It isn't Gilderoy Lockhart's "Magical Me" but I've got you covered!

In one of my muggle classes, IB Language and Literature HL, we read and studied a novel with the name Never Let Me Go. Also, if you didn't catch it already, I am a huge Harry Potter fan and will be hiding numerous magical puns and jokes within all my posts. Let's get on with it, shall we?

On the left, you see the version of the cover most people had in our class. However, many versions of covers exist for many books and can convey different meanings.

It's a shame that the pictures don't move like they do in the wizarding world, though. I bet we could learn a whole lot more about the emotion being conveyed if there was a little motion added!

However, with variations of the cover, there are different variations of meaning presented. Take the four covers shown below, for example.

 At first glance, there seems to be a common color theme between three of the four. This is in reference to all of the covers except for the grey one on the bottom left. Each of the three include a variety of yellows and greens, which are used to represent nature. However, only the two on the left side actually contain nature in the cover, but in different ways. The nature in the top left cover seems very lush, whereas the trees in the bottom left corner seem very eerie and gloomy. Perhaps this was done to highlight the contrast between Kathy's life inside and outside of Hailsham. The top left contains brighter colors, which signifies happiness, whereas the bottom left has very dark hues which convey sadness and distress. Another comparison can be made between the top left and bottom right covers, as they both have a human figure in their frame. This gives a little insight into the characters of the book, as is makes it clear that it will be told through the perspective of a girl.

Now, let's take a look at two of my favorite covers. Every person has two sides to them, one that rejoices in the light, and one that revels in the dark.

I'd describe the one on the left as gloomy, eerie, and sinister, like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It reminds me of a book I once read called Unwind where children under the age of 18 can be given away to have their organs harvested, hence the organs and the barbed wire in the picture. If I hadn't read this novel, I would've thought it was about a girl struggling with bodily insecurities. Now that I've read the novel, I understand that the cover is supposed to represent a girl struggling with her fate being trapped in her body, her organs serving as her purpose in life. From that, it can be assumed that the viewpoint of the cover is from any of the students at Hailsham, all forced to live a life they didn't choose.

I'd describe the one on the right as more upbeat than the one on the left, partly because it reminds me of then Kathy was dancing with her pillow to her favorite song. It is assumed that the girl on the cover is Kathy herself and that the movement is used to convey her constantly changing state of mind. This could be her curiosity, her worries, and even her sexual tension she felt at Hailsham. If I hadn't read the novel, I would've assumed that this was a love story, an intricate tale of a girl after heartbreak.

This leads us to a final question, Who would make such a book? My answer to that would be someone who wants to highlight how conformity plays a role in society. The author would want us to question human nature itself, and how we would react to a situation similar to that of the novel. Would we question the ethical implications, or would we turn a blind eye?