Never Let Me Go?

 

I purposely choose two covers of Never Let Me Go that were very different from each other.  The first cover of a girl in a meadow and it seems peaceful.  The first words that come to mind are: calm, wandering, and serenity.  The girl, who I am assuming is the main character Kathy, looks as though she is contemplating her life or what her next move is going to be.  To a reader that has never read this book before, they might think the cover looks inviting.  That the book is going to be enjoyable and maybe even an easy read since the cover is some what simplistic.  Even though the cover is simple, there is an air of mystery that surrounds her.  What is this girl doing in a field, and why is she all by herself?  Also, while she is sitting in a field or meadow it doesn't look recognizable.  It is not the first image that comes to mind when one thinks about a universal meadow.  The environment she is sitting in has giant ferns and really tall grass behind her.  This could be presenting Kathy in an outsider way, that she doesn't fit into the society that way everyone wants her too.  The people that would make this book are the ones trying to send a message out to society of what could happen to us.  While they say don't judge a book by its cover, the cover can really make or break a book.  A book with the first cover would attract a younger audience and most likely more girls than boys.

The second is much more dark.  The first words that come to mind are: organs, cruelty, and death.  The cover itself is very dark with only colors of gray and black.  It does have a faint image of trees or bushes in the background.  There is barb wire in the shape of a body and organs straight in the center.  Having this image straight in the center tell the audience who hasn't read the book yet, that it is going to be a central point in the story. The viewpoint seems to be from an outsider.  As an outsider, you don't really know what is going on.  All you are getting is a cliff hanger right from the beginning.  There is not much to infer as the image is straight forward.  It seems that the place is dangerous, or that something dangerous happens here.  Knowing what does happen it the book the cover is a little misleading.  While what happens in the book is cruel, the cover makes it seem a lot worse.  The cover is almost preparing the audience for what they are about to read. The audience of this book I would presume is more boys than girls because of the twisty and darkness of the cover. 

  

The only thing that the covers have in common is that they leave the audience look at them very confused with a lot of questions about the mysterious images.  They are also misleading as the first seems to cute and the second seems to cruel.  If I was a person walking around in a book store, either of these covers would attract me to at least read the back of the book. 

If I should have a daughter... By Sarah Kay

Sarah Kay

This inspiring TED Talk, If I should have a daughter, by Sarah Kay is a moving video.  She starts off her talk with spoken word poetry.  This introduces us to what she has a passion for right at the beginning and sets the mood for the rest of the talk.  She comes off as knowledgeable by sharing her success and failures.  She doesn't claim to know everything there is about poetry, but shares with us her personal knowledge.  Her intention is to inform the audience of her path to spoken word poetry, and to tell the audience that anyone can do it too if they put some effort into it.  Due to this, the audience could be anyone from young to old.

In her talk she discusses story telling, and that all stories have a beginning, middle, and end, but they don't have to be in that order.  Also that everyone has a story, and it can start by making a simple list.  She is able to explain how to find your story without making it seem complicated.  She appeals to the audience because she portrays herself as an ordinary person which makes her very connectable.  She doesn't say that she is better than everyone else, or that only a few can preform spoken word poetry. Her story first starts in the middle when she dives right off the back into a poem.  It is not until later on that she tells her story of how she came to be.  Talking in this pattern kept the audience interested in every word that Kay had to say.  This was her intention, as well as to inspired and she is very successful.  Although I didn't want to write spoken word poetry myself, it inspired me to be more and do more.

Her strongest argument is when she uses ethos to credit one of her toughest students.  She tells the story that one of her students thought she wasn't interesting, and therefore, had nothing to write about.  As a teacher Kay gave her topics to write about and finally one clicked. She tells this story in a way that makes the audience laugh.  Telling this story credits her as a good teacher and that she knows what she is talking about, but also shows the audience that everyone has a story to tell.

I watched this video on a recommendation, and now recommend everyone else to watch it to if need some motivation and inspiration.