the third cover from the left explicitly deals with human anatomy and composition by showing outlines of major organs (one might even say vital...like the characters eventually end up “donating”...hmmm…).  

Closer examination:

The two covers that I chose to examine more closely are the following:

The first words that come into my mind (sigh-unfortunately) when looking at the cover on the left are Jekyll and Hyde.  The dark background and outline of human organs reminds me of the work of the scientists in the novella and the gothic elements that were incorporated.  In contrast, the cover on the right reminds me of light and even the girl spinning somewhat looks like a lamp to me with her hair being the lampshade (sorry…).  

If I had not read the novel the covers would both make me think that it was about an element of the human life.  However the cover on the left (due to the outline of the organs) would make me think it was a more scientific sort of book with experiments and operations being performed.  But, the cover on the right seems more pleasant and perhaps more similar to the actual story in that the cover on the right seems like it would be for a book about a little girl growing up and her life (but it doesn’t necessarily hint at the darkness of the little girl’s actual situation).  

What I also find interesting about the book covers is how the text of the title is displayed.  The cover on the left’s text is more jagged and sporadic whereas on the right it seems to be methodically placed.  The fact that the word “Me” is placed over the heart area is interesting to me because it could indicated several things- relationships are important in the novel, love is important, or that following desires is important.  Overall, both covers seem to be representing different aspects of the novel- the one on the left representing more of the aspect of cloning and donations and the one on the right depicting life and the happiness that was experienced before the characters finished their donations.