Henry_Cai

Victor Kelleher has given readers an insight of his novel throught the cover of the book, ‘The Ivory Trail’. It has various visual techniques illustrating a concept of spirtual, mental and physical journey. A dominant red orange hue enwraps the cover establishes a dangerous risky and mysterious atmosphere. This conjures an idea that there are physically and mentally challenging events along the path. Additionally the salient image of the sphinx and the pyramid contributes to the mysteriousness and also a symbolic image of death. However the golden hues across the sphinx face suggest treasure at the end of the journey as pyramids are famous for containing wealth and treasure. This is also supported by the title ‘The Ivory Trail’ as ivory are rare and are very expensive but also illegal as are stealing treasure from pyramids. A dark shadow is devouring and covering part of the image this represents an evil that is repelling the character from completing his/her journey. The buildings in the image are very religious based the building in the sunset and the pyramid shows the spiritual journey.The cultural differences in the building shows many adventures as they are from different continent. Through the facial expression the character look presumably like he is in a deep thought taking him on an imaginitive and spirtual journey which is shown as the sand dunes across his face symbloising endless adventure and timeless journey. The author portrays the journey as a physically challenging tasks and ever changing like dunes of the sand and the setting of the sun.