A journey is the distance travelled in a specified time from one place to another, whether this place is physical, inner or imagined. Imaginative journeys occur in a fantasy world, where the reader or character goes on the journey, and in the case of the character having an imaginative journey, the reader also learns from this experience. Through different mediums and techniques, "The Ivory Trail" and "Journey into the Interior" are able to communicate imaginative journeys each in its own fashion.
The title of the book, 'The Ivory Trail' itself implies a journey. The word 'trail' connotes a winding, uncertain path through the wild and unknown. One of the most obvious journeys represented in the visual is the literal or physical journey. But underlying this The Ivory Trail could be also seen as an imaginative journey, depicted through the use of numerous visual techniques.
Firstly, the medium itself is used in depicting an imaginative journey.
English: Author Margaret Atwood attends a reading ...
Margaret Atwood's star on Canada's Walk of Fame
Atwood rising (LOC)Although the book cover is construed of real photographs, the glossiness of the material, and the integration of computer graphics used in creating the face of the young boy merged with the patterns of sand generates an unreal and illusionary world to the responder's view, contributing to produce an imaginative feel to the world of the young protagonist.
The compositional features of the text employ representations of a sphinx, a pyramid, a building with Islamic architecture, desert sands and an adolescent boy's face. These images have connotations of ancient worlds, mystery and the exotic. This allows the responder to visualise the protagonist's physical as well as the imaginative journey through his perspective. The presence of the pyramid denotes a past setting, while the use of the sand represents the vastness and flowing of time, both the sand and the pyramids reveal to...